A comparative study of the psychiatric practice of a tantrik healer and a hospital out-patient clinic in the Kathmandu Valley

Abstract

SynopsisThis paper summarizes the information gathered from healer and hospital patients consulting for mental illness in the Kathmandu Valley. While the tantrik healer appeared to be emulating the hospital in the speed and impersonality with which patients were processed, healer patients appeared to enjoy a greater degree of family support than did hospital patients.