# A new classification of psychological suffering based on a Buddhist theory of mind: Psychiatric emergency scenarios from Cambodia - URL: https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/so036 - Language: en - Last updated: not specified - Page title: A new classification of psychological suffering based on a Buddhist theory of mind: Psychiatric emergency scenarios from Cambodia | WCP 2026 Summary > Cambodia has a functioning classification of psychological suffering and a system of psychotherapy based on a Buddhist theory of mind, in which diagnosis follo… This page was translated automatically from Turkish. [Read the original](https://alisanburak.com/wcp-2026-posterler/so036) This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it. SO036 Brief Oral Poster PresentationMigration and Transcultural PsychiatryQualitative study (ethnography) # A new classification of psychological suffering based on a Buddhist theory of mind: Psychiatric emergency scenarios from Cambodia A NEW NOSOLOGY OF MENTAL SUFFERING, GROUNDED IN A BUDDHIST THEORY OF MIND: SCENARIOS OF PSYCHIATRIC EMERGENCY — EVIDENCE FROM CAMBODIA Presenter: Maurice Eisenbruch Country: Australia Session: 2630 - PARALLEL SHORT ORAL POSTER SESSIONS: TRANSCULTURAL & MIGRATION - Part I Date: Thu, 24.09.2026 Cambodia has a functioning classification of psychological suffering and a system of psychotherapy based on a Buddhist theory of mind, in which diagnosis follows causation and treatment works on causal connections. Drawing on the ongoing revision of psychiatric classification and the body of cultural psychiatry research showing that Western categories do not fit patients in other cultures, this study aimed to examine the theory and practice of indigenous Buddhist psychotherapies in Cambodia, demonstrate their central role in maintaining mental health, and document harmful interventions. The method was long-term clinical ethnography: fieldwork began in 1982 with resettled Cambodian refugees, moved to camps along the Thai border in 1987, and continued in Cambodia from 1990 onward. Participant observation followed more than 900 Buddhist monks, traditional healers, mediums, ritual specialists, traditional birth attendants, and astrology practitioners as they diagnosed and treated patients in their communities; cases encompassed suicide, psychosis, perinatal disorders, violence, disasters, and epidemics. A coherent theory of mind combining Vedic and Ayurvedic, Buddhist, and local folk elements was identified; diagnosis and treatment are organized around six cultural attractors: bad foundations and scripted violence, childhood markers, risky times, discordance between abuser and abused, the three poisons, and moral blindness. Each of the 14 negative emotions in the indigenous Buddhist taxonomy of emotions (akusala cetasika) corresponds to symptom clusters and scenarios; in despair, a gallbladder death ghost possesses the person, placing the mind in a state of short thinking (/kɨt kləy/) and leading to death by hanging, while lethal death ghosts generate contagious suicide epidemics across villages. Jealousy and envy are linked to acid attacks, while fear, together with offended protective spirits, is associated with events such as mass fainting and stampedes. Crisis intervention is conducted through rituals derived from this theory of mind and includes paritta and sutta recitations, yantras and amulets, sutta practices aimed at extinguishing anger, grief work based on the distinction between normal and inauspicious death, the dissolution of intergenerational karmic bonds, dhamma education, astrological risk analysis, and suicide prevention practices; efforts to protect mental health include marriage and couples therapy and protective barrier practices. The author concludes that in Cambodia diagnosis follows causation, treatment works on connections, and, in the hands of monks, this becomes a Buddhist psychotherapy. The author notes that biomedicine and this system coexist in tension, and calls for discussion of whether classification should incorporate causation and how to listen to narratives in which a family history of suicide is recounted through ghosts. [View the original poster](https://cslide.ctimeetingtech.com/wcp26/attendee/eposter/file/2339) How to cite this study APA 7: Eisenbruch, M., et al. (2026, September 24). A new nosology of mental suffering, grounded in a buddhist theory of mind: scenarios of psychiatric emergency — evidence from cambodia [Poster presentation]. 26th WPA World Congress of Psychiatry (WCP 2026), Stockholm, Sweden. https://cslide.ctimeetingtech.com/wcp26/attendee/eposter/file/2339 Vancouver: Eisenbruch M, et al. A new nosology of mental suffering, grounded in a buddhist theory of mind: scenarios of psychiatric emergency — evidence from cambodia [poster]. 26th WPA World Congress of Psychiatry (WCP 2026); 2026 Sep 23-26; Stockholm, Sweden. 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