Cultural Psychiatry Across (Cyber)Spaces: Understanding the Role of Fan Cultures in Mental Health

Fan cultures emerge from communities of shared interests, such as those related to television series, novels, video games, and other hobbies. The internet has expanded the popularity and accessibility of fan cultures, with implications for mental health that remain underexplored within clinical practice and research. This narrative review and viewpoint article ponders how the recognition of fan cultures in cultural psychiatry may contribute to improving mental health care for members of fan communities. First, we provide an overview of the role of fan cultures in mental health, with a particular focus on furry culture, a well-studied but often stigmatized community. Drawing from media psychology and fan studies, we review the psychological and social affordances of fan cultures, and we take the furry culture as an example to further discuss how identity, technology, stigma, and community interface with fan culture and mental health. Then, we consider how the Cultural Formulation Interview, a conventional method of cultural psychiatry, could allow the mental health ramifications of fan cultures to be recognized in clinical practice.