Doctoral student Anubha Sood (Washington University in St. Louis), supervised by Dr. Rebecca Lester, will undertake research in India to investigate why women experiencing mental ill health invest greater faith in mystical-spiritual healing traditions than state-supported biomedical psychiatry. While Indian epidemiological data reveal that men outnumber women three to one at public health psychiatric clinics, the predominance of women in mystical-spiritual healing sites is equally well-documented. Explaining why women prefer seeking help at the temple rather than attending a similarly affordable and accessible psychiatric facility will help to advance theories of health-seeking behavior when notions of both self and health are in flux as countries modernize and expand mental health care systems.
The researcher will employ ethnographic methods to compare the experiences of women attendees seeking care in two popular settings in urban North India, a public health psychiatric clinic and a Hindu healing temple. The research methods will include person-centered interviews to understand women's subjective treatment experiences; participant observation of diagnoses and therapeutic practices at the two facilities; cultural domain analysis to understand local knowledge of mental health and healing; and vignette technique to understand help-seeking strategies.
Many developing countries, despite the overwhelming popularity of traditional systems, espouse biomedical psychiatry as the better choice for mental health care. This research is important in understanding how frictions between local health understandings and Western models of care in transitioning developing world contexts impact the health needs of underserved populations such as women. Funding this research also supports the education of a social scientist.
