Ancestor Reverence and Mental Health in South Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2394453 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Astrid Berg (0000-0002-1573-8767, Cape Town,, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 194-207 |
| Publication date | 2003-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Transcultural Psychiatry (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1363-4615 • E-ISSN: 1461-7471 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/13634615030402004 |
| PMID | 12940645 |
| OpenAlex | W4242519619 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 21 |
| References cited | 8 |
The great majority of South Africa's people consult traditional healers. The deeper meaning of much traditional healing centres on ancestor reverence. This belief system and its accompanying rituals may positively influence the mental health of the individual and the community. Among traditional Xhosa-speaking peoples, the relationship with the ancestors is given expression in life cycle rituals that have much in common with Western psychotherapeutic principles and practices. The common thread that underpins many rituals is that of making links via concrete, literal means. Examples include the participation of the community in the healing of the individual; the linking of body and mind through dancing and drumming. Dreams form an essential connection between conscious life and the unconscious. Understanding the psychological depth of these practices is important so that a respectful relationship between Western-trained professionals and traditional healers can develop. Analytical psychology, with its notion of the collective unconscious has a particular contribution to make to cross-cultural understanding. The ancestors may be understood as archetypal representations of the collective unconscious
Aesthetics · Ancestor · Archaeology · Epistemology · Genealogy · Geography · Mental health · Political science · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Reverence · Sociology · Unconscious mind · Empathy and Medical Education · Family Support in Illness · Health, psychology, and well-being · History · Law · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Philosophy · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology · Social Psychology
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Fighting for the Man in the Blue Overalls— Daily Sun as a Project in Demarginalisation
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Religious and Medical Pluralism Among Traditional Healers in Johannesburg, South Africa
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Relational Psychoanalysis Potential Usefulness with Black South African Clients
Influences on help-seeking pathways among people with chronic illness and disease in a rural South African community
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Royalty and Ancestral Venerations
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Multicultural social work and national trauma
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Frequently asked questions about African psychology
Constellation work principles, resonance phenomena, and shamanism in South Africa
African psychology and the Africentric paradigm to clinical diagnosis and treatment
Encountering the other
Cultural concepts of the person and mental health in Africa
A thing full of stories
A South African Experience
An Ethnopragmatic Study of Libation Rituals among the Kiong-speaking Okoyong People in Southeastern Nigeria
| Unique citing works | 21 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,24 |
| Citation span | 2009 - 2025 (17) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 21 |