A psychiatrist in training encounters a traditional healer.
Raksha Singh, Pierre M Joubert
South African Journal of Psychiatry 2025 DOI: 10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v31i0.2453 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Autoethnographic study Qualitative Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 1 |
| Population | Inpatient mental healthcare user at Weskoppies Hospital, Pretoria |
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Keywords | Autoethnography Culture and psychiatry Ethnomedicine Indigenous medicine Psychiatry training Traditional healer |
| Key findings | The traditional healer and psychiatrist in training used the same basic evaluation and treatment steps but differed in subcategories, reflecting contrasting naturalistic and transcendent epistemologies of mental illness. |
Abstract
Traditional healers play a significant role in healthcare seeking in South Africa. Many South Africans often seek healthcare services from both medical practitioners and traditional healers simultaneously for the same condition. Despite this, many medical practitioners seem ignorant about the practices of traditional healers. This study aimed to explore the similarities and differences between the practices of a traditional healer (TH) and a psychiatrist in training (PIT) regarding an inpatient mental healthcare user (MHCU). This study was conducted at an inpatient ward at Weskoppies Hospital, Pretoria. An autoethnographic method was utilised in this study. The TH and PIT evaluated the same MHCU. While doing so, the PIT used participant observation, field notes, and finally a qualitative content analysis. The findings of the content analysis were validated with the TH. Two previously unpublished findings in South African traditional healing emerged: the use of a doll (effigy) and calling on angels. The TH and PIT followed the same basic steps in evaluating and treating the MHCU, but there were notable differences in the details (subcategories) of those steps. These differences reflect very different epistemologies about mental illness: the PIT used an evidence-based, naturalistic (or positivistic) model, while the TH used a model that can best be designated as transcendent. This study contributes towards an understanding of a TH's approach to a mentally disordered patient.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Plantas con madre": plants that teach and guide in the shamanic initiation process in the East-Central Peruvian Amazon. Curanderos, apprentices, and herbalists in East-Central Peru, including Mestizo,... | 2011 | Qualitative study | n = 36 |
| Purging and the body in the therapeutic use of ayahuasca Healers and participants in shamanic tourism contexts of the Peruvian Amazon and... | 2019 | Ethnography with literature review | n = 227 |
| The Globalization of Ayahuasca Shamanism and the Erasure of Indigenous Shamanism Western tourists and indigenous peoples in Iquitos, Peru | 2016 | Ethnography | |
| Shamanism and Rock Art in Far Western North America Historic hunter-gatherer cultures of California and the Great Basin | 1992 | Ethnographic review and analysis | |
| Working with “La Medicina”: Elements of Healing in Contemporary Ayahuasca Rituals Ayahuasqueros and Western participants in shamanic tourism in Iquitos, Peru | 2012 | Ethnography |