%0 Journal Article
%T Shaman, Psychoanalyst or Obstetrician: A Critical Reading of Claude L¨¦vi-Strauss¡¯ Essay ¡°The Efficiency of Symbols¡±
%A Staffan Mj£¿nes
%J Folklore : Electronic Journal of Folklore
%D 2010
%I Estonian Literary Museum, Estonian Folklore Institute
%X This article intends to clarify the obstetric, medical-psychologicaland ethnological credibility of a well-known essay in structural anthropology. Claude L¨¦vi-Strauss claims that it is possible to heal a person with an acute, life-threatening, physical, medical condition, in this case a complicated delivery, with purely psychological or magical methods. His reasoning is based on anincomplete source as well as on a grave anatomical misunderstanding. An obstetric analysis of the complete source furthermore shows that the medicine man or shaman uses a combination of a manual intervention, drug treatment and psychological influence. L¨¦vi-Strauss¡¯ claim must therefore be refuted. The empirical basis is also insufficient for L¨¦vi-Strauss¡¯ far-reaching conclusions on the topography of the human mind, the function of the subconscious and thecomparison between psychoanalysis and shamanism. The medicine man is described by L¨¦vi-Strauss as a ¡°noble savage¡±. However, L¨¦vi-Strauss also points out the importance of the psychological support of the patient in a valuable way.
%K birth
%K cosmology
%K disease
%K medical anthropology
%K obstetrics
%K shamanism
%K structuralism
%K traditional medicine
%U http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol45/mjones.pdf