Traditional healing practices originating in Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao: A review of the literature on psychiatry and Brua.
Transcultural psychiatry December 1, 2015 Jan Dirk Blom, Igmar T Poulina, Trevor L Van Gellecum et al.
Brua, an Afro-Caribbean religion and healing tradition from the southern former Netherlands Antilles, shapes how individuals experience and express disorders that Western psychiatry considers mental illness. A systematic review of 35 texts—including three peer-reviewed papers and eight theses—found Brua to be a holistic patchwork of creolized beliefs and practices seen as both cause and remedy for ailments. Tension between Brua and Western psychiatric practice is significant, but adherence does not seem to cause much patient delay in help-seeking. However, belief in Brua as a source of complaints and patients' use of practices including hallucinogens may affect diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders.