It is important because we may seek help from the wrong modality, depending on our situation. If I have fractured my hand, I will seek help from an orthopaedic specialist. I could go to a bonesetter, but since he or she may not have the pain control I can get in a hospital, I will choose the latter unless I am in the middle of a wilderness and there are no modern orthopaedic facilities, available.
However, if I suffer from soul loss which many indigenous and shamanic traditions recognise as a real danger following severe trauma, emotional distress, or a life-threatening situation, there is no therapy available in biomedicine. In soul loss the trauma causes a part of a person’s soul or spirit to detach to protect them from the pain, the intense emotion, or the shock and fear. A community that believes in soul loss will consider it vital that a soul retrieval ceremony takes place as soon as possible after the traumatic experience. If not, the soul loss may become permanent, and the person goes through the remainder of their life emotionally and spiritually fragmented, with consequent effects on their physical health.
Soul loss is a concept we do not even recognise in biomedicine, even though a belief in it may influence a person’s health experience, their illness narrative, and the therapy sought, depending on their cultural background. Kleinman1 (Professor of medical anthropology in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School) has explored this concept when studying the experiences of individuals facing illness or distress in cultural settings where these beliefs are prevalent. He recognises how the belief in soul loss can influence the illness narrative, healing practices, and the overall experience of illness. He sees soul loss as a cultural construct that is used to describe physical and psychological symptoms where the treatment used includes rituals and specific ceremonies to re-introduce the soul and to heal the fragmentation. Since this concept can be deeply ingrained in a person’s understanding of illness it follows that a soul retrieval ceremony will be the first therapy required after a trauma.
Obviously, when a person emigrates from a culture where this belief prevails to a country where biomedicine is the dominant health care paradigm, a person will be at loss as to what to do in the event of a situation where soul loss or fragmentation could occur. Biomedicine does not even recognise it as an illness per se, even though Kleinman emphasises the need for cultural sensitivity in healthcare practices with people from diverse cultural backgrounds.
In my own practice I have had two experiences of soul loss and in both cases, the patients used a variation of the term. One said, “I am separated from my soul” and the other, “My soul is out there,” pointing upwards and outwards with her hand. In both cases, the patients remembered exactly when it happened and could describe the experience. Severe trauma was the initiator, and both were children at the time. There may be similar symptoms and signs, as those for soul loss, within biomedical psychiatric illnesses but there is no integration of the therapies or even research into the effectiveness of the traditional modes of treatment.
The rationalist worldview prevailing and permeating biomedicine blinds its practitioners to the many therapies that have emerged in diverse cultures to heal many illnesses that derive from a person’s social experience. When we consider the pressure so many people are under today, not only in work, and careers but also in trying to attain the perfect body, the perfect lifestyle, the perfect marriage, etc., perhaps we need to explore what all this pressure is doing to our soul or spirit and seek ways we can bring a natural balance into our lives.
1Arthur-Kleinman