The traditional healer and psychiatry

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.