The views of a sample of Xhosa-speaking psychiatric nurses on traditional healing and its role in mental health care in South Africa are examined. We explore how the nurses manage apparent incompatibilities between their practice of Western psychiatry and the use of traditional healing services. Under normal circumstances this incongruity appears unproblematic for the respondents; these systems co-exist pluralistically in their experience. However, when questioned about the possible cooperation of these systems, respondents give views inconsistent with their pluralistic world-view and promote psychiatry’s hegemony. Implications for healthcare planning are discussed.
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