There is a link between some social and cultural sciences, such as anthropology and sociology, and mental health, especially in the research area and the conceptualization of mental illness. The sociologist Talcott Parsons suggests this interaction within the social action framework, which would be determined by the following three contexts: the psychological context, which studies personality through psychology and psychiatry; the social context, determined by the links between individuals and their groups; and the cultural context, given by the rules and values of a certain culture, which is part of the field of work of anthropology. Society and culture are tightly related concepts, for one does not exist without the other. The first refers to the system of relations that connects individuals creating a functional unit. Culture has more to do with nurture than with nature. It is also a system composed by both intangible (beliefs, ideas and values) and tangible elements: objects, symbols and technologies that represent this cultural content. However, society and culture come together in every individual and this individual, at the same time, is part of the social organization; as a result, there is a reciprocity in psychological and social perspectives, in order to access to the analysis of the phenomenon as a whole. As stated previously, there would be a third system, personality or the psychic system, understood as a set of psychic elements: experiences, character traits, impulses, attitudes etc. The complementarity between society and personality is mediated by the socialization process. Socialization is defined as the process through which people learn and integrate the social and cultural elements of their environment, structuring their personality under the influence of the main social agents, and finally, adapting to their environment.
