Sax William
South Asia Institute
Transcult Psychiatry. 2014 Dec;51(6):829-49. doi: 10.1177/1363461514524472. Epub 2014 Feb 26.
Ritual healing is very widespread in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, and is by far the most common option for those with serious behavioral disturbances. Although ritual healing thus accounts for a very large part of the actual health care system, the state and its regulatory agencies have, for the most part, been structurally blind to its existence. A decade of research on in this region, along with a number of shorter research trips to healing shrines and specialists elsewhere in the subcontinent, and a thorough study of the literature, suggest that such techniques are often therapeutically effective. However, several considerations suggest that ritual healing may not be usefully combined with mainstream "Western" psychiatry: (a) psychiatry is deeply influenced by the ideology of individualism, which is incompatible with South Asian understandings of the person; (b) social asymmetries between religious healers and health professionals are too great to allow a truly respectful relationship between them; and (c) neither the science of psychiatry nor the regulatory apparatus of the state can or will acknowledge the validity of "ritual therapy"--and even if they did so, regulation would most likely destroy what is most valuable about ritual healing. This suggests that it is best if the state maintain its structural blindness to ritual healing.
仪式治疗在印度北阿坎德邦非常普遍，是目前有严重行为障碍者最常用的选择。尽管仪式治疗在实际医疗体系中占了很大一部分，但该邦及其监管机构在很大程度上一直对其存在视而不见。在该地区进行的十年研究，以及多次前往该次大陆其他地方的治疗圣地和专家处进行的短期调研，还有对相关文献的深入研究表明，此类治疗技术往往具有治疗效果。然而，有几点考虑表明仪式治疗可能无法与主流的“西方”精神病学有效结合：（a）精神病学深受个人主义意识形态的影响，这与南亚对人的理解不相容；（b）宗教治疗师与医疗专业人员之间的社会不对称太大，无法让他们建立真正相互尊重的关系；（c）精神病学科学和国家监管机构都无法也不会承认“仪式疗法”的有效性——即使承认，监管很可能会破坏仪式治疗最有价值的部分。这表明该邦最好对仪式治疗保持结构性的视而不见。
