7.3 Emerging themes and subthemes
7.3.10 Theme 4: Views on causes of mental illness
This study has revealed that many causal factors are associated with mental illness in the view of traditional health practitioners. These factors include stressors, witchcraft due to revenge, disregard of an ancestral calling, witchcraft due to jealousy and inheritance of illness from the person named after. These factors are discussed further below.
Subtheme 1: Stressors
This study has uncovered that the symptoms similar to those in Case Study A are similar to those that result from stressors. The stressors that were reported may include the loss of a significant other on whom one may have depended. Mental illness is also
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understood as a condition that may also arise from separation in the form of divorce as shown in the extracts below:
“Sometimes you may have a child within your household. Then you will find that this child is the one who assist you in many ways. Is the one who works within the household? Then, the child dies.
When the child dies, there is no one who will assist you in the household. Then, you will start complaining, that if the child was still alive in this family, the child will be assisting with this and that.”
(Participant THP10)
”When your brain gets tired, your soul also gets tired. Now, Mologadi‟s situation may be caused by thinking too much, because of a “divorce”. (Participant THP11)
This serves to suggest that there are similarities in the conceptualisation of stress by traditional health practitioners and clinical psychologists alike.
Subtheme 2: Witchcraft due to revenge
Some of the participants have shown that the causations of mental illness may be as a result of revenge in the form of bewitchment due to the ill person's evil-doing. The person may fall ill as a result of revenge from the person he or she has bewitched.
When the bewitched person seeks help, they return a curse in the form of mental illness. The person who is cursed with mental illness then presents with symptoms similar to those of mental illness. At times, the curse may be placed on an individual for having stolen another person‟s belongings such as cattle or goods from the house. This is demonstrated in the extracts below.
“You may find that even Matome has stolen something from other people. Then, those people will do the way they know. If now you can steal all the herd of the cattle of someone, he will not leave you alone. He will try his best to do something wrong to you, in order to know who stole from him.” (Participant THP10)
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”Now, when they steal those people‟s things, when a person comes to you and say; here is a person who is stealing from me, what must I do to him? I am crying. A person took my phone.
When I try to talk to him, he does not want to understand me. He broke into my house when I was not there. I don‟t know who it is maybe. Sometimes he may bewitch me. Then, what do we do with him, we work on him.” (Participant THP9)
What is suggested above is that at times mental illness may be caused by bewitchment as a result of the perpetrator having stolen from the victim or bewitched the victim first.
Mental illness may therefore result from a curse that is placed as punishment on a person for wrongdoing.
Subtheme 3: Disregarding the ancestral calling
The participants of this study have reported that at times people present with symptoms similar to those of mental illness as a result of communication from the ancestors which they may disregard. That may include a calling to become a healer or a religious prophet as they may have been when they were still alive. When a person receives a calling from their ancestors to become a traditional healer or prophet, they often develop some health-related issues. When they go to seek help, the healers explain everything to them if it has anything to do with ancestral calling. When they disregard or ignore such a calling, they often fall ill, at times presenting with symptoms similar to those of mental illness. In such cases, they get relieved through being initiated into become traditional health practitioners or prophets. The extracts presented below illustrate this assertion.
“Ancestors sometimes we do not pay much attention to them.
Now, only to find that Matome is being troubled by his grandfather who was a member of an apostolic church who wants Matome to become a member of apostolic church. Then, you may find that his father does not care of taking him to other Apostle Prophets for medication so that he will start working in the way his grandfather
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was doing. So, if he does not get such assistance that is why he will do what he is doing now.” (Participant THP10)
“When Mologadi is the way she is, being possessed by ancestors, when those people wake up, coming to you in spirit, they talk to you and if you don‟t listen to them, they may cause you an illness in your body or mind. For you to be healed, you have to be initiated to carry out the duties they want you to carry.” (Participant THP7)
These assertions seem to suggest that symptoms of mental illness may result from ones‟ ignorance of the communication from the ancestors about the duties they want one to perform. The management of such symptoms follows the process of initiation into becoming a healer or prophet depending on what the ancestors want.
Subtheme 4: Witchcraft due to jealousy
As shown by the results of this study, people may at times present with symptoms that are suggestive of mental illness as a result of being bewitched due to jealousy. The jealousy may be caused by the realisation of one‟s ability to provide for their families.
Such jealousy may come from neighbours as they realise that one is working and able to provide for his or her family. That is reportedly done to spite his or her parents. This assertion is supported by the extracts that follow.
“We are so jealous. Sometimes you may find that he is working and assisting his mother. How possible can he assist that orphan?
Then, we bewitch him so that his mother must not succeed. Then his duties will be to chop off twigs of these trees or to beat the trees with fists.” (Participant THP10)
“You may find that sometimes a furniture car can stop right at the home. Then, the neighbour becomes angry; asking so many questions such as how does this child succeed in bringing a furniture car at the home.” (Participant THP12)
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This assertion strongly associates symptoms of mental illness with bewitchment as a result of jealousy. This is done to spite the ill person‟s parents as well as to destroy their future.
Subtheme 5: Inheritance of illness from the person named after
One participant has shown that the symptoms of mental illness may at times result from inheriting everything from the person you are named after, especially if they had a mental illness. If one is named after a person who had a mental illness, especially if he or she is deceased, they may later present with symptoms similar to those that the person they are named after had. The extract presented below supports this assertion.
“...at times we ask the grandfather to leave Matome alone because we do not deny the fact that Matome is renamed after him. So, please do not want him to do the same things as you were doing.” (Participant THP10)
This suggests that a person may inherit everything from the person they are named after, including symptoms of mental illness. This happens more often when the first bearer of the name is deceased.
7.3.11 Theme 5: The effectiveness of the western approach in the treatment of