The 'psychic surgeon' and the schizophrenic patient: crisis in a 'medicodrama'.

This paper is concerned with a Filipino 'psychic surgeon' confronted by a particularly challenging case of a kind perhaps unprecedented in his practice. The paper describes and analyzes how the practitioner modified his usual clinical performance and adapted his actions to demands of an extremely difficult situation. The case is viewed in wider perspective relative to the significance of performative acts of healing in a pluralistic medical setting.