58 chapter
the therapy focuses on giving advice, “moral caution” or talking about how to
deal with social problems related to the distress (246–258).
Th e more social orientation in India entitles the healer to become involved
in the patient’s life through giving advice, judging and, if necessary, scolding,
but this entitlement also derives from the hierarchical nature of the doctor-
patient relationship, which relates to the doctor’s professional and educational
prestige. In the case of Hamid whom the more senior Dr. Abdu reprimanded
for not taking proper care of his mother, age diff erence is a signifi cant factor in
the doctor-patient hierarchy.
In addition to the Government Ayurveda Mental Hospital, Dr. Sundaran’s
private practice and the Vaidyarathnam Oushadhasala, ayurvedic treatment of
psychopathology is also practiced by a few Namboodiri (Brahmin) families of
ayurvedic practitioners in Malappuram District, northern Kerala. One of these
families resides and practices at their large family estate, Poonkudil Mana,
which they converted into a clinic. Th ese vaidyans—an often-used classical
name for an ayurvedic physician, which is appropriate since these healers are
self-consciously “traditional”—learned ayurveda from family apprenticeship
rather than through study at a college, and they practice a style of ayurveda
that they say is more pure and traditional than that which is practiced at
most government and private institutions. Th eir techniques for healing psy-
chopathology, however, appeared to be quite similar to those employed at
the Government Ayurveda Mental Hospital, which is about 20 miles away,
although they make their own medicines, and they supplement their medical
care with the practice of mantravādam (“magic/sorcery”). No other ayurvedic
physicians I met claimed they had this capability of using mantravādam,
and some explicitly condemned this claim as irrational and contrary to what
they see as the scientifi c spirit of ayurveda. Th us, while healers at Poonkudil
Mana performed rites to remove malign magical infl uences, other ayurvedic
healers preferred to disabuse patients about their beliefs in possession and
mantravādam. Mantravādam is normally practiced by esoteric ritual specialists
who are available in many communities, and diff ers from forms of healing that
appeal to the divine at temples, mosques and churches.
Allopathic Psychiatry
Along with “English medicine” and “modern medicine,” “allopathy” is one of
the most commonly used terms in India for the medical system that is also
known as “biomedicine,” “Western medicine,” or “cosmopolitan medicine.”
“Allopathy” also best characterizes this medical practice in relation to ayurveda