Presencia de la herbolaria en el tratamiento de los problemas emocionales: entrevista a los curanderos urbanos
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[1] Dirección de Investigaciones Epidemiológicas y Psicosociales del Instituo Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuent
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- Localización: Salud mental, ISSN 0185-3325, Vol. 25, Nº. 1, 2002, págs. 55-66
- Idioma: español
- Enlaces
- Dialnet Métricas: 2 Citas
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Resumen
- español
El artículo tiene como propósito presentar el uso de la herbolaria medicinal como una herramienta para el tratamiento de problemas emocionales en un grupo de médicos tradicionales de la ciudad de México.
El trabajo se llevó a cabo tomando como base los relatos de 13 médicos tradicionales de la ciudad de México. Los métodos utilizados en este estudio son de corte cualitativo.
El primer paso consistió en plantear las interrogantes sobre salud-enfermedad y técnicas de curación que se querían indagar. Posteriormente se seleccionaron las técnicas y fuentes de recolección de la información (guía de entrevista y guía de observación). Para seleccionar los casos se utilizó la estrategia de muestreo teórico propuesto por Glasser y Strauss (1967), en la que el número de personas entrevistadas no es lo más importante, sino la información que den para interpretar los temas de interés.
Las entrevistas fueron grabadas y, posteriormente, transcritas a papel; los registros de las observaciones se hicieron por medio de notas de campo. La guía de la entrevista está compuesta de diversos temas clave, sin embargo, para los objetivos de este artículo sólo se analizó la información relativa a los recursos terapéuticos utilizados y sobre la concepción de salud y enfermedad que tienen los entrevistados.
El material discursivo obtenido se clasificó por medio de la técnica de "categorización de significados", la cual permite tener categorías mutuamente excluyentes para poder estructurar las complejas narraciones en pequeñas clasificaciones que faciliten conprender el discurso.
En este trabajo se hace un análisis de las siguientes categorías: a) Adquisición del conocimiento herbolario, b) clasificación de las plantas, c) uso de las plantas medicinales y c) el lugar que ocupan las plantas medicinales dentro del complejo proceso "terapéutico".
Diez de los trece médicos entrevistados señalaron que el conocimiento de las plantas lo adquirieron dentro del seno familiar. El proceso de enseñanza se da en varias etapas y está basado en un aprendizaje empírico. Dos informantes más aprendieron por las necesidades que imperaban en las comunidades en donde vivían, y uno más adquirió los conocimientos en una escuela de medicina naturista. Los curanderos conocen la forma y el momento en que hay que cortar las plantas, sin embargo, la mayoría las compran en un mercado, ya sea frescas o secas, debido a las limitaciones ecológicas características de la ciudad de México. Esta forma de adquirir las plantas impide saber con exactitud si las mismas se cortaron y se procesaron de la manera correcta.
Las plantas utilizadas con mayor frecuencia en los casos de problemas emocionales o de nervios son: alpiste, azahar, damiana de California, hierba de san Juan, flor de manita; flor de tila, lechuga, malva, pasiflora, tumbavaquero, toronjil y valeriana.
De acuerdo con los informantes, la herbolaria es fundamental para el tratamiento de patologías físicas u orgánicas, pero pasa a un segundo término cuando la enfermedad es de tipo "emocional". En este tipo de padecimientos son más importantes los recursos curativos asociados con rituales como las limpias y los tratamientos a base de pláticas y consejos. El uso de las plantas se convierte en un recurso complementario que tiene muy poca eficacia si no va acompañado de otros recursos curativos.
Para los problemas de tipo emocional, las plantas se utilizan principalmente como infusiones o en forma de baños. El tipo de planta que se recomienda, la forma de prepararla y la frecuencia con la que se usa se determinan de acuerdo con: el tipo de padecimiento o gravedad de cada paciente; los síntomas observados y el conocimiento práctico que tenga el médico sobre la eficacia de ciertas plantas para curar algunas enfermedades específicas.
- English
The objective of this paper is to examine the use of herbal medicine as a tool for treating emotional problems. The narration of folk healers from Mexico City is the main source of information.
Viesca (1993) indicates that herbal medicine can be studied from two different approaches. One of them is to study the properties and pharmacological characteristics of the plants.
The second approach is to study medicinal plants within their cultural surroundings, that is, to explore what people think about medicinal plants, why they use them and how they justify its use. This last approach was chosen to carry out this research.
