The role of sensorial processes in Q'eqchi' Maya healing: A case study of depression and bereavement

Transcultural Psychiatry
Andrew R Hatala, James B Waldram

Abstract

Theory and research on the healing practices of Indigenous communities around the globe have often been influenced by models of "symbolic healing" that privilege the way patients consciously interpret or derive meaning from a healing encounter. In our work with a group of Q'eqchi' Maya healers in southern Belize, these aspects of "symbolic healing" are not always present. Such empirical observations force us to reach beyond models of symbolic healing to understand how healing might prove effective. Through the extended analysis of a single case study of rahil ch'ool or "depression," we propose to advance understanding of forms of healing which are not dependent on a shared "mythic" or "assumptive world" between patient and healer or where therapeutic efficacy does not rely on the patient's ability to "believe" in or consciously "know" what is occurring during treatment. In this we demonstrate how the body, as a site of experience, transformation, and communication, becomes the therapeutic locus in healing encounters of this kind and argue that embodied mediums of sensorial experience be considered central in attempts to understand healing efficacy.

References

Jul 1, 2004·British Medical Bulletin·Laurence J Kirmayer
Jun 7, 2008·Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry·Susan C WellerAna L Salcedo Rocha
Jun 20, 2008·Transcultural Psychiatry·Devon E HintonLaurence J Kirmayer
Oct 24, 2008·Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry·T S Harvey
Dec 25, 2008·Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry·Jennifer Jo ThompsonMark Nichter
Aug 7, 2012·Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps·D A Ross
Oct 22, 2013·Transcultural Psychiatry·Devon E Hinton, Laurence J Kirmayer
Jul 21, 2014·Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry·Bonnie N KaiserHunter M Keys
Dec 17, 2014·Social Science & Medicine·James B Waldram, Andrew R Hatala
Feb 14, 2015·Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry·Andrew R HatalaTomas Caal

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Citations

May 5, 2016·Medical Anthropology·Andrew R Hatala, James B Waldram
Jan 3, 2021·Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry·Emma Louise BackeEmily Mendenhall

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Software Mentioned

eqchi

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