Ceylonese ‘Tovil’ as Psychotherapy

India, the country with rich culture and history has also a strong hold in medicine and Ayurveda. The centuries old way of treating psychological problems was unique in itself but with time it went dormant. Those age old techniques such as yoga, meditation, music and Vipassana are being rediscovered and slowly western world also recognized their important and effectiveness. This paper tries to explain some of those techniques and their effectiveness while dealing with psychological problems and also tried to put a light on how these techniques can be utilized and merged together in psychotherapy.

IN this study we investigated the study of native healing customs among Torkāmān people in Golestan province, northeast of Iran. Traditional medical practice and native therapist have a special importance in believes of these people. Among Torkāmān that have more beliefs in Ŝāmān custom, remedy customs are those beliefs which were before the age of Islam and after Islam have mixed with Islamic manners. Usage of healing methods and techniques for medical treatment of those patients are not in a good and suitable sensitive conditions or those patient who have pain in different parts of their bodies, massagers that have magical characteristic. Ŝāmān custom which is an old custom of Torkāmān people, have a root in religious beliefs in these people. Torkāmān in their customs do some of Ŝāmān customs. Various saying mention, treatment, remedy methods are those kinds. The aim of writing such research is to study the ethical aspect of therapists and patient in view of anthropology. This article tries to investigate different parts of ceremony and the rate of their tendency against these healing customs. Also another part of this research contains the study of patient's manner and feelings in the rage of treatment and their tendency in Ŝāmān's treatment. The non-pathological role of Ŝāmān and also their social centers in this research will investigate. This research also attempts to study the range of patients' tendency against Ŝāmān s. Introduction and Statement of the Problem This essay investigate the healing custom in Torkāmān culture. Iranian Torkāmān are living in Golestan, in the north of Iran and also in north of khorasan province. Torkāmān in Golestan province are resident in four cities.;gonbad kavoos,Bandar Torkāmān, Aq-Qola, Kalaleh and a little in gorgan. This research has been studied about Torkāmāns in this province and kalaleh. In this article, we study about native therapists and their ways and methods of treatment and the range of their tendency and Torkāmān beliefs about therapists and their characteristic and their social position among people. This research wants to investigate the concept of healing in traditional view among Torkāmān people. How much the range of tendency and dependency of patient to the native therapists is effective for their health? Which group of patients seek for treatment by Ŝāmān s(native therapists) and in which school of though those beliefs have rooted. These are the basic issues in this research. Treatment techniques without medicine have a special importance in different parts of Iran. One of the key issue in recognizing Iranian culture is the issue and concept of holy healing. Investigating the aspects of holy healing in the form of Ŝāmān customs is related to these important events of Iranian medical groups. This form of holy healing is visible in treatment custom. Porkhan as a therapist has a super natural power and by using the ways such as ecstasy, to pray, to croon and making relationship with over natural world, tries to control the hidden creature which causes his pain. Treatment is in the greatest grade of psychic patient treatment which is done by therapist(Ŝāmān).(azadegan,1385:120) Another native therapists in Torkāmān society we can point out to "holy family". This therapists group appoint their descendants to "orthodox caliphs". In addition , they have healer characteristic, they also solve the problems and quarrels between Torkāmān groups as a dean. The way of these groups' treatment is different for others native Torkāmān therapists. Resort to divine words, ask help from Quran and writing benediction, touching the forehead and head of patient, in beliefs of people the hands of holy family have a extraordinary power. Reading the mention of God or to do it, is a key point in treatment of patient in Torkāmān culture. this way of treatment is observed in treatment and also in holy family remedy. mention of God by every aim and purpose have a different usage at the end, and this tense of ecstasy in mention custom is as a basic process of treatment. In various customs the holy healing of ecstasy is accounted as an important base of treatment in patient and therapists minds. As an example in treatment ceremony by therapists and in holy healing custom in holy shrine places of Hanifeh Loshan, a city in north of Iran, gilan province, the ecstasy by patient in order to remove secretarial powers.gene,and evils power which captured the patients is as a very important point treatment.(malekrah:2006) The usage and role of mention customs in treating patients is as one of the basic issues in this research which express the role of ecstasy and mention in patients treatment. Mention of god by saying or doing it, play an important role in healing customs. Basic concept of the research: Due to the importance of mention custom in treating psychic patients customs which have a Ŝāmān records. We explain Anther logy point of view in this field.:

