112 chapter
Mother: She will tell me I’m not her mother. She will tell me to go away, and she
will say that I am not her mother.Benny: Do you want me to ask your mother to leave so that I can ask you some
personal questions?Mary: Th ere’s nothing. I don’t have anything to say.On a few other occasions during this interview, Mary brought up a com-
plaint or accusation and then retracted it. Th is reveals a pragmatic feature of this
interview. What seemed signifi cant was that these were moments when Mary
asserted herself most. For example, she grabbed her mother’s and our attention
and controlled the conversation in the preceding encounter. Th is momentary
assertion of power may, like her bahalam outbursts, be an attempt to feel she has
some control, some voice within this family that did not let her follow her call-
ing. However, the fact that Mary at times made assertions only to retract them
makes one wonder how performative or manipulative some of her earlier accus-
ations might have been. Ultimately, Mary was hard to read. Sometimes her
manner was dramatic and attention-seeking, but she also appeared genuinely
distressed. She alternated between appearing to be a victim and a manipulator.
Like all the ayurvedic patients we interviewed, Mary was discharged at the
end of the 45-day treatment period. Mary and her mother did not respond
to our follow-up inquiry, which we sent by mail. We did not see Mary or her
mother again, nor did we hear that she was readmitted to the GAMH. Benny
and I hope that no news is good news.
Abdul-Rahman: Homesick in the Gulf, Unhappy at Home
Abdul-Rahman is a 29-year-old, Muslim man who was seeking allopathic
psychiatric treatment as an outpatient at the Trivandrum Medical College
accompanied by his brother and sister. Biju and I interviewed Abdul-Rahman
alone at the Medical College psychiatric outpatient center, and afterward
we had an informal conversation alone with his brother and sister. Abdul-
Rahman, who like Sreedevi had studied up to his Secondary School Leaving
Certifi cate, was employed in Kerala as a newspaper distributor and also spent
time working in Mumbai and the Persian Gulf. Abdul-Rahman returned from
the Gulf because he felt homesick, but after returning he became restless, had
trouble sleeping and felt vishamam (sadness/depression). Abdul-Rahman
tried allopathic psychiatry, homeopathy and a Japanese healing system called
“Okiyama” to cope with his problems.