Global Mental Therapy

There already exists a type of global mental therapy that has used by virtually everyone, in every culture and during all periods of human history: it is called ‘ritual.’ But this is not recognised by the MGHM, nor have the therapeutic aspects of ritual been adequately investigated by psychology and psychiatry, nor are these disciplines sufficiently aware of the degree to which their own practices are ritualised. Most advocates of Global Mental Health have an extremely limited understanding of what people throughout the world actually do when they experience extreme mental suffering: they perform rituals. What explains this lack of interest in what is likely the most ubiquitous type of global mental therapy? Why does the topic remain so woefully under-researched? Can “rituals” be effective in treating mental suffering, and if so, how? Drawing on several decades of ethnographic research on ritual healing in Asia, Africa, and Europe, I suggest a number of provisional answers to these questions.

Tribute to the Remaining Makyong Performers of Yala, South Thailand | Sanjungan Untuk Para Penggiat Makyong di Yala, Selatan Thailand

Makyong is a form of Malay dance-theatre that combines dance, music, drama and comedy. It is said to have originated in the kingdom of Patani and later spread to Kelantan, Perlis, northern Sumatra and the Riau Islands. In the past, Makyong was performed to give thanks for a good harvest and for ritual healing. While there were more than ten active groups in the twentieth century, there is no permanent group left in South Thailand today. This essay honours the remaining performers who still come together to perform Makyong when there is an invitation. Based on oral interviews, we document the lives of the veteran performers, particularly the female actresses who played the leading roles. Through observations of their performances, we show how the Makyong performers in south Thailand have adapted some elements of Thai theatre. Makyong merupakan sebuah bentuk teater tradisional Melayu yang menggabungkan tarian, muzik, drama dan komedi. Persembahan ini dipercayai berasal dari kesultanan Patani dan kemudian berkembang ke negeri Kelantan, Perlis, Sumatera Utara dan kepulauan Riau. Pada masa dahulu, Makyong dipersembahkan sebagai tanda kesyukuran di atas penuaian padi yang baik serta untuk ritual perubatan. Terdapat lebih dari sepuluh kumpulan Makyong yang aktif pada abad kedua puluh, namun kini tiada lagi kumpulan tetap Makyong yang bergiat di selatan Thailand. Esei ini merupakan satu tanda sanjungan kepada para penggiat Makyong yang masih lagi tegar dan bersemangat untuk berkumpul dalam melestarikan Makyong apabila dijemput untuk menjayakan persembahan ini. Berlandaskan beberapa temubual lisan, kami mendokumentasikan kehidupan penggiat veteran Makyong, terutamanya pemain wanita yang memegang watak utama. Melalui pemerhatian terhadap beberapa persembahan tersebut, kami menceritakan bagaimana penggiat Makyong di selatan Thailand memancarkan beberapa pengaruh Thai ke dalam persembahan ini.

From Lay Depression Narratives to Secular Ritual Healing: An Online Ethnography of Mental Health Forums

The article aims at analysing online depression forums enabling lay reinterpretation and criticism of expert biomedical discourses. Firstly, two contrasting interpretations of depression are reconstructed: expert psy-discourses are confronted with the phenomenological descriptions of lay experiences, with a special emphasis on online forums as empirical platforms hosting such debates. After clarifying the general theoretical stakes concerning contested ‘depression narratives’, the results of an online ethnography are introduced: the main topics appearing in online discussions are summarised (analysing how the abstract tensions between lay and expert discourses appear in the actual discussions), along with the idealtypical discursive logics (analysing pragmatic advises, attempts of reframing self-narratives and expressions of unconditional recognition). Finally, based on these analyses an attempt is made to explore the latent functionality of online depression forums by referring to a secular ‘ritual healing’ existing as an unreflected, contingent potential.

The practice and plants used in Besale ritual healing by the Anak Dalam Tribe in Nyogan Village, Jambi, Indonesia

Asra R, Silalahi M, Fijridiyanto IA. 2020. The practice and plants used in Besale ritual healing by the Anak Dalam Tribe in Nyogan Village, Jambi, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 21: 4529-4536. The Anak Dalam Tribe (ADT) is an indigenous ethnic which inhabits the center of Sumatra, especially in Jambi and South Sumatra Provinces, Indonesia. The ADT communities still maintain their traditional rituals; one of them is the Besale ritual healing (BRH). This study aims to analyze the diversity of plants used in BRH by the ADT in Nyogan Village, Jambi Province, Indonesia. The study was conducted with an ethnobotany approach through surveys using interviews and participatory observations. The total number of informants was six persons, namely the leaders and performers of the BRH. The data were analyzed qualitatively using descriptive statistics. The BRH is carried out by a dukunorsidi (shaman), bujang pembayun (dancers), biduan (singers), and inang (assistant). They combine ritual and treatment simultaneously to cure people who have severe illnesses. There are 21 species belong to 20 genera and 12 families of plants used in the BRH. The plants are used to build a hall (place for the BRH), "bird" ornament, and offerings. The most widely used part of the plant is the flowers (34,61%). The plants used in the BRH are fresh materials, which are burned, smoked, hung, and eaten during the ritual.

The Return of the Dybbuk: Between Ritual Healing and Stage Performance

The two performative genres of the dybbuk constitute a reciprocal system—as a Jewish possession illness and as a canonical play. Tracking the two highlights the dialectical relationship between the dybbuk-as-illness and the Dybbuk-as-play. Dybbuk possession cases reemerged in Israel at the end of the 20th century; one new and highly publicized case in particular kindled opposing moral crusades.

Images of loneliness in Tuareg narratives of travel, dispersion, and return

This article examines how social, economic, and political upheavals in the Sahara have stimulated re-thinking about loneliness in relation to trauma from mobility, dispersion, and return home in communities of Tamajaq-speaking, Muslim, and semi-nomadic Tuareg in northern Niger and Mali. How do Tuareg, sometimes called Kel Tamajaq after their language, draw on and re-formulate longstanding and new ways of coping with loneliness in regional droughts and wars, which have driven many to alternately disperse from their communities and return to homes that are no longer the same? What is the connection between changing modes of travel, concepts of loneliness, and ways of coping with this experience? In these communities, loneliness is a recurrent theme in personal life histories—in particular, in narratives of both geographic travel and spiritual travel in medico-ritual healing—and is alluded to in poetry, song, and everyday conversation. This article explores the meanings of loneliness and ways of coping with it in this society through analysis of this emotion in symbol, subjective perception, and social experience. The focus is upon representations of loneliness in narratives by travelers who have confronted this emotion, and upon relevant Tamajaq terms often used to express loneliness: namely, essuf (the wild, solitude, and nostalgia); tamazai (approximately, a depression); and tarama (unrequited love), illustrating with cases and examples. More broadly, the article is guided by and builds on insights in psychological anthropology into emotion and affect as well as suffering and subjectivity.