All the individuals, their families and ancestors, without whose help and faith I would not have experienced the richness of Traditional African Healing;. The goals of such investigations were often not for the benefit of the African people themselves, to provide them with effective mental health services, but to test the evolution of mental health care systems (Buhrmann, 1984; Jung, 1964).
Justification for the Research
Methodology
Definitions
Delimitations of Scope
Due to the significant overlap in the beliefs of different African cultures, this study is generalizable to all sub-Saharan Africans. There is a lack of comparison with Western cultures due to the lack of data on the role of the dead or ancestors, and the lack of a comprehensive theory to evaluate both the universality and variability of this phenomenon in these cultures.
Conclusion and Implications
Despite these limitations, the need for research on the question of ancestry and their role in psychopathology is urgent and cannot be postponed forever.
Outline of the Dissertation
Introduction
The second part is about Western psychotherapies and the underlying assumptions on which they are based. The first part looks at the cultural framework of the African approach to healing, while the second part looks at the cultural framework of Western psychotherapies and how this relates to the problem under investigation.
The African Approaches to Healing
African Concept of Self
As part of the family, the presence of the living dead is experienced authentically as the participation of the invisible world in the world of the living (Ela, 1995). Understanding the role the living dead play in the African family system is crucial to the setting.
African Concepts of Health and Sickness
In general, illness or misfortune seems to be seen as symbolic expressions of broken relationships between the living and the dead-living. Associating health problems with the living dead must have implications for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses or problems for people of African descent seeking psychotherapy.
African Approach to Healing
Traditional rituals that would be performed to re-establish a normal relationship would be ritual slaughter and drinking beer to commune with the ancestors (Berglund, 1976). They are believed to be in direct communication with the ancestors and thus with the entire spiritual realm (Berglund, 1976).
Western Psychotherapies
- Western World Views
- Western Concept of Self
- Ancestors
- Western Concepts of Health and Sickness
- Western Psychotherapeutic Approaches to Healing
Various conceptualizations of the self in Western cultures have implications for understanding the role and manifestations of the dead living in the lives of their living relatives. The conceptualization of ancestors in Western psychotherapies therefore has implications for understanding the role of the dead in the African family system, depending on the level each therapy focuses on.
Ancestors in other Cultures
Their socio-cultural structure provides rituals that symbolically strengthen kinship interactions and communication with the spirit world (Klass, 1996). Traditional healing elements are also found in second and third generation Indian-Americans and Japanese (ibid.).
Conclusion
This conflict calls for investigation into manifestations of the presence and role of the dead living in the lives of their living relatives. The role of the dead-living is a subtle but important psychosocial aspect of African culture.
Research Design
Research Questions
According to Gyekye, any task of strengthening the values of the community will be meaningless if it does not emphasize the need to strengthen family ties, because the fragmentation of the community has its origin in the fragmentation of the family, and the character of individuals degenerates as a result of the fragmentation of family and subsequent family ties. How is the presence and role of the dead-living or ancestors manifested and how are these manifestations negotiated within the African cultural context. The literature review supports the importance of the study's focus and will be used to validate the study's eventual findings.
Research Methods
- Participant Observation
- Case Studies
The other form of follow-up check was to present a garment of one member of the family to the traditional healer of good reputation for assessment. Most of the participants were formally trained traditional healers who had formed themselves into an association. The follow-up of the outcome of the process is mainly from the two coordinators and some participants who met the researcher a month later.
Question of Researcher Bias
The researcher was invited by one of the two coordinators in consultation with the committee to facilitate this renewal process as a follow-up to the one she facilitated six months earlier. The researcher met with the committee on Friday afternoon to plan the timetable for the process. To determine validity and promote reliability of the data collection method, cases were selected in which the researcher collaborated with other traditional African healers.
Generalizability and Transferability
With the help of one of her sisters, the index person (eldest daughter), prepared the candle holders according to the number of guests invited to the house. The index person took the marked candles and had two other members of the family. The researcher arrived at the annual meeting place of the traditional healers on Friday afternoon to facilitate the renewal process.
