• Title/Summary/Keyword: Traditional healer

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Roles Traditional Healers Play in Cancer Treatment in Malaysia: Implications for Health Promotion and Education

  • Merriam, Sharan;Muhamad, Mazanah
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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    • v.14 no.6
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    • pp.3593-3601
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    • 2013
  • Background: For a number of reasons from cultural compatibility, to accessibility, to cost, traditional healers are a major source of health care in developing countries. In Malaysia, it's been estimated that upwards of 80% of the population consult traditional healers even if simultaneously seeking treatment from the Western medical system. Partially as a result of the widespread practice of visiting traditional healers, cancer diagnosis and treatment in Malaysia is often delayed or interrupted resulting in late presentation, advanced stage diagnosis, and a higher mortality rate than in Western countries. However, there is very little research on the role of traditional healers in cancer treatment in Malaysia. Materials and Methods: This qualitative study was designed to identify the roles traditional healers play in cancer diagnosis and treatment, with an eye to alleviating the cancer burden through educational responses with four publics in mind-policy makers, Western medical personnel, traditional healers, and the general public. In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 Malay traditional healers, 13 cancer survivors who had seen both traditional healers and Western doctors, and 12 cancer medical specialists. Results: Analysis of the data from these 39 participants revealed four roles traditional healers play in cancer treatment-medicinal healer, emotional comforter, spiritual guide, and palliative caregiver. Conclusions: Three roles (emotional, spiritual, palliative) can be seen as complementary to the allopathic system. Emotional and spiritual roles may augment the effectiveness of biomedical treatment. Cancer awareness and education programs need to position traditional healers as complementary, rather than an alternative to Western medical treatment; Validating the roles Traditional Healers can play in cancer treatment in MY through health promotion and education will contribute to alleviating the nation's cancer burden.

What can traditional healing do for modern medicine

  • Adams, James David Jr.
    • CELLMED
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    • v.4 no.2
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    • pp.9.1-9.6
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    • 2014
  • Modern society suffers from a disease burden that is caused by out of balance patients. Obesity causes patients to be out of balance and develop diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis. Obesity also promotes cancer. Traditional medicine can help people learn how to live in balance. When a person is in balance, the body heals itself. This article teaches the advantages of traditional healing in the modern world.

A Review On Nigella sativa (Kalonji) Seeds: A Universal Healer

  • Areefa, Anjum;Mohd, Aslam;Shah, Chaudhary Shahid
    • CELLMED
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    • v.10 no.2
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    • pp.11.1-11.14
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    • 2020
  • Nigella sativa commonly known as Black seed, Black cumin or Kalonji (Family Ranunculaceae) is a widely used for its miraculous healing power. Use of N. sativa seeds and oil has splendid historical past in diverse traditional systems of medicine and food. In Tibb-e-Nabwi (Prophetic Medicine), it is considered as one of the greatest forms of healing medicine. Phytochemically; it contains fixed oil, protein, alkaloids saponin and essential oil. Therapeutic properties of this plant are due to the presence of thymoquinone which is one of major active component and has different beneficial properties. In Unani System of Medicine the diseases are treated with nontoxic herbal drugs. As per Unani classical literature N. sativa perform various pharmacological actions like carminative, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, diuretic, emmenagogue, galactagogue, expectorant etc. Ample of phytochemical, pharmacological and clinical researches has been executed on N. sativa., which may include antidiabetic, anticancer, immunomodulator, analgesic, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, bronchodilator, hepato-protective, renal protective, gastro-protective, antioxidant properties, etc. This review is an effort to summarize the literature on scientific researches of pharmacognostical characteristics, chemical composition and pharmacological activities of the kalonji seeds

Nursing Considerations on Korean Shamanism (한국적 샤머니즘의 간호학적 고찰)

