Putting the Spirit into Culturally Responsive Public Health: Explaining Mass Fainting in Cambodia

Abstract

The study explores the cultural and religious meaning behind episodes of mass fainting sweeping through garment factories in Cambodia. An ethnographic study was conducted at 20 garment factories in Kandal, Preah Sihanouk, Kampong Cham, Kampong Speu, Takeo, and Kampong Chhnang provinces. Informants were 50 women who fainted or possessed and their families, factory and clinic staff, and monks. Informants described their views on the causes of the mass fainting. Based on the informants' views, the seeds were sown when factories were built on former Khmer Rouge killing fields, when local guardian spirits were disrespected and when the factories were not inaugurated with the proper rituals. We found that an inauspicious death, a conflict leading to violation of a vow, or culturally inappropriate interventions by management explained what triggered the episodes. The results show that people believe that mass faintings occur in parallel with tensions between the workers and the foreign owners of the factories and tensions between the human and spiritual owners of the land. The study has implications for the development of culturally responsive public health interventions in mass group phenomena.

Dementia literacy in Western Pacific countries: A mixed methods study

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“No matter what, we just work with the trauma…”: Mental Health Therapists’ Care of Diverse Sexual and Gender Identity Citizens in Cambodia

“…Finally, the wisdom of traditional and Buddhist healers has long been relied upon to support and provide a sense of meaning to the citizens of Cambodia. These local healers offer a non-Western, non-medical perspective on life and wisdom on existential matters that may be particularly helpful for Cambodians as they reconcile with their painful past, navigate their present circumstances, and look toward future directions in living (Eisenbruch, 2019). Future studies are warranted to examine a reciprocal academicresearch partnership in which we examine therapists' efforts to integrate various psychotherapeutic approaches with cultural traditions, evaluate the process of embedding and fortifying peer supports within rural and educational systems, and study the wisdom of traditional and Buddhist healers to address the discrimination and violence that citizens who identify as SGM disproportionately suffer.…”

Risk Communication Through Health Beliefs for Preventing Opisthorchiasis-Linked Cholangiocarcinoma: A Community- Based Intervention in Multicultural Areas of Thailand

“…It resembles a medium and uses musical instruments to perform rituals, aiming to treat sick people who have been treated by usual methods or at hospitals or by modern medicine but have not recovered (Bertrand, 1997). It is considering alternative medicine that should help heal (especially psychological aspects) because patients undergo treatment by other methods that have not been worked out (Eisenbruch, 2019). Risk communication through health beliefs is beneficial for alternative medicine and disease prevention from public health.…”