9
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many people helped with the design, development and completion of this
project, and unfortunately I will only be able to name a few here. I fi rst
acknowledge my debt to my mentors at the Department of Anthropology
of the City University of New York (CUNY ) Graduate Center, Vincent
Crapanzano, Shirley Lindenbaum, Joan Mencher and Setha Low. Equally
crucial to this endeavor was the generous assistance of many in the mental
health fi eld in Kerala, India. Th is project would truly not have been pos sible
without the tireless assistance and devoted friendship of Dr. K. Gireesh,
clinical psychologist of the Trivandrum Mental Health Centre. Also fun-
damental to my fi eldwork eff orts and the development of my knowledge of
health and healing are Dr. V. George Mathew (Department of Psychology,
University of Kerala), Dr. K. Sundaran (Government Ayurveda Mental
Hospital, Kottakkal), Dr. John Baby (Department of Psychology, University
of Calicut) and Dr. K. A. Kumar (Trivandrum Medical College Hospital).
I am also greatly indebted to my research assistants, Kavitha N. S., T.R. “Biju”
Bijumohan and Benny Verghese for their insights and service and for making
the research process so much more enjoyable. Meanwhile, for making the early
phases of this project a more pleasant process, I am grateful for the support of
Hugo Benavides, Aseel Sawalha, Jonathan Shannon, Molly Doane, Kee Yong
and Alcira Forero-Peña. Earlier versions of this manuscript benefi ted greatly
from the insights of Th omas Csordas, Michael Nunley and Kevin Birth and
the thorough and thoughtful work of the anonymous reviewers of this project.
Finally, I profoundly appreciate the enthusiastic, hard-working staff of Left
Coast Press, especially their insightful and encouraging senior editor Jennifer
Collier, for their eff orts and support.