Traditional health practitioners (THPs) understand spirit possession as a cultural or religious spirit occupying a person, while the mental healthcare providers understand it as a mental illness. The ...different understanding is based on manifestations that mimic that of mental illness, such as seeing and hearing things that others cannot see or hear. Spirit possession holds different meanings in different cultures and religions that could be either beneficial or detrimental. Furthermore, spirit possession is understood as a channel of communication between the living and the dead or God or a supernatural phenomenon in which a spirit owns a person.
This study explored and interpreted THPs' understanding of spirit possession in Gauteng province, South Africa.
Hermeneutic phenomenology study explored and interpreted the THPs' understanding of spirit possession in Gauteng province. In-depth individual interviews were conducted with 12 THPs who were selected through snowball sampling techniques. Data analysis followed Heidegger's and Gadamer's philosophies and Van Manen's six steps of the analytic approach.
The findings revealed that THPs understood spirit possession as spiritual illness, ancestral calling and demonic spirit or witchcraft.
Traditional health practitioners' understanding of spirit possession could promote mental health and prevent mental illness by providing support to a spirit-possessed person and referral to mental healthcare services.
This study contributed that not all manifestations presented by persons with spirit possession are actual and clear-cut mental illness, but could be unwritten cultural and/ or religious illnesses that needs cultural and religious services also.
Increasingly, research, teaching, and practice emphasize the need for cultural competency among healthcare practitioners. Most training programmes include modules on cultural competency based on a ...knowledge, skills, and awareness model. In line with the knowledge and awareness objectives of cultural competency, this article focuses on the conceptualization of illness from an Islamic, Hindu, and African perspective. It discusses spiritual illness, a category of illness recognized in all three traditions but marginalized in mainstream literature. This marginalization has given rise to debates as to whether a separate Islamic psychology, a Hindu psychology, African psychology (or other Psychology) should exist. This article explores these areas briefly concluding with arguments on the need for current teaching, research, and practice to take more cognizance of cultural views of illness.
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The author reports on exploratory research involving an exercise in bringing together two practices, one spiritual and one therapeutic: Eastern Christian spirituality and cognitive-behavioral ...therapy. The theoretical view of illness and health in Eastern Christian spirituality is discussed in the framework of a clinical perspective. Applying the general clinical perspective of cognitive-behavioral therapy to Eastern Christian spirituality yields its implicit clinical view of spiritual illnesses, which are also called “passions.” The author discusses some implications of the psychospiritual approach, beginning with a comparison between the two practices and a discussion of the difficulties of such an interdisciplinary approach. In the second part of the study, dedicated to Evagrius Pontus’s approach and the ABCDE model of emotional disturbance, the author argues that both practices are interested in the person’s “well-being,” be it psychological or spiritual, and elaborates on techniques and methods to recover mental and spiritual “health.”
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DOBA, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
The important role that religious beliefs may have on perceptions of mental illness cannot be ignored. Many religions including Islam advocate witchcraft and spirit possession—all of which are ...thought to influence the behaviour of a person so as to resemble that of a mentally ill individual. Thus this research explored Muslim Faith Healers perceptions of mental and spiritual illness in terms of their · understanding of the distinctions between the two, the aetiologies and the treatments thereof. Six Muslim Healers in the Johannesburg community were interviewed and thematic content analysis was used to analyse the data. From the results it is clear that the faith healers were aware of the distinction between mental and spiritual illnesses. It was also apparent that Islam has a clear taxonomy that distinguishes illness and the causes thereof. Treatments are then advised accordingly. Thus this paper argues that the predominant Western view of the aetiology and understanding of mental illness needs to acknowledge the various culturally inclined taxonomies of mental illness so as to better understand and aid clients.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, INZLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Current understandings of mental illness are rooted in Western paradigms and fail to incorporate indigenous understandings. Swartz (2002) argues that the way certain conditions are labelled in ...different settings and how they are expressed in different cultures, need to be taken into consideration. Thus, this study explores the perceptions of mental illness in a sample of eight volunteer counsellors at a community-based organisation in Johannesburg, South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the counsellors to determine their understanding of mental illness and to establish the role played by Islam on the perceptions of mental illness. Responses were analysed using thematic content analysis. These results are discussed within the broader framework of Islam and mental illness.
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This study explored perceptions of mental illness in a sample of 10 female Muslim psychologists in a South African city to determine the influences of religion (and Islam specifically) on their ...understanding of the aetiology and treatment of mental illness. Participants responded to a semi-structured interview. The data from the interviews were thematically analyzed. Four themes emerged from the analysis: mental illness as maladaptive coping, religion as a resource for wellbeing, influences of personal religiosity on therapy and openness to collaborative treatment
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Despite the high standards demanded of conventional medical treatments and the incredible developments in investigative technologies, the reason that diseases remain without cures is that the true ...nature of disease has eluded conventional medical science. Illnesses caused by mental stress and unhealthy lifestyles can be treated using conventional medicine, but the rest are caused by a lack or stagnation of qi or are spiritual illness. In recent years alternative medicine has finally been gaining acceptance and treatment through integrative medicine is beginning to be offered. However, this is not enough and there must be a higher dimensional medical treatment that incorporates spiritual medical treatment. Here, I will introduce a medical case in which the incredible results of spiritual medical treatment and a high-level qigong master were recognized.
This article, written by a former diocesan safeguarding officer, argues that, despite two decades of talk about better safeguarding, the Church of England has failed to protect children and young ...people under its care, failed to respond appropriately to abuse allegations, and failed to provide adequate safeguarding policies and practices. It illustrates this failure from the author’s direct experience of senior clergy responses to the abuse of adolescents by David Smith and Bishop Peter Ball – responses identified as a spiritual sickness linked to institutional narcissism.
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