J Korean Neuropsychiatr Assoc.  2001 Sep;40(5):767-776.

Schizophrenic Hallucinations in Shanghai and Seoul:A Transcultural Study

• Kim KI
• Dong ZL
• Lu MG
• Park KK
• Park YC
• Kim DH

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
The types, contents and major themes of schizophrenic hallucinations in Shanghai and Seoul were compared for evaluating cultural differences and connotation.
METHODS
Among the schizophrenic inpatients of Shanghai Mental Health Center in Shanghai and National Seoul Mental Hospital and Hanyang University Hospital in Seoul, 396 cases(182 cases in Shanghai, 214 cases in Seoul) were selected by two ways:a) five staged stratified random sampling of sex, age, education, clinical subtype and onset year, b) cases who have admitted for one to six months in their last admission. Among them, 231 cases(55.39% in Shanghai, 60.83% in Seoul) confirmed to have hallucinations were the final subjects of study.
RESULTS
Frequencies in types of hallucination were not different between the two groups. However, contents and major themes were different:Political themes and related contents were dominant in Shanghai cases, and supernatural and religious themes and related contents were dominant in Seoul cases.
CONCLUSION
It was concluded that contents and themes of hallucinations were closely related to the delusional contents and themes, and such patterns were considerably influenced by sociocultural characteristics.

Keyword

Hallucination; Schizophrenia; Culture; Psychopathology

MeSH Terms

Cross-Cultural Comparison*
Delusions
Education
Hallucinations*
Hospitals, Psychiatric
Humans
Inpatients
Mental Health
Psychopathology
Schizophrenia
Seoul