Globalising Mental Health or Pathologising the Global South? Mapping the Ethics, Theory and Practice of Global Mental Health

Abstract

Embodied in the very concept of Global Mental Health (an area that is emerging as both a field of study and a global movement), mental health is conceptualised as being 'global'; mental disorders are constructed as having 'a physical basis in the brain….theycan affect everyone, everywhere' and are understood to be 'truly universal' (WHO, 2001a:x, 22).The construction of 'mental disorder' as universal is used to draw attention to inequalities in access to mental health care and treatment globally -the 'treatment gap' -and to push to scale up mental health services in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) based on those in high-income countries (HICs).This push arises from two separate, yet interrelated, arenas; the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Movement for Global Mental Health (MGMH) (www.globalmentalhealth.org).

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