Sacred Healing and Biomedicine Compared

Abstract

This analysis addresses the similarities and differences between sacred healing and biomedicine along several important dimensions that bear on the differential effects of patients' experiences of their treatment, including the physical setting, etiological beliefs, diagnoses, the practitioner‐patient relationship, recruitment into the healing role, treatment repertoires, and perceptions of the body. The exploration of these differences illuminates the nature of medical regimes embedded in dissimilar systems of knowledge and reveals the strengths and weaknesses of each. The analysis demonstrates the dramaturgical nature of the biomedicine‐patient encounter with its inherent underlying contradictions, in contrast to the sacred healer‐patient interactions where the drama is lacking. The comparison reveals the importance of treatment techniques in sacred healing in contrast to the doctor's persona in biomedical treatment. The article concludes with a consideration of contemporary sociocultural forces that have led to the emphasis on the physicians's persona in biomedical practice.