Witch doctors and mental illness in mainland China: a preliminary study

Abstract

This study, the first report on witch doctors in the People''s Republic of China, found that most witch doctors are poorly educated peasants who perform healing rituals as a part-time occupation. Despite being officially illegal, folk healing practices are flourishing in the countryside: 73.9% (N = 286 of 387) of psychiatric outpatients from renal areas and 70.5% (N = 43 of 61) of mentally ill persons identified in a rural community admitted to consulting witch doctors. These findings indicate an urgent need to systematically assess the beneficial and detrimental effects of these practices on China''s health care system.