Abstract
Important pillars of Iranian culture and the current social makeup of Iran are detailed as shaping the background against which experiences of depression take on a uniquely cultural form and meaning. Shi’ism as the official religion in Iran, the place of Persian literature in the collective consciousness, and historical turning points such as the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war form the foundations of the current sociocultural context of the country. Within this culture, the status of sadness and dysphoria as valued emotions is examined and together with a brief history of psychiatric pedagogy and practice in the country, helps to arrive at the culturally unique conceptions of depression in Iran. The elements examined in this chapter form the basis of the cross-cultural analysis that follows.
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Notes
- 1.
Although the 5th revision of the DSM was published in 2013, and the translation into Farsi was completed in 2015, the criteria in use by practitioners in Iran continues to be DSM-IV-TR, at the time of completion of this study.
- 2.
It should be acknowledged that most of these events are supported by the state, ensuring the regularity of the events, as well as the wide reach of them around the country.
- 3.
Examples of such female role models include Fatemeh, the Prophet’s daughter and Imam Ali’s wife, whose purity of character, innocence, power to stand up to injustice, and support and care for her family are among her most celebrated personal characteristics.
- 4.
This is despite the prevalence of complaints of somatic symptoms among the Iranian sample. I will look at these symptoms more closely in Chap. 7.
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Mirdamadi, M. (2023). The Iranian Context. In: A Phenomenological Study of Depression in Iran. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-30407-1_2
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