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l'Information Psychiatrique. Volume 80, Number 6, 459-63, Juin-Juillet 2004, MÉTISSAGES

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Author(s) : Jamal Eddine Ktiouet *

Summary : Depression in Morocco, from culture to pragmatism. For a long-time depression was known as either less frequent in Morocco and in the Maghreb, or having a particular clinical expression marked with a prevalent somatization and “delusion”. Numerous interpretations based on culture have generated psychopathological hypotheses that were considered as acquired and established facts. The daily practice, the modern psychiatry and transcultural psychiatry have changed these approach and interpretations in a more relative and pragmatic way. Even though somatization, “persecutory thoughts” and a least-expressed theme of guilt are indeed common, their first-degree explanation introduces the risk to bias their psychopathological approach by sorting out “culture” where it does not necessarily exist. The daily experience shows indeed that the classic depressive symptoms are present and detected as soon as we go passed the first patient complaints.

Keywords : depression, Morocco, culture, somatization, persecutory thoughts, guilt