Definition
Western assumptions in psychology include individualism, secularism, verbal expressiveness, and future orientation as norms — assumptions that shape research design, diagnostic categories, and treatment.
Why it matters
Naming these assumptions honestly protects patients from being pathologized for cultural difference.
The Science
Multiple studies have shown DSM categories’ cultural specificity. Ethan Watters and others have documented the export of Western mental-health categories with sometimes harmful consequences.
The NSI Perspective
NSI holds Western psychology as one tradition among many — useful, incomplete, and worth interrogating.
Clinical Implications
Ask whether the framework you are applying was built for the person in front of you.
Practical Application
If a therapy framework feels like it does not fit, that may be culture, not resistance.
References
- 1.Watters E. Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche. Free Press; 2010.