Edited by: Nicola Kay Gale, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Reviewed by: Susanne Börner, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Alexander Alich, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Native viewpoints on mental illness, particularly those based in relational, spiritual, and communal worldview have been historically denied space in mainstream psychiatric discourse. This article examines how the northeast Indian Naga people think about and treat mental distress, privileging healing as a cosmological, communal process over an individual, biomedical one. Drawing on narrative accounts and ethnographic knowledge, we seek to critically interact with indigenous epistemologies of mental health and demand a more plural, culturally sensitive framework in mental health discourse. As a team comprising a Naga scholar, a psychologist, and a researcher in indigenous knowledge systems, our perspectives are shaped by both lived experience and academic engagement. This multi-disciplinary lens informs our commitment to critically engaging with indigenous epistemologies and mental health narratives.
Psychopathology may usually be the biological picture; but for mental illness to be truly understood, it has to be culturally sanctioned and accepted. Among the Naga tribes in northeast India, mental illness is far from a problem pertaining to neurotransmitters or diagnostic nosology; it is a spirit-fueled communal experience. Our contention is that, far from being an inferior conception of mental illness, the traditional Naga healing practices constitute a culturally coherent model of emotional distress and recovery. The real worth of these healing practices rests not just on historical grounds but in the prospect that they may contribute meaningfully to present discussions on mental health (
Mental health among the Naga communities is deeply embedded in cosmological beliefs, clan-based responsibilities, and reciprocal social relationships. Illness is not viewed in isolation but as a disruption in the moral, spiritual, and social order. Shamanic interventions, ancestral rituals, and communal participation are central to addressing mental distress reflecting an understanding that healing is a collective process. Such practices, often dismissed in mainstream psychiatric discourse, offer alternative paradigms of care that prioritize meaning-making, social cohesion, and spiritual balance over pharmacological intervention. Ignoring these systems risks not only epistemic injustice but also the loss of context-specific insights into human suffering and resilience (
By putting indigenous voices and stories first, this article aims to initiate discussion on the predominance of Western biomedical paradigms and the need for pluralistic mental health models. Based on narrative accounts and ethnographic impressions from Naga elders, practitioners of traditional healing, and community members, we discuss how local cosmologies interpret and treat mental distress. Instead of presenting itself as filling disciplinary lacunae, this article calls for critical examination of the necessity to decolonize psychological knowledge and incorporate culturally grounded concepts of healing into mental health discourse.
Indigenous perspectives, esp., from the vantage of modern psychiatry, are easily dismissed as superstitions. However, such an approach is far too reductive. Among the Nagas, shadowing spirit possession, soul loss, or ancestral wrath are not irrational fears; rather, they are explanations based on hundreds of years of lived experiences (
Nagas believe in the spirit world, soul loss, or wrath of ancestors on grounds of a coherent cultural system in which mental disturbance results from a disruption in spiritual harmony (
Traditional Naga methods of healing gravitate more toward maintaining equilibrium than toward curing. Shamans and healers thus assume crucial roles, not merely as therapists but as moral and spiritual guides. The ritual processes they perform whether soul retrieval, spirit appeasement, or herbal treatments all serve to reintegrate the affected individual back into the community and cosmos (
In Naga culture, mental health is community-oriented, wherein family, clan, and village heal together.
With its collective accountability, one of the distinctive aspects of the Naga way is that the family, clan, or village is engaged in the healing process. The traditional concept of mental illness is that it is a disturbance that affects the entire community, not just the “sick” individual. This is in stark contrast to the isolation patients may often experience in clinical systems (
Naga traditional healing largely relies on herbal and spiritual remedies. According to
The slow decline of conventional healing practices can be traced to Western psychiatry and religious conversion, both of which have been known to stigmatize these practices as passe or pagan at times. In contemporary times, many healing rituals are simply branded as “demonic” or “pagan” (
In Nagaland, the introduction of Western medicine and Christian religion has led to the marginalization of traditional healing methods.
From our perspective, the traditional psychopathological model of the Naga tribes stands not only for an alternative way of understanding mental illness but also challenges Western dominance over psychiatric narratives. It makes us realize that mental health can no longer be considered as merely biochemical; it becomes existential and communal. It is time for us as researchers, mental health workers, or simply as fellow humans navigating distress to learn from models that embrace complexity, community, and culture. The future of mental health hinges upon our willingness to listen, whether it be to the doctor or to the traditional healer (
Indeed, the traditional healer is still considered viable. Many rural and some urban residents in Nagaland still view traditional healers as effective sources of mental health care, particularly for spirit-related afflictions (
KY: Funding acquisition, Resources, Visualization, Project administration, Formal analysis, Validation, Supervision, Data curation, Writing – review & editing, Conceptualization, Software, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft. ST: Supervision, Methodology, Software, Conceptualization, Validation, Investigation, Data curation, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing, Resources, Formal analysis, Project administration, Writing – original draft, Visualization. SK: Methodology, Supervision, Data curation, Investigation, Conceptualization, Software, Writing – review & editing, Resources, Visualization, Project administration, Writing – original draft, Validation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition.
The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The author(s) declare that no Gen AI was used in the creation of this manuscript.
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.