Culture, Modernist Paradigm, and Health

    The individual is a cell of society. The whole atmosphere of society may influence what an individual think, what an individual do. With regard to the influence of social force on individual health behavior, the instance of sati highly impressed me. The symbolic meanings of sati in a culture could “persuade” or restrain a widow’s self-destruction unconsciously. In some cultures, sati is symbolized as a representation of dignity, loyalty and purity of women. What does a widow do when she is suffering from the depression due to her husband’s death in such an atmosphere? Sometimes women are pushed to step on the way of sati by social power. As modern society changes, on the other hand, what if sati is considered as an irresponsible and hasty behavior?

    As Nandy (1988) claimed, people keep their social and political dominance through making themselves rational in social change. Human learn from the patterns, cause, and rules of nature to understand how to dominate it. Culture of a group, a community, a region, and a country is reinforced by social power. Social force can push people to perform a certain behavior by building rational environment. “Rationality” would change across different social contexts and cultures. Rationality gives people reasons to believe, to act. Rational behavior in a culture is one that is not just reasoned, but also is aimed to achieve a goal. However, it varies as the context varies. One “rational” behavior may be “irrational” in another culture. Religious practice may be one kind of manifestation.

    Thus, every behavior has its reason to exist. So does health-related behavior. Patient-centered communication therefore plays a vital role in understanding patients’ social contexts among diverse groups. Physicians need to elicit what patients are thinking, what is their expectation, all of which are depending upon their cultural identities. It is required for physicians to be sensitive to recognize patients’ problems, their misunderstanding caused by patient-physician cultural differences. Besides, in order to engage with the patient, I think the attitude of empathy is a core element in patient-physician communication. Empathy is a process of understanding and anticipating the feelings and experiences of another. Physician puts himself in patient’s places, giving him cues of what he should do in a certain setting. It enables the physician to accurately fulfill patients’ needs. Specifically, the patients are willing to talk more about their concerns and symptoms, helping the physician get known more information about their physical and psychological states and respond to patients’ need appropriately. It leads to more accurate diagnosis.