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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 rural 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.
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Li et al. (1990) studied this question.
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