Unheeded Signs
Symbols are tangible and visible signs of the presence and responses of the living dead during ritual performance. For example, a rose branch was a symbol used by the mother's ancestors to communicate in the first case study. In the second case study, the ancestors used a piece of clothing to communicate, and in the third case study, the ancestors used some of the participants' restlessness and disunity to communicate.
Interpretation of the Events Within African Cultural Context
Introduction
- Redressive Mechanisms
- Use of Symbols
- Redressive Mechanisms
- Use of Symbols
- Unheeded Signs
While the living participants could be seen physically, the presence of the dead could only be represented symbolically. At the time of the ritual events, except for the traditional healer who was expected to understand the language of ancestors or the dead, the family members did not know this language. The reaction of the burning candles and the goat during the reconciliation ritual can be interpreted as the reaction of the.
Case 3
- Pressure Tactics
- Redressive Mechanisms
- Use of Symbols
- Unheeded Signs
Second, symbols are indicators of the presence and participation of ancestors or the dead, whether or not these symbols are understood (Berglund, 1976). In this context, these negative characteristics can be interpreted as a pressure tactic by the ancestors to draw attention to the fact that they are still outside the Church since their ban. The atmosphere of singing and clapping during the slaughter of the goat can be interpreted as a symbol of the establishment of a spirit of harmony between the Catholic Church and the dead, and the willingness of the ancestors to participate in the rejoicing and feasting that followed the ritual.
Interpretation of Events within Wester-oriented Psychological Context
Introduction
The researcher did not always recognize the language that the ancestors used to communicate or express their needs within the context in which such communication or expression was made. For example, when the planning committee wanted to keep the goat versus the sheep for ritual slaughter, she did not understand the symbolic significance of this incident. When some members wanted to exclude others by requesting that those who did not go through the "ukuthwasa" process stay out, she did not heed the symbolic meaning of the qualified versus the unqualified, that is the two religion story which Milingo (1985) talks about.
Case 1
- Pressure Tactics
- Redressive Mechanisms
- Use of Symbols
- Redressive Mechanisms
- Use of Symbols
- Redressive Mechanisms
- Use of Symbols
- Unheeded Signs
According to the systems perspective, the index person can be seen as the place of the family. At the relational level, the symptom manifestations in the three case studies can be seen as communicative metaphors. The rituals performed in the three case studies can be seen as archaic psychological processes.
Introduction
Aim of the Research
Research Problem and Sub-problems
Three sub-problems formulated were: How was the role of dead ancestors or living dead manifested and negotiated within the African cultural context; Can ancestors or living dead complicate the diagnosis and treatment of psychological health problems if their role is not considered or can they facilitate diagnosis and treatment if considered. If so, how do ancestors act as a diagnostic medium and how can they be included as a context for treatment? And what is the psychological meaning of the role of the living dead or ancestors in the African family system.
Research Design
Unexpected Outcomes
In light of this statement, the symbolic response of the candle representing a nine-year-old boy in the second case study was unexpected. Not only did he demonstrate how he died, but fell into a dish, the contents of which were to be thrown into the bush along with a die. It was therefore unexpected when the practicing traditional healer in the first case study did not understand two important symbols.
Researcher effect or bias
Second, she agreed to be the ritual coordinator in all three case studies. One way to promote validity was triangulation, and another was to test for similarities and differences in evidence of manifestations of the presence and role of ancestors or the dead. All three cases reflected some evidence of the role of the dead-living in the African family system.
Generalizability
The researcher also protected the participants in the three cases by omitting names and overly sensitive material. No conclusive answers can be given in this study about a phenomenon as complex as the role of the dead in the African family system. The belief in the role of ancestors or the dead living in the African family system is a deeply held view within the African cultural context (Hollenweger, 1993; Milingo, 1985; Opoku, 1993).
Further Research
Complementary not in a sense that one party determines what the other lacks, but both contribute equally to the discussion (Castillo, 1997; Greenfield, 1997; Lukoffetat, 1992; Oduyoye, 1993; Segall et al., 1998) . Three worlds of therapy: an existential-phenomenological study of the therapies of Freud, Jung, and Rogers. Patients and healers in the context of culture: an explanation of the borderland between anthropology, medicine and psychiatry.
