Therapeutic landscapes of traditional healing: building spaces of well-being with the traditional healer in St. Louis, Senegal

Abstract

Literature on therapeutic landscapes has not sufficiently explored the relational dynamics that contribute to shaping therapeutic landscapes. In particular, not enough attention has been paid to the patient -healer relationship and its role in producing wellbeing, especially in non-western settings. This article is a first attempt to address these deficiencies by exploring the role of the patient -healer relationship in shaping therapeutic landscapes especially as regards traditional healing in the city of St. Louis in Northern Senegal. By exploring the understandings of health and well-being of 160 people (including patients, herbalists and traditional healers), this article will show how therapeutic landscapes of traditional healing are built relationally in the patient -healer encounter; it will also underscore the strong link between the herbal component of traditional healing, the cognitive component of dialogue with the healer and the spiritual and sociocultural elements associated with rituals. The findings have relevant policy implications. This article takes a stand in the debate on integration between 'traditional' and 'western medicine' in Africa by stating that integration should give more serious consideration to the ability of traditional healing systems to create wellbeing because, as the case study shows, the latter strongly relies on the relational dimension of healing.Paysages thérapeutiques de méthodes de soins traditionnels. Construction d'espaces de bien-être avec le guérisseur traditionnel à Saint Louis, au Sénégal Les recherches sur les paysages thérapeutiques n'ont pas suffisamment exploré les dynamiques relationnelles qui contribuent à donner forme aux paysages thérapeu-tiques. En particulier, on ne s'est pas assez penché sur la relation entre le patient et le guérisseur et son rôle générateur de bien-être, surtout dans un contexte non occidental. Cet article est une première tentative pour rectifier ces lacunes en explorant le rôle de la relation entre le patient et le guérisseur dans la formation de paysages thérapeutiques, en particulier en ce qui concerne la méthode de soin traditionnel dans la ville de Saint Louis au nord du Sénégal. En explorant les compréhensions de santé et de bien-être de 160 personnes (incluant patients, herboristes et guérisseurs traditionnels), cet article désire démontrer que les paysages thérapeutiques de méthodes de soins traditionnels sont bâties de manière relationnelle sur la rencontre entre le patient et le guérisseur; il désire aussi souligner le lien fort entre l'élément de soins traditionnels à base de plantes, l'élément cognitif du dialogue avec le guérisseur et les éléments spirituels et socio-culturels associés aux rituels. Les résultats ont des implications politiques pertinentes.«traditionnelle » et « la médecine occidentale » en Afrique en affirmant que l'intégration devrait plus sérieusement prendre en considération la capacité des méthodes de soins traditionnelles de créer du bien-être car, comme le cas d'étude le montre bien, ce dernier dépe...

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