?I have some faith and at the same time I don't believe? ? cognitive polyphasia and cultural change in India

Abstract

Issues of community and health are tightly linked to local cultures and to the system of traditional representations about health and illness. These systems, however, are rarely static, but are in constant flux through economic and technological developments — what is often called ‘modernisation’ — that entail new representations becoming part of everyday thinking. In this process the novel often plays the role of an icon of modernity in situations that evoke the idea of progress, while the traditional prevails in more static social structures such as the family. This co-existence of rarely compatible representations is called cognitive polyphasia. The present interview-study investigates the way 39 residents of the North-Indian city of Patna cope with contradictions implied by traditional and Western psychiatric notions of mental illness, their aetiology and treatment. It is shown that each of the two ways of thinking is situated and used in specific social settings. Some implications of cognitive polyphasia for community development are discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.