Abstract
Treatment of the mentally ill by the Aboriginal Awaraks of Jamaica and the other Caribbean islands was first described by a Spanish monk in 1540: ‘Lunatics’ who were called ‘mind riven’ were treated in the community with salvent herbs, which were blended with food and left to hang on fruit trees for those who wandered, and by the administration of unguents and lavings while singing. This record indicates that the mentally ill were treated by the indigenous Indians without restraints, and with rudimentary attempts at pharmacology and cultural therapies. But this enlightened but primitive mental health system was destroyed with the advent of the Spanish conquerors who, according to Las Casas, “in about eight to forty years have unjustly put to death about twelve million Indians without distinction of quality, sex or age”.
Highlights
The mental health system of the indigenous Indians were promptly replaced by the prevailing psychiatric practices of Europe
There was a high incidence of mental illness during this period
Suicide was common as a reaction to slavery, Africans showing a stubborn refusal to accept the status of slaves
Summary
Private practitioners provided mental treatment to those who could pay, but by far the largest segment of the population received care from black preachers and the ubiquitous obeah men and women who had survived the attempts of the British to destroy them. This pattern of community mental health care has continued in every Caribbean island.
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