Amafufunyana

Amafufunyana is an unspecified culture-bound syndrome named by traditional healers of the Xhosa people, relating to claims of demonic possession made about members of the Xhosa community who exhibit aberrant behavior and psychological distress; later study found the term was being directed at people experiencing varying types of schizophrenia. A related term, ukuthwasa, refers to positive forms of claimed possession, which likewise can involve people with schizophrenia, and the term has also found cultural usage among some groups of Zulu people. The word amafufunyana translates directly as nerves and belongs to a much larger cultural framework connecting different types of psychosis to religious, social and, more recently, psychiatric beliefs and practices; in a 1998 interview study of Xhosa people with schizophrenia by Lund and colleagues, interaction with scientists and psychological services had shifted the preferred treatment for the condition from traditional healers toward active psychiatric assessment.