Eduardo Carrillo
Expository Writing
Alex Leslie

“Narratives of Cultural Progress”
Ethan Watters’ essay is not so much on depression but analyzing the distinctive differences between cultures. In the essay, we are introduced to a campaign held by western pharmaceutical companies like GlaxoSmithKline not just trying to open a new market for their drug but change the perception of another country on a subject. That subject being depression, conflicts arise on defining it. The narratives or theory of cultural progress is in a way subjective. The theory of one culture being more advanced, better, or years ahead of another have no base to stand on without realizing cultures themselves are indeed different to one another. GlaxoSmithKline, like many other drug companies, are confusing the idea of two cultures being incomparable to the thought of one being less than the other. This being said, what comes of companies using these narratives of culture progress? The danger of the narratives of cultural progress is the risk of our cultures misconception of illnesses being adopted by another culture we claim are behind their predetermined evolution.
On one side of the coin you have the western pharmaceutical companies and on the other, countries like Japan. Depression can be defined and described differently by both sides but who is right? Should any of the two be right? US’s “depression” and Japan’s “utsubyo” mean similar things but are experienced differently by the population of both cultures. Depression is common in the US but utsubyo is not in Japan, in fact, rare among the people. During Kirmayer’s presentation, he explain to other scholars and representatives about cultures have different experiences, descriptions, and understandings of states of being. He exemplified how a “Nigerian man might experience a culturally distinct form of depression by describing a peppery feeling in his head [or] a man in India might talk of semen loss or a sinking heart or feeling hot” (Watters 517). What makes those descriptions of depression any less accurate than the US’s or Japans. By claiming they’re years behind, one culture can influence the way an individual experiences symptoms ultimately changing their “explanatory models” for depression like symptoms.
Today we are surrounded by media and the web, constantly influencing the way we go about our everyday lives. If we watch the news today and they introduce a new disease with vague and common symptoms; how would we react? Worried, we’d instantly feel the need to evaluate ourselves checking for those symptoms. In the essay, a similar situation occurs to the Japanese. We have these pharmaceutical companies trying to change these “explanatory models.” They’re redirecting the attention of the Japanese population to certain symptoms, feelings, and experiences away from theirs. But this eventually creates an “interplay between the expectations of the culture and the experience of an individual [leading] to a cycle of symptoms amplification” (Watters 518). Kirmayer considered depression to be an illness that tends to be “self-fulfilling.” To the Japanese never experiencing depression like Americans have, it became almost a placebo effect. Symptoms were evaluated by quizzes and even if you didn’t meet the criteria for depression, you were still encouraged to receive treatment for stress. These companies, like Applbaum said, meant to “alter the total environment in which these drugs are or may be used” (Watters 524). GlaxoSmithKline changed the definition of depression to a more profitable one that the Japanese could accept.
Countries with such a traditional cultural background fall prey to large companies that only seek in capitalizing on the profits meanwhile claiming they are helping with newly invented drugs. Companies seeing diseases as opportunity for profit are selling their findings, such as Paxil, as cutting edge science. Applbaum, whom I found to be the most eccentric out of the scholars, since he took a special interest in this campaign to “heal the world.” Applbaum saw right through the deception and was baffled at the fact that executives strongly believed their product was effective and were offended if anyone else thought different of their “first world medicine.” Situations like the Kobe earthquake in Japan are where countries like Japan who are not accustomed to having these experiences, such as PTSD and depression, are introduced to misleading drugs. The same very drug that was said to “rebalance the natural chemicals in the brain, [and] would bring Japan up to date” (Watters 527). Ironically, this drug which has no actual evidence of effectiveness and is being implemented in the lives of the Japanese.
These narratives of cultural progress are nothing more than a discussion of difference. Without evidence to prove GlaxoSmithKline’s product works, you now have more a “culturally shared story than a scientific fact” (Watters 529). Towards the end of the essay, it is stated that “there is currently no scientific consensus that depression is linked to serotonin deficiency or that SSRIs restore the brain’s normal ‘balance’ of the neurotransmitter” (Watters 529). This shared story had become a large campaign on another culture’s way of life completely changing it. Japan was made aware of a disease that they may or may have not had. Deceived by another culture’s misconception of a subject, Japan was misled not on a predetermined evolution but on the path US was on. Unfortunately now, Japan will always have depression recognized in their culture considering the impact it had on the population. It captured everyone’s attention either through media, magazines, or even on the web. It slipped into people’s daily lives and thoughts whether they realized it or not. When companies like GlaxoSmithKline seek these capitalizing opportunities, they tear away the traditions cultures are built on and replace them with the way of the US, mainly in medicine.
Most cultures have their traditions and their methods of healing. It could be said that these anti-depressants are our method of healing our definition of depression. The theory that we, as the US, are superior to most cultures is a dangerous train of thought. Companies thinking this way will take advantage of other culture who they claim have yet to catch up to us. Yes, experiences are different in each culture but this was one of the points Kirmayer hoped to get across. He had hoped that the others would realize that neither culture is more advanced or behind the other. They are just different so it would be considerably difficult to compare them or even compare concepts like depression when it’s viewed differently by both sides. To deceiving with a misconception to change a culture goes about their lives is consequential. Companies alter the psyche of the population creating a new explanatory model on the way they perceive and experience things. Without the evidence backing up the antidepressant drug, the US’s definition on depression is no better than Japans’. Consequently, US has played a major role in most cultures in medical advancements and innovations in history but its consequently evident when seeing the similarities we have with other cultures or the many similarities they have to us.