The traditional healer and psychiatry.

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.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Successful psychiatric treatment for rural Africans should incorporate their traditional belief that illness should be viewed in terms of magical, social, physical and religious parameters. Traditional healers divide illness into those of natural causation and those of traditional cultural aetiology which are peculiar to African people. Natural illness includes epilepsy, familial/genetic disorders, mental retardation and schizophrenia. Traditional, cultural disorders often cause difficulties for Western-trained psychiatrists because sorcery, spirit possession and ancestral worship are central to their aetiology and treatment as practised by traditional healers. They, in a state of altered consciousness, use a process of divination to determine why and from whom the misfortune originated. With this in mind, reputable traditional healers were consulted in therapy-resistant cases of culture-bound syndromes in Africans. Their high rate of success in treating these cases was notable. More recognition should be given to the reputable traditional healers.