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How spiritual healing works: emic and etic points of view Monday, February 4th, 2002

How spiritual healing works: emic and etic points of view Monday, February 4th, 2002. Emic etiologies of sickness, 1. Going to a diviner or specialist Failure to control spirit possession response: “domesticate” spirit Unsettled relations with the dead neglect ( response: make offerings )

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How spiritual healing works: emic and etic points of view Monday, February 4th, 2002

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  1. How spiritual healing works: emic and etic points of viewMonday, February 4th, 2002

  2. Emic etiologies of sickness, 1 • Going to a diviner or specialist • Failure to control spirit possession • response: “domesticate” spirit • Unsettled relations with the dead • neglect (response: make offerings) • breaking ancestral rules (response: perform sacrifice) • soul-loss • response: seek out and retrieve soul

  3. Emic etiologies of sickness, 2 • Attacks by evil spirits, witches • response: send spirits to battle attackers; identify witches and neutralize • exposure to evil eye, negative energies/fluids • response: sweep away evil fluids • intrusive sorcery attacks • response: extract the evil intrusions

  4. Etic 1: psycho-analytic theory • Psychoanalyst Thomas Scheff’s theory, advanced in his Catharsis in Healing, Ritual and Drama (1979) • Applying theory to Dale’s case • Example from Professor Burdick’s own experience

  5. Etic 2: theory of placebo effect • From Latin placere, “to please” • any positive physiological effect of an intervention that results from the patient’s belief in the power of the intervention. • Frank (1985) estimates that 40-60% of effectiveness of biomedicine due to placebo

  6. Placebo effects • Pain reduction (Lewis, Gordon, and Field 1988) • lowered anxiety associated with increased pain tolerance, and with release of endogenous endorphins (analgesics) • Heightened immune response (Akil and Watson 1978) • lowered anxiety reduces blood pressure • lowered blood pressure enhances ability to fight infection and absorb vitamins and minerals • Further reading: Michael Jospe, The Placebo Effect in Healing (Heath, 1978)

  7. Etic 3: Sociological theory • Effects of gathering together supporters • reduction of feelings of isolation and helplessness decrease stress and anxiety, alleviate symptoms (McGuire 1989) • Effects of perceived alteration in behavior of significant others • Social stressor (in-laws’ disapproval) removed from barren Ndembu woman

  8. What if the healer fails to heal? • The offending spirit may be unexpectedly tenacious; a healer with a solid reputation will not lose it • the healer may not yet be sufficiently well-developed • the initial diagnosis may have been faulty: other diagnoses will be tried (e.g., a curse; spell; witchcraft; wrath of a nature or house spirit, the anger of an ancestor) • healer may be deemed incompetent

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