Week 3 - Diane Tran

The article "What a Shaman Sees in a Mental Hospital" depicts the idea of mental illness in the West and how people in the West do not really accept psychic phenomena. Dr. Some describes, "Mental disorder, behavioral disorder of all kinds, signal the fact that two obviously incompatible energies have merged into the same field" (2). Most of the time in the West, doctors will group this psychic phenomenon as a mental illness. In addition, Dr. Some says, "We in the West are not trained in how to deal or even taught to acknowledge the existence of psychic phenomena, the spirit world" (2).


Like the speaker that came into class last week, she described that when shamans are able to hear voices of spirits, the West can consider it as mental illness such as schizophrenia. I do believe that sometimes going to the doctors does not always help with an illness that you have. I find it interesting that the West side of the world does not really believe in this psychic phenomena and how it barely started making an impact. In my opinion, I believe that there should be a balance with the spirit world and the medical world. There are just some things that are unexplainable in our world.