It also happens frequently to middle-class Americans who lead mobile, rapidly changing lives, and whose family, home or social roots have become too shallow to nurture them. The truly culturally deprived person is a person in limbo, a person without a sense of belonging, a person who neither knows nor accepts himself. True cultural deprivation not only increases the RISK of mental health problems, it IS a mental health problem in itself. At best, a culturally deprived person is out of balance, incom plete and vulnerable. At worst he is confused, depressed, anxious, or amoral.
Cultural deprivation complicates mental health problems.