Curanderos and Mental Health Professionals: A Comparative Study on. Perceptions of Psychopathology

Abstract

Curanderos and mental health care professionals differ in the way they perceive psychopathology, as demonstrated in the way they responded to a set of hypothetical case histories. These vignettes depicted people suffering from a variety of psychiatric and folk-medical disorders. Compared with professionals, cur anderos were found to be reluctant to label the disorders as "mental illness." They also perceived the people portrayed in the vignettes as less seriously "ill" and less dangerous to them selves or to others. The curanderos were found to classify the disorders presented in a unique and culturally specific way. Their classification system was seen to be consistent with cul turally relevant ideas and beliefs about etiological processes. A variety of treatments based on those etiological processes were also recommended by the curanderos.

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