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The traditional healer and psychiatry
The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
|September 1, 1985
Summary
Psychiatric care for rural Africans must include traditional beliefs about illness causation. Collaborating with traditional healers shows success in treating complex culture-bound syndromes.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Medical Anthropology
- African Studies
Background:
- Rural African psychiatric treatment often overlooks traditional beliefs.
- Illness is viewed through magical, social, physical, and religious parameters in traditional African contexts.
- Western psychiatry faces challenges with culture-bound syndromes rooted in sorcery, spirit possession, and ancestral worship.