The health care system in South Africa is primarily located within the hegemonic biomedical model. The passing of the Traditional Health Practitioners Act No. 22 of 2007 paved the way for approximately 200,000 traditional healers to be formally recognized and integrated into the health care system, thus challenging the status quo. This exploratory study seeks to explore trainee and registered psychologists' perceptions about indigenous healing and its formal recognition within the existing health care infrastructure. Unstructured individual and focus group interviews were used to gather the data, which were then analysed using thematic content analysis. The results indicate that registered psychologists hold more positive views about indigenous healing compared to trainee psychologists and are more likely to collaborate with traditional healers in their work. The implications of these findings are discussed.
AhmedR.PillayA. L. (2004). Reviewing clinical psychology in the post-apartheid period: Have we made any progress?South African Journal of Psychology, 34, 630–656.
2.
AlbeeG. W. (1998). Fifty years of clinical psychology: Selling our soul to the devil. Applied and Preventive Psychology, 7, 189–194.
American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.) (DSM IV). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
5.
American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Text Revision (4th ed.) (DSM IV-TR). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
6.
BodibeR. C. (1992). Traditional healing: an indigenous approach to mental health problems. In UysJ. (Ed.), Psychological counselling in the South African context, (pp. 149–165). Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman.
7.
ColemanV. (1985). The story of medicine. London: Robert Hale.
8.
Department of Health. (2004). The Traditional Health Practitioners Bill of 2003. Republic of South Africa: Retrieved September 27, 2004, from http://www.doh.gov.za/docs/index.html.
FreemanM. (1992). Recognition and registration of traditional healers: Possibilities and problems. Unpublished manuscript. University of Witwatersrand: Johannesburg.
11.
GrahamE. A.DomotoP. K.LynchH.EgbertM. A. (2000). Dental injuries due to African traditional therapies for diarrhea. Western Journal of Medicine, 173, 135–137.
12.
GreenJ.ThorogoodN. (2004). Qualitative methods for health research. London: Sage Publications.
13.
HelmanC. G. (2001). Culture, health and illness (4th ed). London: Arnold.
14.
HowarthC.FosterJ.DorrerN. (2004). Exploring the potential of the theory of social representations in Community based health research and vice versa. Journal of Health Psychology, 9, 229–243.
15.
HughesC. C. (1985). Culture-bound or constract-bound?. In SimonsR. C.HughesC. C. (Eds.), The culture-bound syndromes. Folk illnesses of psychiatric and anthropological interest (pp. 3–24). Dordrecht: D. Riedel Publishing Company.
16.
KellermanF.ThindisaM. (1998). Oral submission to the parliamentary committee on traditional healers and the health care system. Retrieved August 30, 2004, from http://www.dfl.org.za/issues/trad_healing&hcs.htm.
17.
KleinmanA. (1996). How is culture important for DSM IV. In MezzichJ. E.KleinmanA.FabregaH.ParronD. L. (Eds), Culture and psychiatric diagnosis. A DSM IV perspective (pp. 15–29). Washington: American Psychiatric Press.
18.
KorberI. (1990). Indigenous healers in a future mental health system: A case for cooperation. Psychology in Society, 14, 47–62.
19.
KubukeliP. S. (1999). Traditional healing practice using healing herbs. The Lancet, 354, S24.
20.
MayekisoT.StrydomF.JithooV.KatzL-A. (2004). Creating new capacity through post-graduate selection. South African Journal of Psychology, 34, 657–671.
21.
MkhizeN. (2004). Psychology: An African perspective. In HookD.MkhizeN.KiguwaP.BurmanE.ParkerI. (Eds.), Critical psychology (pp. 24–52). Cape Town: UCT Press.
22.
MkhwanaziS. (2007). Traditional healers Bill rumpus. Mercury, 21 September.
23.
MoscoviciS. (1984). The phenomenon of social representations. In FairR.MoscoviciS. (Eds.), Social Representations (pp. 3–69). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
24.
NgubaneH. (1977). Body and mind in Zulu medicine. London: Academic Press.
25.
PatelC. J.ShikongoA. E. E. (2006). Handling spirituality/religion in professional training: Experiences of a sample of Muslim Psychology students. Journal of Religion and Health, 45, 93–112.
26.
PedersenP. (1999). Culture-centered interventions as a fourth dimension of Psychology. In PedersenP. (Ed.), Multiculturalism as a fourth force (pp. 3–18). London: Brunner/Mazel.
27.
PillayB. J. (1996). A model of help-seeking behaviour for urban Blacks. South African Journal of Psychology, 26, 4–9.
28.
PillayA. L.KramersA. L. (2003). South African clinical psychology, employment (in) equity and the “brain-drain”. South African Journal of Psychology, 33, 52–60.
29.
PretoriusE. (1999). Traditional Healers. South African Health Review, 249–256. Durban: Health Systems Trust.
SamD. L.MoreiraV. (2002). The mutual embeddedness of culture and mental illness. In LonnerW. J.DinnelD. L.HayesS. A.SattlerD. N. (Eds.), Online readings in psychology and culture (Unit 9, Chapter 1), Retrieved October 30, 2005, from http://www.wwu.edu/∼culture.
32.
SmithP. B.BondM. H. (1998). Social psychology across cultures. London: Prentice-Hall.
33.
SueD. W.ArredondoP.McDavisR. J. (1992). Multicultural counseling competencies and standards: A call to the profession. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 20, 644–688.
34.
SwartzL. (1998). Culture and mental health. A Southern African perspective. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
35.
SwartzL. (1999). Multiculturalism and mental health in a changing Africa. In PedersenP. (Ed.), Multiculturalism as a fourth force (pp. 93–109). London: Brunner/Mazel.
TehO. H. (1998). The role of traditional medical practitioners in the context of the African traditional concept of health & healing. Paper presented at the international mental health workshop. Retrieved May 25, 2004, from http://www.globalconnections.co.uk/pdfs/HealersMentalHealth.pdf.
38.
TerreBlanche M.KellyK. (1999). Interpretive methods. In TerreBlanche M.DurrheimK. (Eds.), Research in practice. Applied methods for the social sciences (pp. 123–146). Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press.
39.
TysonG. A. (1987). An introduction to psychology: A South African perspective. Johannesburg: Westro Educational Books.
40.
VersiA. (2001). Cancer cure from African traditional medicine found. African Business, 266, 15.
41.
World Health Organization (2006). The World Health Report 2006 — working together for change. Retrieved 4 January, 2010, from http://www.who.int/whr/2006/en/.
42.
WhiteG. M.MarsellaA. J. (1982). Introduction. In MarsellaA. J.WhiteG. M. (Eds.), Cultural conceptions of mental health and therapy (pp. 1–38). Dordrecht: D. Riedel Publishing Company.
43.
YehC. J.HunterC. D.Madan-BahelA.ChiangL.AroraA. K. (2004). Indigenous and interdependent perspectives of healing: Implications for counseling and research. Journal of Counseling and Development, 82, 410–419.
