The traditional healer and psychiatry.
The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry September 1, 1985 W H Wessels 29 citations
Successful psychiatric treatment for rural Africans should incorporate traditional beliefs that illness is understood through magical, social, physical, and religious dimensions. Traditional healers distinguish between natural illnesses, such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, and mental retardation, and cultural disorders involving sorcery, spirit possession, and ancestral worship. These cultural disorders often challenge Western-trained psychiatrists. Healers in altered states use divination to determine the origin of misfortune. In therapy-resistant cases of culture-bound syndromes, consultation with reputable traditional healers yielded a notably high rate of success. The authors argue for greater recognition of these healers.