A psychological study of the vision and treatment of mental illness by Nepalese shamans

摘要

This study explored how Nepalese shamans and other traditional faith healers in Nepal conceptualize and treat mental illness in their communities. It endeavored to describe the healers' "weltanschauung" (cosmic view) of the phenomenon of madness.;The research was designed to investigate certain key questions: How do shamans and faith healers in Nepal describe the general causes of mental disturbance? What is the nature of their classification system of mental illnesses? How do they form diagnoses? How do they attempt to cure insanity? What limitations do they perceive to curing mental illnesses?;As no literature was available on the topic of shamanic healing of mental illness, this study reviewed the literature in three broad areas: the general characteristics of shamanism; the particular features of shamanism in Nepal and in the Himalayas; and the relationship between shamanism and insanity.;To carry out this investigation, the researcher interviewed two female and three male shamans/faith healers in Kathmandu and in the Nepalese Himalayas. Several translators were used and translations were cross-checked. Interviews were tape recorded and transcribed. The responses of shamans and native healers were analyzed to identify themes that related to mental illness and healing approaches.;In a final section of the study, themes related to the guiding questions of the research were discussed and amplified with further information. The data obtained in this research present a phenomenological view of how shamans and native healers approach madness and the healing of madness. Their perspective is one in which the inner and outer world, the individual and the collective reality, the "real" and the "imaginal" space, the human and nonhuman world, and the past, present, and future all coexist without contradiction or mutual exclusion, presenting a marked contrast to contemporary Western perspectives.