[The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the views of The South Asian Times.]
By Basab Dasgupta
One interesting aspect of American society is the overwhelming dependence of the population on professional help in dealing with emotional problems. These can be marital problems, job-related stress, attention-deficit disorder, depression, mood swings, anxiety attacks, temper tantrums, PTSD, and a host of other psychological issues. The solution is to seek counseling. The counselor could be a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a family counselor, or a church pastor. A psychiatrist even has the authority to prescribe medication.
Mental problems are not just isolated individual issues but root causes of major social problems like mass shootings and homelessness. In the legal arena, “insanity because of mental defect” is accepted as a defense argument. Mental problems have become an issue among professional athletes in recent years.
Back in India, I knew families with a family member suffering from a “mental problem”. Sometimes, the affected persons were kept in isolation. However, I do not recall anyone undergoing professional treatment. Relatives downplayed syndromes; they were portrayed as natural consequences resulting from grief or age, or worries. Even when parents of the affected persons were willing to spend money, they did not know where to go and did not discuss the problem with others.
For marriage-age females with emotional problems, parents faced a challenge in arranging a suitable groom. The usual strategy involved presenting the prospective bride as normal during the visit of the groom’s family to check her out. When the problem surfaced after the wedding, it was no longer a problem for the parents. A large dowry was often offered to mitigate the situation.
The subject of psychology in colleges and universities was considered to be a subpar subject compared to STEM subjects. Seeking help from “psychoanalysts” was a luxury of wealthy people. There were religious “gurus” who advised families in a spiritual sense to help them cope with, not just psychological, but financial and medical issues as well. The gurus expected tangible gifts or “offerings” in exchange for their advice. In extreme cases, the persons with mental problems were admitted to an asylum if the parents could afford the cost. Sometimes, there was room for them in religious ashrams.
This social problem has been depicted in Indian movies. The Bengali movie “Deep Jwele Jai” showed an unconventional treatment by a doctor for his mental patients. His prescription was to use a beautiful nurse, played by Suchitra Sen, to convince male patients that she was in love with them in order for them to regain their sanity. The doctor was convinced that love could cure any mental problem.
I was initially skeptical about the widespread availability of professional help in this country. The image of a patient lying on a couch and revealing his/her problems within an hour seemed to be another reflection of the superficial, fast-paced life of Americans. Counseling costs hundreds of dollars, and a cure is not even guaranteed. The psychiatrists often prescribe pills (such as Xanax for depression), which can become addictive.
I wondered if the abundance of psychologists and psychiatrists was the result of “big pharma” controlling American medical schools and doctors to enhance their profits. Many college students major in psychology because of the lure of an easy curriculum and easy money in professional careers. Even with all the Western influences, India currently has about 9000 registered psychiatrists, while there are 30,000 in the USA (about ten times more on a per capita basis).
My viewpoint about seeking professional help for mental problems has changed over the years. As I look back at my own life, I can say that there were major life-changing events where the intervention of psychological help could have made a significant difference.
A typical problem in Indian families is unpredictable behavior patterns of adolescent children, such as “tomboyish” behavior by teenage girls or a shy/reclusive lifestyle of teenage boys. Typically, parents assume that it is just a passing phase. Oftentimes, that is indeed the case, but occasionally the problems persist even when the kids turn to adulthood, resulting in temper tantrums, depression, failure at school and work, etc. It is more common in the modern transgender-centric environment.
Another frequent issue is marital problems resulting in lifelong unhappy marriages, if not divorce. All marital conflicts in the Indian community are probably solvable by good counseling because adultery or financial difficulty are uncommon among Indians. Typical reasons are excessive interference by in-laws, battle for control, especially if the wives have good jobs, lack of common interests, etc. There is such a stigma associated with seeking psychiatric help that couples would rather go through a lifelong unhappy marriage than seek counseling.
Homesickness and inability to get completely accepted in American society can also be a cause of mental depression, especially for new immigrants who do not have families of their own.
We, Indian Americans, are emotional and sensitive people, but we keep all of our feelings bottled up. We do not even share them with our best friends or neighbors because we consider such problems to be embarrassing if not shameful. Since most of us are living here by ourselves, away from a family support unit, we probably need professional counseling even more strongly than Americans.
There are two key reasons why Indians do not run to therapists for their psychological problems: a) we would prefer therapists who can understand our cultural frames of mind and subtle reasons for various emotional problems. We do not want to wash our dirty laundry in front of Americans who do not understand us. I do not know the number of psychiatrists in this country who are of Indian origin, but I suspect that the Indian parents do not encourage their children to go into the field of psychology with the same vigor as other medical fields, even though the earning potential is no less. b) Psychiatric care is expensive, typically costing $200 or more per hour, but its effectiveness cannot be quantified. Most Indians consider such treatments a waste of money and time.
A recent trend gives me hope about getting future psychiatric care; it is the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This approach is still in its infancy; only various pilot programs are being conducted across the nation. However, the future looks promising, especially for Indian Americans. Since the patients would basically be interacting with a machine, he/she will be less inhibited in sharing personal problems. Oftentimes, it is therapeutic just to speak out about one’s problems, whether one follows the psychiatric recommendations or not. Chat GPT robots might also be easier to train than human beings to think with a new cultural perspective. I also expect the fees to be drastically reduced because involvement of professional doctors will be minimal.
As AI techniques are improved, they will help health care practitioners to define mental illnesses more effectively, identify these illnesses at an earlier stage, and offer personalized treatment based on individual unique characteristics. The current concerns in this approach are in accuracy and vulnerability of the information to hackers; there is no doubt that the situation would be improved in further refinements in the near future.
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(California-based Basab Dasgupta has a doctorate in Physics from the University of Wisconsin and has worked with Sony as Vice President of an operating division)
