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Mother: I read about this treatment in the paper and brought her here.Biju: Are you doing the previous and current treatments at the same time?Mother: No. But they are still giving a pill called “Hexidol.”Biju: Did you have the same symptoms during the previous treatment?Mother: Yes.Biju: Th e previous doctor and the current doctor. Do you agree with the way they
understood the illness?Mother: Th e two are about the same. I feel they were the “same.” Do the two
doctors have the same view? Is that what you mean?Biju: Th at’s it.Contrary to studies of “hierarchy of resort,” or what therapies people use in
diff erent contexts, which have found that patients resort to allopathy later in
the course of therapy-seeking, an overwhelming majority of my informants
in Kerala fi rst sought relief from allopathy.^6 Th is pattern of therapy seeking
may relate to the fact that allopathic care is widely available in Kerala, and its
virtues are promoted through the media.^7
Th e allopathic doctor Sreedevi originally consulted for stomach pain referred
her to an allopathic psychiatrist, who prescribed medication. Th e problem con-
tinued despite this treatment, and Sreedevi and her mother sought assistance
from an ayurvedic therapist. Th is is a common scenario. Most people I met at
non-allopathic treatment centers had previously tried allopathy and switched
treatments when their problem returned. Th ose who changed therapies did not
do so only out of concern that their condition had not suffi ciently improved.
Like many Malayalis who choose ayurvedic treatment, Sreedevi’s mother says
she prefers ayurveda partly because she believes that it has fewer side eff ects
than allopathic treatment.
In the preceding excerpt, Sreedevi’s mother identifi es her daughter’s
problem as explicitly mental (manassikamāyittulla), which runs counter to
current research that claims to have found non-Western peoples expressing
distress primarily through the body. People in Kerala demonstrate a con-
cern for states of mind and consciousness that is informed by a phenom-
enological orientation that values the more intangible aspects of the person.
Examining discourses of consciousness, body and self in terms of a local phe-
nomenological orientation yields a more nuanced and complete depiction of