Diagnosis and distress in Navajo healing.
In contemporary Navajo society, traditional Navajo ceremonies, Native American Church prayer meetings, and Navajo Christian faith healing are all highly sought-after resources in the everyday pursuit of health and well-being. What is the nature of affliction among patients who turn to such forms of religious healing? Are these patients typically afflicted with psychiatric disorder? In this article we discuss 84 Navajo patients who participated in the Navajo Healing Project during a period in which they consulted one of these forms of healing. We present diagnostic results obtained from the Structured Clinical Interview for DSMIV (SCID) administered to these patients. We then present an ethnographically augmented analysis comparing the research diagnosis obtained via the SCID with a clinical diagnosis, with the diagnosis given by religious healers, and with the understanding of their own distress on the part of patients. These analyses demonstrate how a cultural approach contributes to the basic science and clinical understandings of affliction as well as to discussion of the advantages and limitations of DSM categories as descriptors of distress and disorder.
Csordas
Thomas J
TJ
Department of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0532, USA. tcsordas@ucsd.edu
Storck
Michael J
MJ
Strauss
Milton
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D002562:Ceremonial Behavior; D002835:Christianity; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D029221:Faith Healing / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D008635:Mescaline; D008875:Middle Aged; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D015206:Southwestern United States; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation
D008635:Mescaline