Am J Psychiatry 1990; 147:221-224
Copyright © 1990 by American Psychiatric Association
Witch doctors and mental illness in mainland China: a preliminary study
SX Li and MR Phillips
Shashi Psychiatric Hospital, Shashi, Hubei, People's Republic of China.
This study, the first report on witch doctors in the People's Republic of
China, found that most witch doctors are poorly educated peasants who
perform healing rituals as a part-time occupation. Despite being officially
illegal, folk healing practices are flourishing in the countryside: 73.9%
(N = 286 of 387) of psychiatric outpatients from rural areas and 70.5% (N =
43 of 61) of mentally ill persons identified in a rural community admitted
to consulting witch doctors. These findings indicate an urgent need to
systematically assess the beneficial and detrimental effects of these
practices on China's health care system.
