Summary: | The purpose of this paper was to explore family burden, coping, and support for psychotic patients in a Javanese setting. A combination of ethnographic and clinical
methodology was employed. During my fieldwork in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, I followed 9 participants diagnosed as having first episode psychosis. Three of them met the
ICD‐10 criteria for Schizophrenia, five for Acute and Transient Psychotic Disorder(ATPD), and one for Schizoaffective Disorder. I carried out ethnographic fieldwork among nine participants and their families in
their natural home setting, as well as conducting in‐depth interviews. In addition, I administered the Family Crisis Oriented Personal Evaluation Scale (F‐COPES) for
family members and Sentence Completion Test (SCT). The result indicated that despite experiencing psychological and economic burden, families provided a high level of
support for their mentally ill members which are reflected in the application of Javanese principle of ngemong. Three aspects the practice of ngemong is discussed.
Keywords: family, psychotic illness, burden, coping, support, Javanese culture
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