three therapies of south india 89
- Satya Pal Gupta in his thesis on psychopathology and ayurveda observed,
“Unfortunately, except a few, most of physicians in Indian medicine do not fol-
low the pañchakarmas of samśodhana [the full name of panchakarma]. In some
provinces, like Kerala, this therapy is still prevalent and is used in treating the
somatic and psychosomatic diseases successfully” (1977: 435). - Th is and most other conversations with healers occurred in English, the language
of training in ayurvedic colleges and other professional institutes in India. - For further details on the characteristics and physiological eff ects (as understood
by ayurveda and Western-style clinical research) of these medicinal plants see
Sivarajan and Balachandran (1994). - Panikar and Soman (1984), Nirmala (1997) and Ramachandran (2000: 88–93).
- See also Roland’s (1988) work on individualism, the role of the family and psy-
chotherapy in the United States, India and Japan. - Vaidyanathan (1989: 161).
- Th e State Planning Board report uses the term “Modern Medicine,” but I use
“allopathy” for consistency. - For example, Obeyesekere (1985) and Kleinman (1988).
- Nichter and Nordstrom (1989), Nunley (1996).
- Th e World Trade Organization requires all member states to guarantee product
patents for all products. India’s earlier patent law provided an exemption from
product patents for food and medications, protecting only the processes for mak-
ing these products but not the products themselves. Th is section of the law was
modifi ed in 2005 to conform to WTO requirements. Legal struggles have emerged
over the implementation of the new law and some drugs are grandfathered and
will continue to be produced in India, but in the near future Indian companies will
be required to discontinue production of many medications, driving up drug prices
for consumers in this part of the world (Halliburton, in press). - Th e rate of use of ECT in the United States was around 3% of psychiatric admis-
sions between 1975 and 1986, although a 1993 study of patients who received a
diagnosis of recurrent major depression revealed that 9.4% received ECT (Rudorfer
et al. 2003: 1867, citing Olfson et al. 1998). Among the patients I interviewed in
Kerala, the rate is around 5 to 10%. It should be noted that the last two decades
have seen a resurgence in the use of ECT in the United States, after a decline in
popularity in the 1970s (Rudorfer et al. 2003: 1867). Nunley (1998) observed a
relatively high rate of use of ECT in Uttar Pradesh in North India, and Shukla
(1989) claims that the rate of use of ECT in India is higher than in “the West.” - Compiled from Vaidyanathan (1988) and conversations with temple priests.
- See Eck (1998) on the meaning of darśan and the particularly visual character of
much of Hindu religious practice. - For example, Members of Parliament have been taking the drug to increase
memory and alertness (Nadkarni, Feb. 16, 1997). - See Ong (1987) on factory women in Malaysia, Boddy (1989) on the Hofriyati in
Sudan, Skultans (1991) on Maharashtra, India and Pandolfi (1993) on southern
Italy. Nabokov (2000: 72–73) explains that in nearby Tamil Nadu, it is new brides
who are especially at risk of becoming possessed, and that most possessing spirits
she encountered were young men who had taken their lives because of unrequited
love or families obstructing their marriage plans. - See Pfl eiderer (1988) and Ewing (1997).