Culture and Mental Health in the Rainbow Nation: Transcultural Psychiatry in a Changing South Africa

The notion of culture in psychiatry in South Africa is chang ing. Cultural relativism was used as a justification for oppression by the previous regime, with some researchers therefore de-emphasising difference. Currently interest in di versity is growing. The racial integration of services poses challenges for culturally appropriate care. Community-based care, apparently a way of meeting challenges of cultural differ ence, presents other difficulties. There has been uneven development in understanding indigenous healing in South Africa, a factor which may be explained partly by continuing ideological tensions. Debates in transcultural psychiatry can contribute broadly to the challenge of nation-building.