Psychiatric pluralism in Bengal, India

By examining the pluralistic nature of the psychiatric domain in Bengal, India, the paper critically analyzes the concept of medical pluralism. Three varieties of pluralism are identified: the social institutional pluralism of the diverse specialists, the cultural cognitive pluralism of the client's conceptual frameworks, and the pluralism resulting from the divergent perspectives of clients and specialists. The paper argues that all three forms of pluralism can be better understood if pluralism is conceptualized in terms of actors' structuring activities and thus as an emergent product of social interaction.