Global Learning

Cultural Competence & Comparison

I wholeheartedly believe that experiencing another culture firsthand through immersion, meaningful dialogue, and learning is an incredible way to understand each other in context. Comparing and contrasting the nuances of my American culture to that of Ireland in every aspect I could has helped me better understand America and Ireland as countries and peoples regarding their attitudes, ideas, and beliefs about mental health.

Here I will summarize my understandings briefly, but my reflections on some of the specific events, programs, and causes that I studied during my time in Ireland will reflect upon these understandings in deeper and contextually significant ways on my Meaningful Moments page. America, from my 20 years of living in it and attempting to understand it, is a culture that values individualism. This has become evident to me through the systems and institutions we support proudly and intensely: capitalism, our prison system, our government, all reflect our cultural beliefs. In America, this tends to pave the way for legal and culturally acceptable institutional oppression of marginalized people, or really anyone deemed abnormal in a negative way. In the context of mental health, this is largely why "mental illness" disproportionately highly correlates with incarceration, homelessness, and other systematically driven ways to remove "different" people from the ability to live content, occupationally balanced, and meaningful lives.

In Ireland, there is a similar but different legal affect towards those with mental health difficulties. Ireland has an extensive and horrific history of incarcerating those deemed mentally ill into complete and utter occupational deprivation systems, often for the remainder of the person's life and without "just" cause (though I do not believe there can ever be adequate justification for incarceration as it has ever been or continues to be practiced). Catholicism, more collectivistic and familial/societal prioritization, and Ireland's historical traumas have all largely contributed to the attitudes of the country toward people deemed "mad". Through the people I have met, the organizations, institutions, and places I have seen, and most importantly, the voices that I have heard in my time in Ireland, I have understood that negative stigma and sanism drive the inequitable and systematic oppression of mad people, and it both parallels in oppression and divulges in historical and cultural context the attitudes towards mad people in America.