Many psychiatric researchers believe that the clinical picture of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) shows little variability cross-culturally. This study examined the symptomatology and illness experience of 19 patients suffering from OCD in Bali, Indonesia. Patients were assessed using a semi-structured clinical interview. The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) was utilized for gauging symptomatology and severity of symptoms. A sub-sample of patients was interviewed using person-centered ethnographic techniques. Balinese culture strongly shaped symptomatic expression. The most common obsessional themes emphasized patients' obsessional need to know information about their social network, such as the identity and status of passers-by. Somatic obsessions and religious themes around witchcraft and spirits were also prominent. Psychiatric, indigenous and anthropological perspectives are contrasted to highlight the power and limitations of each to explain OCD.

In a discussion of patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and/or Tourettes's Syndrome (TS), in Bali, Indonesia, traditional healing and psychiatric perspectives are used to highlight the power and weakness of each to treat these conditions. Given they are drawn from the same culture, should not indigenous explanatory models provide meaning and be more efficacious at relieving the suffering of people with OCD and TS-like symptoms? What if they provide an understandable meaning for patients but these meanings have no efficacy? Ethnographic data on Balinese models for illness are presented. Multiple data sources were used to frame the complex Balinese traditional healing systems. Forty patients were interviewed regarding their utilization of traditional healers, and healers were observed treating patients and interviewed regarding their treatment regimens and explanatory models. Traditional explanatory models for illness provide an understandable and integrated system of meaning for these disorders but are not successful in relieving symptomatology. Neurobiological approaches, traditional healing, and ethnographic methods are compared and contrasted to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each in relation to issues of exegesis and efficacy.

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