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3 Lives and Problems
People in Kerala who visit psychiatrists and other healers for mental prob-
lems struggle with a variety of pressures, challenges and expectations. Th ey
struggle to fi nd the right marriage partner, they worry about doing well in
school in a highly competitive educational environment and many continue
to be burdened by the stresses and deprivations they endured when they
worked as migrant laborers in the Persian Gulf. Th ese people go from psy-
chiatric hospitals to religious healing centers, and vice versa, seeking help
for their problems. Th ey visit healing centers such as Beemapalli mosque,
the Government Ayurveda Mental Hospital (GAMH) and the Trivandrum
Medical College Hospital, and if they do not fi nd a complete “cure,” they
often fi nd a way of getting relief—or they discover a more satisfying way of
living with their problems.
While I was getting to know the world of health and illness in Kerala, the
prospect of presenting information about this world in a way that aligns with
the theoretical interests of social science seemed like doing violence to the
complex reality of people’s lives in Kerala, a sentiment many ethnographers
develop during fi eldwork. Th e breadth of issues encountered in working with
people who suff er mental problems cannot be conveyed in a single academic
study, but with the patient narratives as the axis around which this chapter
turns, it is possible to present a broader depiction of Kerala culture and every-
day life and the multiple and cross-cutting factors that underlie problems of
psychopathology.