Doctors and Healers

by Tobie Nathan, Isabelle Stengers

We think we know what healers do: they build on patients' irrational beliefs and treat them in a 'symbolic' way. If they get results, it's thanks to their capacity to listen, rather than any influence on a clinical level. At the same time, we also think we know what modern medicine is: a highly technical and rational process, but one that scarcely listens to patients at all.

In this book, ethnopsychiatrist Tobie Nathan and philosopher Isabelle Stengers argue that this commonly posed opposition between traditional and modern medicine is misleading. They show instead that healers are interesting precisely because they don't listen to patients, using techniques of 'divination' rather than 'diagnosis'. Healers construct genuine therapeutic strategies by identifying the origins of symptoms in external forces, outside of the mind of the sufferer. Modern medicine, for its part, is characterized by empiricism rather than rationality. What appears to be the pursuit of rationality is ultimately only a means to dismiss and exclude other forms of treatment.

Blurring the distinctions between traditional and modern practices and drawing on perspectives from across the globe, this ethnopsychiatric manifesto encourages us to think in radically new ways about illness, challenging accepted notions on the relationship between sufferer and symptom.

Genres: Health

220 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1995

About the author

Tobie Nathan, Aïd Nathan (nom de naissance), né le 10 novembre 1948 au Caire en Égypte, est un psychologue, professeur émérite de psychologie à l’université Paris-VIII et écrivain français. Il est l'un des représentants de l'ethnopsychiatrie française.

Les parents de Tobie Nathan sont italiens juifs et installés au Caire : son grand-père maternel était pharmacien, tandis que son père dirigeait une fabrique de parfum. Sa famille doit quitter Le Caire en 1957 à la suite de la révolution égyptienne et de l'expulsion des juifs. Ils vivent en Italie, puis s'installent en France, où Tobie Nathan fait ses études et obtient la naturalisation à l'âge de vingt-et-un ans.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Longer review to come, but I’ll say this was a challenging read conceptually because of how thoroughly and truly the authors challenge and reconceptualize dominant/common notions of medicine and “alternative” healing practices. This is also what makes it an excellent read. Very glad I chose this book to present about in class - super interesting and important topic. I like how much the authors spoke about psychiatry and psychotherapy and how this writing presents alternative, liberatory possibilities for the practices of these and other kinds of medicine.

[Shadi]

immensely helpful. this is a book for anyone who has felt let down by the very institutions erected in their name.

[A YOGAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, „Médecins et sorciers“– das war ein Sofortkauf direkt nach Erscheinen 1995 für 57 Francs (ein echtes Schnäppchen, wenn man bedenkt, dass der Preis heute bei La Découverte 17 € liegt). Es ist ein explosives „Manifest der Ethnopsychiatrie“, das die westliche Arroganz grundlegend erschüttert. Der Psychologe Tobie Nathan und die Philosophin Isabelle Stengers zerlegen genüsslich die trügerische Opposition zwischen „rationalem Arzt“ und „hörendem Heiler“. Wir glauben, der Arzt sei „rational“ und der Heiler „hört zu“. Falsch, sagen sie!
Die brillante Pointe: Der traditionelle Heiler (der sogenannte „afrikanische Virtuose“) ist gerade deshalb effektiv, weil er dem Patienten nicht einfach zuhört, sondern mittels „Divination“ (statt Diagnose) das Unsichtbare befragt. Umgekehrt ist die moderne Medizin nicht „rational“, sondern empirisch – und sie nutzt den Begriff „Rationalität“ vor allem als philosophische Waffe, um andere Praktiken auszuschalten.
Dieses Buch zwingt dazu, unsere Vorstellungen von Heilung und Rationalität radikal zu hinterfragen und das Verhältnis der Kulturen völlig neu zu denken.

[Michael MacGaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doctor users of patients?

Putting patients back in control of their lives is paramount. In Aviation engineers, pilots, technicians and users form groups to improve aviation safety, so why is there such a “us vs it/them” in the medical industry?

Between Stenger’s manifest destiny of Deleuzian machines and Tobie Nathan prescient or prophetic thoughts on the “revenge of the gods” for being ignored , the book tells us that ignoring the inevitable crisis of ignoring the patient as a user group could make or break future institutions.

[Lorenzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The divination section was useful 💜

[Elan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific view of the differences between ‘modern’ and ‘indigenous’ healing methods. Multiple vantage points between the healer, the suffer, what is being suffered, visible and invisible worlds.

Fascinating to read about French and Francophile Africa experiences, however a little bit let down that the authors come so close to depth and archetypal psychotherapy concepts but don’t seem to get past Freud.

Still, a great read for anyone interest is In therapeutic arts.