Oxford Bibliographies in Hinduism , 2022

1998

2 use of English terms. Paula, Hè Màrli and Kjetil Nilsen recommended that go to Sri Lanka in the first place, which was definitely good advice.

The shrine of Saint Anthony of Puliyampatti is frequented by patients affected by troubles that are classified in biomedicine as biological, neurotic or psychotic disorders, but which are interpreted as consequences of evil spirits or sorcery. To confirm this aetiology, the relatives oblige the patient to confront every evening the power of Saint Anthony in order to reveal supernatural entities. As this article shows, the pressure exerted on patients by their relatives coercing them to be possessed, and the ease with which some patients submit to their will, call for a definition of the place religious therapy assumes in a plural medical context.

Th e book represents a complex retrospective study of psychological practices phenomenon: their targets, methods, philosophical groundings, evolution and interaction with other forms of spiritual life. It gives the fi rst ever explanation of diff erences between religious, occult and esoteric psychopractices. Psychological practices are shown as an integral cultural phenomenon inherent in mankind at every stage of its evolution. Particular consideration is drawn to psychological practices employed in our days. Th e work contemplates such issues as the role of altered state of consciousness in culture and religion, the role of religion in sociotype formation and maintenance, cultural value of esoteric psychological practices. Here the philosophic and religious origins of modern psychotherapy are revealed, as well as religious processes that take course in it.

Asian Social Science, 2016

Among the ethnic groups living in Kermanshah Province (Note 2), it is customary to perform a special therapy called (Yaar Arat Gerem) to treat individuals diagnosed with distress and neurosis, which is rooted in ancient indigenous traditions of the region. Effective techniques of this ritual are significantly similar to psychodrama. The supervisor of the group performing this procedure, called "Pary gir", along with his assistants begins a therapeutic relationship with the patient, based on empathy and emphasizing on the present time. Through looking at the patient's past and discussing his/her relationships with the important people in his/her life, "Pary gir" tries to understand his/her phenomenal world in order to start a proper treatment through finding the root causes of his/her present problems, and finally utilizes techniques that lead to his/her mental catharsis. In this paper, the researcher explains that psychodrama in its indigenous format, has been used therapeutically for centuries in Iran, through conducting a comparative study of this indigenous therapeutic ritual and modern psychodrama. The comparison highlights the necessity of recognition and revival of these types of indigenous therapeutic rituals, and emphasizes the necessity of their application in the treatment of psychological disorders.

Journal of Analytical Psychology, 2003

An exploration of the theory and practice of healing in the Eastern spiritual traditions reveals the centrality of the idealizing transference in the patient-seeker's interaction with the spiritual teacher or the guru although the aim and development of the idealizing transference in the spiritual traditions are quite different from those of self psychology. In its emphasis on the guru's empathy and in claiming that its meditative practices radically reduce the noise and glare produced by the sensual self which is the chief obstacle to the teacher-healer's empathic understanding of the patient, the Eastern healing discourse goes considerably beyond most traditional psychoanalytic formulations on the nature and communication of empathy in the analytic situation. The Eastern traditions' claim of a significant enhancement of the teacher-healer's empathic capacity through meditative practices, and its communication to the patient/ seeker through other channels besides the verbal one, can make an important contribution to the discussion on the role of empathy in psychoanalytic discourse and, if the claim proves true, to a place for meditative practices in psychoanalytic education.