Mudpacks and Prozac: Experiencing Ayurvedic, Biomedical, and Religious Healing

232 Pages·2009·1.835 MB·English

by  Murphy Halliburton

MUDPACKS AND PROZAC

MUDPACKS AND PROZAC
Experiencing Ayurvedic, Biomedical and
Religious Healing
w
Murphy Halliburton
Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2009 by Left Coast Press, Inc.

Published 2016 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Halliburton, Murphy, 1964-
Mudpacks and prozac : experiencing Ayurvedic, biomedical, and religious healing /
Murphy Halliburton.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-59874-398-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-1-59874-399-9
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Traditional medicine—India—Kerala. 2. Cultural psychiatry—India—Kerala.
3. Medicine, Ayurvedic—India—Kerala. 4. Healing—Social aspects—India—Kerala.
5. Human mechanics—India—Kerala. 6. Kerala (India)—Social life and customs.
I. Title.
GR305.5.K4H35 2009
954'.83—dc22
2009019105
Cover design by Hannah Jennings
Hardback ISBN 978-1-59874-398-2
Paperback ISBN 978-1-59874-399-9
For Amy, Luca and Sophie
and
Th e people suff ering mental distress
who shared their stories with me.
May they fi nd some relief.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements 9
1 Introduction 11
2 Th ree Th erapies of South India 41
3 Lives and Problems 91
4 Experiencing the World from Body to Ātman 139
5 Cooling Mudpacks: Th e Aesthetic Quality of Th erapy 159
6 Conclusion: Pleasure, Health and Speed 195
Appendix A: Semi-Structured Interview Questions 205
References 207
Index 223
About the Author 231

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many people helped with the design, development and completion of this
project, and unfortunately I will only be able to name a few here. I fi rst
acknowledge my debt to my mentors at the Department of Anthropology
of the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, Vincent
Crapanzano, Shirley Lindenbaum, Joan Mencher and Setha Low. Equally
crucial to this endeavor was the generous assistance of many in the mental
health fi eld in Kerala, India. Th is project would truly not have been pos sible
without the tireless assistance and devoted friendship of Dr. K. Gireesh,
clinical psychologist of the Trivandrum Mental Health Centre. Also fun-
damental to my fi eldwork eff orts and the development of my knowledge of
health and healing are Dr. V. George Mathew (Department of Psychology,
University of Kerala), Dr. K. Sundaran (Government Ayurveda Mental
Hospital, Kottakkal), Dr. John Baby (Department of Psychology, University
of Calicut) and Dr. K. A. Kumar (Trivandrum Medical College Hospital).
I am also greatly indebted to my research assistants, Kavitha N. S., T.R. “Biju”
Bijumohan and Benny Verghese for their insights and service and for making
the research process so much more enjoyable. Meanwhile, for making the early
phases of this project a more pleasant process, I am grateful for the support of
Hugo Benavides, Aseel Sawalha, Jonathan Shannon, Molly Doane, Kee Yong
and Alcira Forero-Peña. Earlier versions of this manuscript benefi ted greatly
from the insights of Th omas Csordas, Michael Nunley and Kevin Birth and
the thorough and thoughtful work of the anonymous reviewers of this project.
Finally, I profoundly appreciate the enthusiastic, hard-working staff of Left
Coast Press, especially their insightful and encouraging senior editor Jennifer
Collier, for their eff orts and support.
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