THE INVOLVEMENT OF FAMILIES IN INDIAN PSYCHIATRY

Ethnographic observations and interviews with psychiatrists at two gen eral hospital psychiatric units in northern India reveal the extent of family involvement in the localized adaptation of biomedical psychiat ry that occurs in these settings. By assuming many of the roles filled by auxiliary personnel in the USA, families maintain considerable con trol over many aspects of the psychiatric process: defining disorder, outpatient consultation, record keeping, admissions, inpatient care, d ischarge, and continuing care. The implications of these observations are considered in relation to theoretical concerns about biomedical he gemony, advantages and disadvantages of family involvement from an app lied perspective, and the methodological adequacy of cross-cultural ps ychiatric epidemiology with respect to studies of ''expressed emotion. ''