lives and problems 105
more time to counsel patients. In fact, this therapist told me that he considers
the advice he gave Sreedevi and her mother to be a key factor in her recovery.
He was concerned that Sreedevi had been idle for fi ve years, not doing any
work at home. “I tactfully advised her mother to give her more duties,” he
recalled, explaining that her mother responded by assigning Sreedevi more
responsibilities.
Th e treatment Sreedevi underwent appeared to be helping. Th e fact that
Sreedevi’s desire to get married is making her impatient to fi nish treatment
is, I believe, cause to be optimistic about her future. But more importantly, the
mood and manner Biju and I observed on our follow-up interview showed us
that, as they say in Kerala, something had “changed” in Sreedevi for the better.
Mary and Her Mother: The Woman Who Wanted to Be a Nun
Mary is a 29-year-old Christian woman who was seeking treatment, accompan-
ied by her mother, at the Government Ayurveda Mental Hospital (GAMH).
When my assistant Benny and I met her, Mary was on her fourth visit to the
GAMH in three years, this time for attempting suicide by jumping into a well.
Her suicide attempt was a response to diffi culties that appeared to start when
her parents refused to allow her to become a nun.
Early in our interview, Mary explained “I got mental ‘tension’” (Enikku
manassinu tension vannu—literally, “mental tension came to me”)—invoking
an English-language term that has emerged in Kerala to designate emotional
distress. Mary did not go into further detail about how she experienced this
“tension,” and Mary’s mother intervened to describe the problem as she saw it:
Mother: One day when she was sad [vishamam], she came home laughing.Benny: She came home laughing.Mother: Yes. Th en one day she came home from work weeping. Th en we asked,
“Why are you sad, daughter? Why did you come home crying?” She did not
answer. Th en after that day when she would come home from work, she would
act strangely and show bahalam [agitation/tumult/throwing a fi t]. Th en we took
her to the hospital.Benny: When she was laughing like that, did she hit [things or people] and use
bad language?Mother: She swore and said that I was immoral and beat me.