Mudpacks and Prozac

About this book

People seeking psychiatric healing choose from an almost dizzying array of therapiesfrom the medicated mud packs of Ayurveda to the pharmacopeia of Western biomedicine to the spiritual pathways of the worlds religions. How do we choose what do the treatments offer and how do they cure? In Mudpacks and Prozac Murphy Halliburton investigates the very different ways in which Ayurvedic Western and religious (Christian Muslim and Hindu) healing systems define psychiatric problems and cures. He describes peoples embodied experiences of therapies that range from soothing to frightening and explores how enduring pleasure or pain affects healing. And through evocative portraits of patients in Kerala Indiaa place of incredible cultural diversity that has become a Mecca for alternative medicineHalliburton shows how sociopolitical changes around the globe may be limiting the ways in which people seek and experience health care with negative effects on our quality of health and quality of life.