Chasing dön spirits in Tibetan medical encounters: Transcultural affordances and embodied psychiatry in Amdo, Qinghai.
Transcultural psychiatry October 1, 2023 Tawni L Tidwell, Heidi E Fjeld 3 citations
In Tibetan medicine, the category of dön (spirit affliction) offers a framework where physical and mental aspects are inseparable in illness, contrasting with biomedical views that often classify spirit possession as psychiatric. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in eastern Tibet, two case studies illustrate opposite ends of the dön spectrum: one resembling stroke and another similar to schizophrenia. Harmful external influences cause both physiological and psychological symptoms, contributing to a shared pathogenesis. The analysis highlights how cultural affordances and bio-looping shape the presentation of these conditions, and how Tibetan medicine integrates cultural, social, biological, and psychological factors. This challenges biomedical paradigms by providing cultural models for diagnosing and treating chronic inflammatory conditions with mental health components.