WITCH DOCTORS AND HOODOOS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 780, 2 July 1954, Page 9

WITCH DOCTORS AND HOODOOS

Primitive man is surrounded by fears. The witch doctor has only to put a hoodoo on him to make him wilt and die. His cunning, courage and strength avail him nothing against the apparently uncanny powers arrayed against him. This seems incredible, and shows how human beings can be prisoners of fear. Though we look upon the antics of witch doctors as so much nonsense, and pity their victims, time was when we, too, were victims of superstitions no less fantastic and cruel than those that terrify primitive man. Women suspected of being witchés were at different times burnt at the stake, boiled in oil. or torn apart. Physical deformities were | thought to be due to the intervention of black | magic. Even the Devil himself was credited | with taking human form. All this -belongs to our past-yet not so far | distant as not to leave vestiges that make us | eur own witch doctors. We very sensibly refuse | to believe in black magic. Nevertheless, we can | be hagridden by hoodoos of our own making. | We impute an unpleasant meaning to something we do not fully understand; or to conduct we dislike. That © is; we place a "stigma’’ on it. There is ‘often no! justification for it. Consider mental sickness as an_ instance. Anyone is liable to be afflicted, even as they may suffer from a physical ailment. The sturdiest man or woman, subjected to prolonged strain, will break down. Neglected, their complaint will become worse. Add to it the "stigma" that makes them worry. and try to conceal their illness, and the . consequences are liable to be serious, But it is an illness and, above all, an illness. that can be treated and cured. Mental heal.ng is a _ highly specialised branch of medicine, Nurses are required to undergo specialised training orientated towards mental sickness .and the methods).and art of mental healing. Both doctors :arid. nurses ‘are specialists in one field of sickness. This today is a world-wide development. Medical recognition that mental illness is just a form of sickness, and that it can be cured was 9 jump that covered centuries. It was one of the greatest advances in understanding human behaviour ever made. It tore down the hoodoos that had dominated social and individual fife for generations. Psychological research anne .development of medical science r e close affinity between mind and body-that they are not two distinct things shuts tm each other. They are, in fact, one. " Equally important was the understanding of the mental life of healthy people, . and how it is affected by worry, nervous strain, frustrated ambition, shock and disappointment. All these factors. were. seen: as aie of scapes: sickness. .Modernisation of . hospitals was an. aimee part of the new approach, A different type of accommodation, a. new atmosphere, and a new character distinguished . snoeta, ‘treatment. = The treatment itself is as as the hope inspired by the new ude. Mental science is winning out against superstition and ignorance, Medical science in all phasesmedicine, surgery and psychiatry, is graduelly laying hare the hidden causes of mental sickness. and ways in which it cen be cured. Anyone today who believes the old-fashioned gossip about mental sickness | is _ keeping a hoodoo on himself. People believe the ridiculous and absurd prejudices about the organisation of the institutions ivhere, mental sickness is treated are doing an’ ‘injustice to themselves, to their neighbours, ‘arid to the men and women who are healing the mentelly sick. Furthermore. the use of such terms as "looney bin" is only perpetuating the injustice. Stigmas are cruel,, stupid and dangerous to your mental well-being, and to that of the nation. : (Published by arrangement with the Department of Health)