A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Four Healing Models

Although Western medicine has tended to ignore other systems of preventing and treating disease and illness, practitioners of these systems serve more of the world's population than do allopathic practitioners. This paper contrasts allopathy with Chinese medicine, curanderismo, and a Native American healing system, using a 12-facet model. It points out the importance of knowing about alternative models of healing, especially in regard to religious and spiritual problems, in a multicultural society.

A cross-cultural comparison of four healing models.

Although Western medicine has tended to ignore other systems of preventing and treating disease and illness, practitioners of these systems serve more of the world's population than do allopathic practitioners. This paper contrasts allopathy with Chinese medicine, curanderismo, and a Native American healing system, using a 12-facet model. It points out the importance of knowing about alternative models of healing, especially in regard to religious and spiritual problems, in a multicultural society.

Postmodern and cross-cultural perspectives on mind and body.

New conceptualizations of the so-called "mind/body problem" have resulted from research findings in psychoneuroimmunology, from theoretical speculations of the postmodernists, and from an examination of other cultural perspectives on "mind" and "body". The interaction between the two may lead to a wholistic perspective not unlike the one proposed by humanistic psychologists and appearing in their journals, their conferences, and their clinical practice.

Some contributions of native healers to knowledge about the healing process.

In recent years, the work of shamans and other native healers has been investigated to ascertain what relevance it might have to contemporary health care. These contributions appear to cluster around four basic components of healing. A shared world view that makes the diagnosis possible; certain personal qualities of the practitioner that appear to facilitate the client's recovery; positive client expectations that assist the healing process; a sense of mastery that empowers the client.

Gender differences and geographical differences in content from dreams elicited by a television announcement.

We studied 108 male and 110 female dreams that had been collected in response to a television announcement. We did not find a number of gender differences that had been previously reported. We found no difference between men's and women's dreams in the amount of aggression, friendliness, sexuality, male characters, weapons, or clothes. However, women's dreams still contained a higher number of family members, babies, children, and indoor settings than did men. We also looked at geographic differences, finding that while patterns of aggression did not distinguish men from women, they did distinguish residents of different areas. In dreams in which the dreamer was either the aggressor or victim, dreamers from the East coast were more likely to be the aggressor than those from the Midwest and West coast.

Multi-cultural methods of treating Vietnam veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

In this article, a review of the various methods of treating Vietnam veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder is presented. In addition, a detailed illustrative case study is given.