The influence of developmental, education, and mentorship experiences on career paths in cultural psychiatry

Career paths in cultural psychiatry and other areas of medicine often are influenced by a combination of developmental, academic and training experiences. One of the satisfactions for the cultural psychiatrist is the opportunity to integrate lifelong interests that are not central to medical training, such as anthropology, philosophy, history or geography into one's daily work and career path, and this is not necessarily just applicable to clinical work or research. A background in social sciences can be very helpful in navigating the political and interpersonal challenges of working in an academic medical center or designing effective education programs across the career spectrum in medicine. This article traces the development of my career in academic cultural psychiatry and illustrates the way my clinical and academic interests were influenced both by early developmental and educational experiences and by positive career experiences as a clinician, teacher and researcher in the context of effective mentorship and professional peer relationships. The future of cultural psychiatry is exciting and its continued growth will be dependent on effective nurturance of young physicians who have a broad vision of the important place of cultural psychiatry and how it influences medicine, mental health, and society at large.