Traditional Zulu Theories of Illness in Psychiatric Patients

Summary This research examines the relationship between a traditional Zulu and a modern international psychiatric diagnostic system. Traditional Zulu concepts of illness are based on a natural/supernatural division as found in theories of illness in underdeveloped societies throughout the world. In a retrospective study at King Edward VIII Hospital, Durban, South Africa, the first 100 files (29%) of Black psychiatric patients in 1980, who construed the etiology of their problems in supernatural terms are analyzed. All patients are Zulu-speaking and psychiatrically diagnosed in accordance with the WHO ICD9 diagnostic schema. Indigenous supernatural concepts of illness are categorized as magical (57%), animistic (40%), and mystical (3%). Comparisons across the two diagnostic systems are made. Compatibility between the two systems is found and some treatment implications of a clinical and social nature are advanced.