Introduction. Introduction. In Introduction. ancient Mexico, disease was conceived as the result of the action of the gods and entities from the infraworld; these characters caused an imbalance that lead to diverse diseases (Lozoya, 1998).
According to the latter, pre hispanic medicine helped the patient restore balance in two different ways. First, through magical-religious practices and prayers; second, through the therapeutic properties of plants and other natural products. As a general rule, both therapeutic procedures were applied simultaneously (Somolinos, 1976).
The main testimonies about the use of plants in traditional medicine are modest and were written by the first missioners.
The most important documents are "The General History of the things of New Spain" by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún;
"The Badiano Codex"; "The natural history of the New Spain" and "The second letter of relation" (Somolinos 1976; Viesca 1976) .
Pre Hispanic healers had a considerable knowledge about the curative effects of diverse plants, but they believed that each plant also had a mystical component. For this reason, before cropping, curing and preparing the plant a special ritual was necessary (Lozoya, 1998).
The use of the plants changed upon the Spaniards’ arrival.
The cultural, magic and religious components were suppressed.
Nevertheless, some healers continued using medicinal plants during the Colony as a core resource to treat any disease (Aguirre, 1963).
During the XIX Century pharmacology was born along with the industrial production of pills, tonics, etc. This development marked subsequent study of medicinal plants; the main concern was to identify the active components.
At the present time, the Mexican herbal medicine, as the empirical use of the plants for the treatment of diverse diseases, has a historical dimension. Currently Mexican herbal medicine has fused with pre hispanic knowledge, Spanish medicine and current urban medicine. During the past years, other elements such as medical practices from China and India have also been incorporated (Hersch, 1999).
On the other hand, there has been a fast development of phytopharmaceutics (medicines extracted from plants). Such products, as well as Mexican medicinal flora, are rigorously studied from different perspectives and disciplines (Lozoya, 1998).
Methods. Methods. Methods. The narration of 13 folk healers from Mexico City is the main source of information. A qualitative approach was used in this study. The first step consisted on selecting the health-disease and healing techniques issues to be studied.
Subsequently, data collection sources and techniques (interview and observation guides) were selected.
Theoretical sampling (Glasser and Strauss, 1967) was the strategy used to select informants. In this case, the number of people interviewed is not as important as the information they provide to study and interpret the subjects of interest. The process finishes when interviews with additional informants do not produce new information for understanding the phenomenon; this process is known as saturation.
Interviews were recorded and later transcribed. The interview guide included several topics, however, this paper only presents information regarding the therapeutic resources used by the healers. The information obtained through interviews was complemented with field notes that accounted for observations (the place, the interviewee, etc.) as well as sensations and experiences lived by the interviewer; field notes allowed to register objective and subjective traits involved in the field work.
Narrations were classified through the "meaning categorization" technique, which allows the recognition of mutually exclusive categories for complex narrations, in order to understand the interviews. The categories presented herein include: a) the place where the healers obtain the plants, b) the acquisition ofknowledge about plants and their uses, c) the tjpe of plants used for treating emotional problems, and d) the role of medicinal plants within the whole complex treatment process.
It is worth mentioning that plant classification was based upon healers’ reports. This study did not involve sample plant recollection for later identification and chemical analysis.
Moreover, this information was complemented with a review of literature reporting several pharmacological and chemical studies (Martínez, 1987; Dávila-Aranda & Germán Ramírez, 1991; Argueta Villamar, et al., 1994; Aguilar-Contreras, 1994;
Heinze & Ontiveros, 1998; Hersch-Martínez, 1999).
Results. Results Ten folk healers indicated that they acquired their knowledge about the plants from family members. The education process occurs in several stages and is based on empirical learning. The healers know how and when plants must be cut. Nevertheless, most of them buy the plants in a market either fresh or dry. This form of obtaining the plants responds to the ecological limitations of Mexico City.
The plants more frequently used with therapeutic purposes to treat emotional problems are: alpiste, azahar, damiana de California, hierba de san Juan, flor de manita; flor de tila, lechuga, malva, pasiflora, tumbavaquero, toronjil and valeriana.
The uses and recommendations to use the plants depend upon 1) the type of disease or each patient’s condition; 2) the symptoms observed by the healer, and 3) the empirical knowledge about the effectiveness of certain medicinal plants to treat emotional disorders.
Finally, it is important to mention that, according to the interviewed healers, medicinal plants are the main resource for treating organic or physical problems, but they are not as important in the treatment of emotional problems; in order to be as effective they should be combined with other resources such as magical-religious rituals or curative ceremonies.
- español
