Jurupari or “visagens”: reflections of interpretative mismatches between the psychiatric and indigenous points of view

• Main Author: Luciane Ouriques Ferreira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Estadual de Londrina 2012-03-01
• Series: Mediações: Revista de Ciências Sociais
• Subjects: Antropologia médica; saúde indígena; saúde mental; cultura.
• Online Access: http://www.uel.br/revistas/uel/index.php/mediacoes/article/view/8674

A young Waiwai was afflicted by "crises" after having met with a woodland being, the Jurupari, while hunting. After treating him, the Multidisciplinary Team of Indigenous Health referred him for psychiatric treatment through the Unified Health System of Santarém’s County, state of Pará. To speak about the ill that had befallen him, the young Waiwai used the system of meanings from his socio-cultural context. In turn, the health professionals who cared for him translated the Indigenous narrative to their own terms using a language supported by the biomedical rationality. It’s about this translation process which transforms the patient’s narrative into psychiatry’s universal diagnostic categories, where the focus of this anthropological analysis lies.