The Puerto Rican Spiritualist as a Psychiatrist

Abstract

Preliminary study of schizophrenia in the lower class in San Juan, Puerto Rico, suggests that spiritualists often serve as psychiatrists and that spiritualism functions as a therapeutic outlet for mental illnesses. A mentally afflicted individual, alienated from his social groups by his deviant and enigmantic behavior may find that a group of spiritualist accepts his behavior. Participation in a spiritualist group serves to structure, define, and render the aberrant behavior institutionally meaningful. Spiritualism serves the afflicted without the stigma of attending a psychiatric clinic.