SIR MARTIN DURIE ON SPIRITUALITY AND THE JOURNEY TO WELLNESS

Another Māori belief is the physical health is dependent on spiritual health. A prominent Māori psychiatrist Sir Mason Durie gave us a lecture that brought that point home to me. He said when he was in training a 14-year-old Māori girl had come into our hospital with a several days history of behavioral changes in school. When the local general practitioner heard about her visual hallucinations and strange speech, he wanted to have her committed to a mental hospital. When she developed fever, headaches, delirium and a stiff neck her grandfather brought her to the emergency department, and she was admitted to our hospital. After a through workup the consultant in charge gave the family the diagnosis of viral encephalitis. The girls grandfather told the doctor that the problem wasn’t a virus, but the girl was the victim of a makutu (curse on her) he said, “her mother (my daughter) had left her and had gone to Australia with another man and her husband’s family took their revenge by placing a makutu on my granddaughter.” “That sounds a little hard to believe. An illness such as this does not develop because of an unseen curse or mysterious force.” exclaimed the doctor. Anti-inflammatory drugs and antiviral treatment were initiated by the hospital, while the grandfather spent most every day at the bedside and brought in leaves of kawakawa, karamu and kowhai to heal her spirit. “The treatment has been successful, and she has recovered from the virus” said the doctor one morning on rounds. The grandfather stepped forward and corrected the doctor he said, “the girl had recovered because the curse had been lifted.” The grandfather then asked the doctor “what did the virus look like?” The doctor had to admit he had never actually seen the virus. The grandfather smiled and said, “doctor I admire your faith in the power of invisible forces, in something you have never seen.” It was then he realized the girl’s loss of spiritual health was closely connected to her physical health. The girl’s poor mental health from the loss of her mother in her life led to suppression of her immune system and an illness from a viral infection. From that day forward he never forgot the need to “recognize spirituality as part of the journey to wellness.” Thanks to Dr. Durie I never forgot his powerful message.