Spirit Versus Scalpel: Traditional Healing and Modern Psychotherapy

This is a unique presentation of systems of traditional healing from around the world. It provides information about the concept of healing from many different cultural perspectives and explores the application of these cultural perspectives to modern psychotherapeutic and health care settings. The last decade has seen a literal explosion of data that support the idea that states of mind have consistent and demonstrable effects on physical health. With examples that examine traditional and modern healing systems in many different cultures around the world, this work demonstrates that most cultures perceive illness as a dislocation of the individual from his or her communal context. The healing process is effected through contextualizing the individual in community by ritual, ceremony, trance, pilgrimage, and family practices. Traditional healing systems are shown to have particular importance relating to modern medical responses to mental illness.