three therapies of south india 55
Although I frequently compare ayurvedic and allopathic medical practices,
these two systems of therapy should not be considered radically distinct. An
emphasis on the use of pharmacopeia to treat psychopathology is shared by
both systems, and ayurveda even seems to have infl uenced allopathy some-
what in this area. Th e ayurvedic use of Rauwolfi a serpentina (an ingredient
in the “special powder” mixture described above) for mentally ill patients was
adopted by allopathic psychiatry after researchers in India introduced this
medicine to the allopathic medical community in 1931 (Sen and Bose 1931).
After the alkaloid reserpine was identifi ed as the active ingredient in Rauwolfi a
serpentina, psychiatrist Nathan Kline tested this substance on patients at a
New York state psychiatric hospital (Kline 1954), and established it as “the
fi rst compound to become available as an eff ective antipsychotic” in allopathic
medicine (Kaplan and Sadock 1995). Both ayurvedic and allopathic healers
also emphasize the importance of talk therapy, although many lament that
they do not have suffi cient time to thoroughly engage in this type of therapy
in their busy practices.
Although ayurvedic psychiatrists spend more time talking about medicines
and physiological interventions such as talapodichil in describing their meth-
ods of therapy, many say they consider the counseling they provide to be a
crucial element of treatment. Dr. Sundaran asserted that, “With counseling
alone, I can manage more than 60 percent of complaints,” yet talk therapy or
psychotherapy was not often employed in the treatment sessions I observed
in allopathy, ayurveda or religious therapies, especially in government-run
facilities. When working at clinics and hospitals, allopathic psychiatrists and
psychologists see many patients and have little time to spend with each one,
and ayurvedic physicians are under similar pressures in such settings. During
private consultations, however, patients who can aff ord it receive a longer ses-
sion with the therapist. Th is problem is not limited to India or other low-
income settings. Institutional and resource constraints in many sectors of the
U.S. health care system limit mental health practitioners from providing the
kind of treatment they feel is necessary (Rhodes 1991, Young 1995).
Ayurvedic practitioners engage in a style of psychological counseling that
diff ers from Western-style psychotherapy in some of its premises and pro-
cedures. Clinical psychology or Western-style psychotherapy emphasizes
exploring past events, and the therapeutic encounter takes the form of a
doctor-patient dialogue in which, probably due to a more individualistic ori-
entation, the patient does much or most of the speaking and the ther apist
avoids giving advice. Western psychotherapy is formalized and institution-
alized, and features explicit methods that are taught in training institutes.
Ayurvedic psychotherapy is not taught through a formal pedagogy although