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Subject: Re: Temple in TN cures mania
Date: Mon, 8 Jul 2002 07:24:32 +0530
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From: "Bala Pillai"
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Jairam & Friends,
Not making a value judgment here. Just stating what I find to be true again and again.
Below is mainly (a) the placebo effect at work and secondarily (b) the pathetic basis of most Western psychiatry particularly the quick-fix drug administering ones. Not an accident that the motivation "gurus" industry has far overtaken the psychiatrists.
Placebo effect: If one's mind believes whole-heartedly that a problem is best solved by a given course of action, then that course of action has the best chance of solving that problem.
The bigger issue is how the beneficiary interprets this cure. This determines if they win the battle and lose the war or vice versa.
If they interpret it as "they have no control" and the solution is totally in the hands of "temple/God" they are generally a harm to society because they are most likely not on a path of ever reducing mistakes-of-the-same-type and denial. And given this, they are most likely to be suppressing many of the ignorant, negligent or "unintentional" harm they are doing by fueling scarcity.
If you are interested I can explain above in the context of 3 partners for Thamil Innaiyam who are viewed as being "religious" I encountered in TN. And they are not exceptions. Very representative they are of the net harm of pass-the-buck-to-God reliance on temples. (Yet, how useful temples can be if they are centres of enlightenment)
cheers../bala
bala@...
sydney, australia
----- Original Message -----
From: Jairam T
To: jairamt@...
Sent: Monday, July 08, 2002 1:35 AM
Subject: [akandabaratam] Temple in TN cures mania
Temple in TN cures mania
Nimhans study shows 31 people healed
from Anil Ananthaswamy
Bangalore, July 5
Deccan Chronicle dated July 06, 2002
A six-week stay at a temple in tamilnadu can produce the same
improvement in people with severe psychiatric disorders as a month long
course of medicine.
A team led by Ramnathan Raghuram of the National Institute of Mental
Health and Neurosciences here studied all 31 people who came for help
and stayed at the Muthuswamy temple in Velayuthampal-ayam-pudur between
June and August 2000. They had been suffering an average of 71 weeks,
only one had received professional care.
The patients were evaluated by a trained psychiatrist. Six were
diagnosed with delusional disorders, 23 with paranoid schizophrenia and
two with bipolar disorder. At the end of their stay, their scores on a
test, called the brief psychiatric rating scale had improved by an
average of nearly 20 per cent.
No specific rituals intended to improve mental health were performed.
The patients attended a simple morning prayer for 15 minutes, and then
spent the rest of the day helping out with routine temple work.
"What they were given is tender loving care, in a non-threatening
environment, in tune with their own cultural beliefs, with the hope of
recovery," says Raghuram. "And in the history of psychiatry, these were
the principles on which asylums were originally built."
The Muthuswamy temple is built over the tomb of a man who lived a
century ago and who, according to legend, could cure mental illnesses
with a touch of his hand. His descendants now run the temple and offer
its services for free.
The results match those expected within four weeks of administering
drugs such as chloropromazine and risperidone. "We were not really
prepared for it." he says. There were no controls, where results from
different treatments can be compared.
(Nerw Scientist)
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