Recontextualizing Geriatric Psychiatry through Local Wisdom: Perspective from Psychiatrists in the Global South

Psychiatry has been recognized as one of the medical fields associated with mental health. Symptoms and phenomena manifested have been linked to clinical diagnosis, but the question is: Are the signs and symptoms applicable to the entire society? Human beings, including the older adults, comprise multidimensional perspectives in terms of mental health state. This includes the anthropological, psychological, social, and medical aspects in the phase of ego integrity versus despair. In the postcolonialism area, exercising the psychiatric term in treating older adults should be regarded as a transitional process to introduce modernity and universalism. This stance highlights the importance of empathetic attunement to the therapy process, and cultural humility to understand beyond the psychopathology manifested. In regard to cultural diversity, this article reflects the collective understanding related to cognitive decline, hallucination, delusion, anxiety, and worldview. Social integration, spirituality, and personal wisdom should be regarded as part of modalities that will support resilience and agility in dealing with difficulties, grief, loss, and life’s transitions. The authors argue that the older adults’ existentialism is related to their intrapsychic experience in the world, and through their cultural background, they try to adapt and live in the world, and to cope with the difficulties. The authors expect that this article will enrich the perspective of the idiom of distress for psychiatric conditions in the geriatric population and to promote more collaborations between the northern and southern hemispheres.