Prophets and advisors in black spiritual churches: therapy, palliative, or opiate?

Abstract

This paper examines a variant of Black ethnomedicine in urban areas, namely the complex of prophets and advisors found within the Spiritual movement. Based upon fieldwork among Spiritual churches in several cities and intensive interviews with Spiritual mediums in Nashville, Tennessee, attention is given to the form of folk psychotherapy that these prophets and advisors provide the members of their congregations as well as other individuals. Although it is argued that the complex of mediums in Black Spiritual churches provides an important coping mechanism for certain Blacks, it is important, particularly in light of the recent interest in a cooperative relationship between indigeneous healers and representatives of cosmopolitan medicine, to note that the solutions provided by these therapists may tend to deflect attention from recognizing that the problems of their clients often emanate from the stratified and racist nature of American society.