Ethnopsychiatrie : la culture au service de la santé

The Author takes a case history as a basis for developing a discussion where he emphasizes the psychiatric and cultural aspects of a situation. This is a typical ethnopsychiatric approach, which goes back to the work of Georges Devereux and Tobie Nathan. The psychiatric elements the case presents suggest a depression. The cultural aspects, closely linked to the realities of life in the Nordeste region of Brazil, reflect the world of rural traditional, steeped in religious beliefs and struggles for power. The scenario is typical of ancient Brazil which, through the aging patient, shows the decline, even the progressive disappearance, of that world, now suffused with modernity and social pluralism.