Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
PSYChIatrIC aND PSYChOSOMatIC DISEaSES
Treatment of insanity and psychosomatic disorders in orthodox Western medicine has changed
considerably in the last few decades and is now very much unlike the methods of the 1950s, when
patients were handcuffed or chained to hospital beds. It is no longer common to see violent patients
kept under restraint by straps or bedsheets, seriously disturbed psychotics yelling in mental and
spiritual torment, and others huddled in frozen silence under the influence of powerful sedatives.
This improvement can be traced largely to the advent of reserpine and other
Rauvolfia
alkaloids for
the management of psychiatric cases. This plant was used by the Africans—independent of its use
by the Asiatic peoples for the treatment of the same illness—for insanity.
In most African societies, mental illness is seen as the clearest manifestation of the disturbed
equilibrium of life. This disease can be traced to a broken taboo, a contravened societal norm, or
witchcraft. It is indeed futile to prescribe herbs and tranquilizers without first making a proper
diagnosis of the causative factors responsible for the illness.
A rise in the incidence of mental illness among urban Africans is becoming increasingly mani-
fest. It has been attributed at first glance to various cultural developments. The traditional African
culture is at variance with the emerging dominant culture of the city, and this fact often precipitates
ambivalence in the African that could lead to some mental imbalance.
Such illnesses may originate from a conscious rejection by the “modern” African of the tradi-
tional ways and beliefs that had sustained him or her, without mentally and spiritually preparing
him- or herself for the roles this new civilization may demand. This creates a situation where the
urban African exists in two worlds, one with rigid rules and primordial sanctions, which keep the
society in check, and the other with the promise of pleasures without the restraints of the trans-
posed alien culture. The stress so imposed is not adequately accommodated by some people. To an
African, the germ theory of disease cannot possibly account for the cause and effect of insanity in
a society where life is fully integrated. There may be no observable connection between a disease
and the cause to which it is ascribed, except that the cause occurred first and the disease followed,
and a cure can be procured by remedying what could be considered an essentially exogenous phe-
nomenon. Other possible sources for the development of emotional stress can easily be observed
among urban Africans, but psychological factors are undoubtedly the main cause of mental illness
among rural Africans.
The diviner understandably plays the most important part in the treatment of the mentally ill by
scrutinizing all the evidence available before making a pronouncement on the patient. I have wit-
nessed a therapy session in which a marijuana addict was brought before a native healer. The healer
physically subdued the patient, examined the patient's eyes, and asked when the patient crossed
“the flame of wisdom.” To the astonishment of the observers, the patient gave the healer the date he
started his bad habit. The healer kept the patient for about 3 months and successfully weaned him
of his drug habits with herbs.
At another session, a patient was brought before a healer who specialized in healing the mentally
ill. The healer took just one look at the patient and declared, “Not heaven, not earth, only Chukwu
[God] can deliver a man from the burden of seven incarnations.” How right he was; the patient had
a long history of insanity in his family, stretching into several generations. He was given herbs to
calm him for a while; he looked normal, but the herbalist kept murmuring, “The wind cannot be
contained; the leaf has to dance to the wind.” The patient had a relapse, and the insanity could not
be treated by the traditional healer.
Treatments often include sacrifices, rituals, and dances. The use of herbs is only secondary
to the spiritual or magical cure of insanity. There are healers who employ “sacred” music for the
reorientation of the insane before proceeding to give herbal potions. The use of sacred music, incan-
tations, and invocations can easily be mistaken for “faith healing” as practiced in the West, but it