  • Kim, Ae-Ri
    • The Korean Nurse
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    • v.33 no.4
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    • pp.86-98
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    • 1994
  • We have examined the development and conceptual definition of shamanism and divination through significant characteristics of various illnesses. However, the terrminology has been inconsistent and its real conceptual meaning is not well defined. Divination is a historically dominant religious practice which represents the core of Korean folk culture. Despite prevalent prejudice toward its primitive nature, we cannot deny its profound relationship to our unconscious, especially our reliance on its religious role whenever we face crisis or conflict. It is therefore appropriate to use the term divination in this context. Shamanism originated as humanity's oldest mode of communication with divine - a religion, The shaman is not a sorceress but a priestess, a healer, a spritual guide, a leader, a mystic, traditionally having a different significance from that of the contemporary diviner or "shaman". The traditional concept of illness has been profoundly altered to serve new functions: while the shamanistic view is based upon spiritual abduction, divination on the other hand invokes concepts of spiritual invasion phenomena such as spirit intrusion, taboo violations, soul loss, object instrusion, deviations from the appropriate spiritual path besiegement, and curess or predestination (the idea that the sufferer is born with his fate), We should therefore try to understand divination from a more holistic point of view, rather than attempting to fit it into the standrd medical illness. We must recognize divination as a phenomenon within our culture, since most people have a mixed conception of illness arising from a combination of divinational and modem concepts, Since divination's humanistic approach is ingrained in our people, to irresponsibly ignore the spiritual aspects of treatment would exert a negative influence on our culture, Especially now, while attraction is focused on Korean culture and its influence on every aspect of our livies, it is important for nurses to expand our horizons in order to create a way of nursing more suitable to Korean culture. Increased importance is now being given to the opinions of patients themselves about their own illness and health, so nurses should seek to understand how patients accept their illness and what particular kinds of help they expect to receive. Consequently, an understanding of traditional divinations will enable us to utilize these characteristics on the job in order to enhance nursing care.

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Dreams of Admiral Yi Sun-sin (1545-1598) in Nanjung Ilgi (Diary in War Time) and Some Aspects of His Personality: From Jungian Viewpoint (≪난중일기≫에서 본 이순신의 꿈과 인격의 몇 가지 측면: 분석심리학적 입장에서)

  • Bou-Yong Rhi
    • Sim-seong Yeon-gu
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    • v.37 no.2
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    • pp.99-148
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    • 2022
  • This study aims at the psychological elucidation of some conscious aspects of the personality of Yi Sun-sin (1545-1598), the Korean national hero, and the unconscious teleologic meanings of his dreams mentioned in Nanjung Ilgi (Diary in War Time) from the viewpoint of analytical psychology of C.G. Jung. Yi Sun-sin was a man of discipline, incorporated with the spirit of Confucian filial piety, hyo (hsiao) and royalty, chung. He was a stern man but with a warm heart. In his diary, Yi Sun-sin poured forth his feelings of suffering, despair, and extreme solicitude caused by slanders of his political opponents, his grief for the loss of mother and son, and his worries about the fate of his country, which the Japanese invaders now plundered. The moon night offered him the opportunity to touch with his inner soul, by reciting poems, playing Korean string, 'Keomungo', and flute. Further, he widened his scope by asking for the answers from the 'Heaven' through divination and dream. Yi Sun-sin's attitude toward his mother who raised the future hero and maternal principles were considered in concern with the Jungian term 'mother complex'. Won Gyun, Yi Sun-sin's rival admiral, who persistently accused Yi Sun-sin of 'slanders,' certainly represents the unconscious shadow image of Yi Sun-sin. The reciprocal 'shadow' projection has intervened in the conflicting relationship between Yi and Won. In concern to the argument for the suicidal death of Yi Sun-sin, the author found no evidence supporting such an argument, No trace of latent suicidal wish was found in his dreams. For Yi Sun-sin, the determination of the life and death depends on Heaven. 32 dreams from the diary and 3 from other historical references were reviewed and analyzed in the Jungian way. Symbols of anima, Self, and individuation process were found. His dream repeatedly suggests that Yi Sun-sin is an extraordinary man chosen by the divine man (神人). In the dream, Yi Sun-sin was a disciple of the divine man receiving instructions on various strategies, and he alone could see the great thing or events. The dream of a beautiful blue and red dragon, whom he was friendly touching, indicates Yi Sun-sin's eligibility for the kingship. Yi Sun-sin seemingly did not aware of this message of the unconscious. Perhaps he sensed something special but did not identify with 'the disciple of gods' and 'royal dragon' in his dream. His modest attitude toward the dream has prevented him from falling into ego inflation. There were warning signals in two dreams that suggested disorders in the dreamer's instinctive feminine drive. Spirits of the dead father and brothers appear in the dream, giving advice or mourning for the death of Sun-sin's mother. Though Yi Sun-sin was a genuine Confucian gentleman, a dream revealed his unconscious drive to destroy the Confucian authoritative 'Persona' by trampling down the cylindrical traditional Korean hat. To the dreams of synchronicity phenomena Yi Sun-sin immediately solves the problem in concrete reality. He understood dreams as valuable messages from the superior entity, for example, the Confucian Heaven (天) or Heaven's Decree (天命). Furthermore, the 'Heaven' presumably arranged for him the way to the national hero and imposed necessary trials upon him. Both his persecutors and advocates of him guided him in the way of a hero. Yi Sun-sin followed his destiny and completed the living myth of the hero. His mother, King Seon-jo, and prime minister Liu Seong Yong, all have contributed to embodying the myth of the hero. Yi Sun-sin died and became god, the divine healer of the nation.