For people from different cultural backgrounds it is often difficult to understand one another. This paper gives some facts about the problems Ethiopians have in understanding the concepts of western psychiatry - in this study the items of the Self Reporting Questionaire, a psychiatric case finding instrument designed by the World Health Organisation. On the other hand health workers, trained in western medicine, often have difficulties in grasping the meaning of in their opinion bizarre complaints of Ethiopians looking for help. Western psychiatry is culturebound and needs adaptations when practiced in other cultures.