Global Mental Therapy

Abstract

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.