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Ayurveda and Mental Illness*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Gananath Obeyesekere
Affiliation:
University of Ceylon

Extract

Jerrold E. Levy's comments on my article on the Sanni Demons in the April 1969 issue of this journal betrays serious misconceptions regarding the nature of Ayurvedic medicine. Levy says that Ayurveda makes no distinction between mental and physical illnesses, that it has little preoccupation with symptoms, and that it has little actual efficacy. The first is concerned with the doctrine of Ayurveda; the second with its practice; and the third with its effects. I shall demonstrate that these three views of Ayurveda are false.

Type
Medicine in China and India
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1970

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References

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