Mario Incayawar, recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship 2006, is Director of 'Runajambi' - Institute for the Study of Quichua Culture and Health.

Ron Wintrob is President of the WPA Section on Transcultural Psychiatry.

1. Overview: Looking Toward the Future of Shared Knowledge and Healing Practices (Ronald Wintrob).
2. Legitimacy and contextual issues in traditional Lakota Sioux healing (Jeffrey A. Henderson).
3. Doctor-patient relationship in psychiatry: traditional approaches in India versus Western approaches (Vijoy K. Varma and Nitin Gupta).
4 South American indigenous knowledge of psychotropics (Sioui Maldonado Bouchard).
5. Psychiatric case identification skills of Yachactaita (Quichua healers of the Andes) (Mario Incayawar, Former William F. and Former Henry R.).
6. A Western psychiatrist among the Shuar people of Ecuador (Joan Obiols-Llandrich).
7. The awakening of collaboration between Quichua healers and psychiatrists in the Andes (Lise Bouchard).
8. Factors associated with use of traditional healers in American Indians and Alaska natives (Jeffrey A. Henderson).
9. Rekindling the fire: healing historical trauma in Native American prison inmates (L. Tyler Barlow and Karuna R. Thompson).
10. American Indian healers and psychiatrists (Jay H. Shore, James H. Shore and Spero M. Manson).
11. Mental health in contemporary China (Xudong Zhao).
12. Health seeking behavior for mental disorders in North India (Antti Pakaslahti).
13. Anxiety, acceptance and Japanese healing (Fumitaka Noda).
14. Traditional healing and its discontents (Robert Lemelson).
15. Islamic religious and traditional healers' contributions to mental health and well-being (M. Fakhr El-Islam).
16. Bringing together indigenous and Western medicine in South Africa: a university initiative (Dan L. Mkize).
17. Globalization and mental health - traditional in pathways to care in the United Kingdom (Ajoy Tachil and Dinesh Bhugra).
18. Psychotherapy or religious healing (Micol Ascoli)?
19. Maori knowledge and medical science (Mason Durie).
20. Future partnerships in global mental health (Mario Incayawar, William F. Quillian and Henry R. Luce).

This exceptional book responds to the intense current interest in defining and understanding the contribution of traditional medical knowledge and the intervention techniques of traditional healers to national mental health services around the world.
* First book on traditional healing and transcultural psychiatry
Delineates the knowledge and clinical skills of traditional healers from diverse cultural areas around the world
* Describes the clinical and social roles of traditional healers in their communities and the challenges of constructing national mental health programs that include traditional knowledge and healing techniques
* Assesses issues on efficacy and safety of traditional healers' interventions
* Includes contributions from leading scholars in this field from South Africa, India, New Zealand, Andorra, Canada, USA, Italy, and the Quichua and Sioux Lakota Nations of South and North America
* Theme of culture versus science: The psychiatrists discuss the effects of local culture upon mental health and consider the impact, benefit and incorporation of traditional healing as a tool for the clinical psychiatrist.
* Easy to use with case studies and vignettes throughout and a glossary to explain any technical terms
Psychiatrists and Traditional Healers: Unwitting Partners in Global Mental Health is a valuable addition to the bookshelf of a wide array of mental health trainees, researchers and professionals interested in cultural psychiatry in general and the role of traditional healers around the world.