“Spirits leave me alone to complete the business of my life and know that I’ll never forget you.”
Andrew Solomon’s long battle with depression first brought him to traditional Western medicine with medication and counseling. As a writer, this struggle led him to research treatments in other parts of the world. He tells a colorful story of his trip to Senegal and his experience of a shamanic exorcism ceremony to remove the bad spirits of his depression. Spirits are to the people of Senegal as microbes are to Americans. They are all over us: some are good, some are bad.
The intersection where two cultures meet can sometimes be a great divide, but sometimes we can learn from each other. The model with which we understand depression and anxiety differs from culture to culture. Even in the same culture, treatments can differ dramatically.
After his experience in Senegal, Andrew Solomon would later travel to Rwanda on another research trip. He tells a local Rwandan of his exorcism experience in Senegal. The local tells him that they have some similar rituals and beliefs.
Here is what one local says to Andrew Solomon about the experience of some Western mental health workers coming to Rwanda.
We had a lot of trouble with Western mental health workers who came here immediately after the genocide, and we had to ask some of them to leave.
They came and their practice did not involve being outside in the sun… where you begin to feel better. There was no music or drumming to get your blood flowing again… There was no sense that everyone had taken the day off so that the entire community could come together to try to lift you up and bring you back to joy. There was no acknowledgement of the depression as something invasive and external that could actually be cast out again.
Instead they would take people one at a time into these dingy little rooms and have them sit around for an hour or so and talk about bad things that had happened to them.
~ A local Rwandan speaking to Western writer, Andrew Solomon
This is obviously only one story, but a powerful commentary on the need for cultural awareness when applying our concepts to other cultures. There are other Westerners that have brought healing to the communities of Rwanda. Indeed, there are many ways to see the world, many individual stories, and perhaps there is something to learn from all of them. With his stories and his books, Andrew Solomon takes us with him on his travels and expands our understanding of the world and each other.