In the article "What a Shaman Sees in a Mental Hospital" by Stephanie Marohn recounts Dr. Some's experience with the U.S. treatment of mental disorders. Dr. Some is a shaman from the Dagaaba ethnicity group from Africa. They believe in the existence of psychic phenomena to explain mental disorders, whereas the U.S. believes it is an illness that needs to be treated. The stark difference shocked Dr. Some when he first went to the U.S.. It is interesting to see such different perspectives emerge from different cultures. One factor could be attributed to the strong sense of religion among the Dagara people which makes heavily depend on religion throughout their lives, making them more easily acceptable to the idea of psychic phenomena. However, this is also simply my own opinion as someone who was raised in the west with a mostly western mindset. I even find it difficult for myself to believe in any psychic phenomena. I even had a difficult time believing in hypnosis when I was watching a hypnotist show. Mental disorders could simply be when one's reality does not fit with the
majority's. Almost no one experiences the same reality, but they are all similar in that we are still able to understand one another. However, those with mental disorders experience such different realities that the majority has difficulty in understanding them, and most people take minimal effort to try to understand them that they immediately deem them as "crazy" and either place them in a mental institute or prescribe harmful drugs.
References
Mahron, S. (2014, September 07). What a Shaman Sees in A Mental Hospital. Retrieved from https://themindunleashed.com/2014/08/shaman-sees-mental-hospital.html
[Photo of a Korean Shaman
mudang] Retrieved from http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/photo/200910/313_451_207.jpg.
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