Of spirits and madness
Subtitle: an American psychiatrist in Africa
By: Paul R. Linde
Publisher: McGraw-Hill; McGraw-Hill Companies
Published: 2001
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9780071367349
Subjects: Mentally ill; Spirits; Transcultural Psychiatry; Mentally Ill Persons; Religion; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Traditional Medicine; Psychiatry; Personal Narratives; Psychiatrists; Religion and Psychology; Biography; Case studies
Description: "In 1994 psychiatrist Paul Linde took off on an African adventure. After five years of working on the front lines of psychiatry, in the emergency rooms and city jails of San Francisco, Dr. Linde thought he had seen it all. But little had prepared him for the madness and mystery he found at Harare Central Hospital in Zimbabwe, where dozens of new patients flooded through the doors every week, each one a fresh lesson in psychosis, culture-clash, and compassion.".

"Of Spirits and Madness takes us on an adventure into medicine and the mind. With sensitivity, good humor, and growing insight, Linde tells the stories of his patients, their demons, and their difficulties.

We meet Winston Chivero, a self-mutilator who sticks needles and nails into his shin and blames the wounds on witchcraft; Sister Pagomo, a nurse's aide who suffers from kufungisisa, the ailment of "thinking too much"; Esther Mawena, a demoralized young woman who tries to kill herself after her husband infects her with the virus that causes AIDS; Samuel Rugare, a farm laborer driven to mbanje madness after smoking too much cannabis; and many others."--BOOK JACKET.
Table of contents: title: "Sister, who's our first patient?" Tichaona Machewa: a garden-variety manic; title: "He's not crazy, he's delirious!" Joshua Mujombe: death doesn't go on strike; title: "It's ten o'clock, where are my interns?" Doctor Gwanzura: a big breadwinner; title: "He brought the virus home." Esther Mawena: the bride price, a death sentence; title: "Paranoid as hell." Happy Mufananidza: AIDS in the brain; title: "A bewitchment?" Constance Marondera: catatonic, but why?; title: "You what? You need to rest your mind?" Sister Pagomo: a case of kufungisisa; title: "There are no guarantees." Mister Dube: nearly scared to death; title: "A sleepy guy with a head full of weed and thorazine." Samuel Rugare: a case of mbanje madness; title: "So, you want another operation?" Winston Chivero: self-mutilator with a cause; title: "You ask a lot of questions, you know that?" Wonder Kasimonje: redemption is where you find it.