Religio-Cultural Alternatives to Treatment for Mental Health Problems

Mental illness has long been associated with ‘external evil forces’ in numerous cultural and religious belief systems. Such frameworks suggest that both mental illness and personality disorders are due to a variety of causes including sinfulness, evil eye/jealousy, curses or the possession of the individual by demons/jinns (Hillier & Jewell, 1983; Rashid et al, 2012). Owing to their religio-cultural belief systems many choose to seek spiritual advice or ‘interventions’ from traditional faith/spiritual healers for psychiatric problems, either as a “first port of call” (Leavey, 2008 as cited in Rashid et al 2012:654) or as the sole treatment. Choice of treatment is both a reflection of people’s views of mental illness/ill health and of what is available to them (Sembhi & Dein, 1998). So this paper seeks to explore the motivations, expectations and perceived efficacy of ‘spiritual interventions’ from the perspective of those that seek such help.