Pathology and Competence

Abstract

Recent literature indicates that mental health professionals see little relationship between competence, pathology, and culture. Searches of journal articles and book chapters for references between 1975 and 1995 yielded very limited results: competence and pathology, four; competence and culture, two; and pathology and culture, three. This chapter argues that psychosocial competence, pathology, and culture are interlinked and cannot be understood otherwise. These diverse perspectives are integrated because people build on their individual natures and experiences within their cultural/ethnic contexts to develop their psychosocially competent and dysfunctional characteristics. Manifestations of psychological dysfunction are indicators of problems in living, not symptoms of disease processes. A reconceptualization of how we understand psychopathology and psychosocial competence is provided to support this idea.