The Moth Presents Andrew Solomon: Notes on an Exorcism
Summary
TLDRIn this compelling narrative, the speaker shares his journey from deep depression to recovery, exploring unconventional treatments across cultures. Initially a skeptic, he delves into various therapies, from medical to mystical. A pivotal experience in Senegal involves a ritual with a shaman, 'Madame D', which includes a symbolic 'wedding' with a ram and a community-driven exorcism. Despite his skepticism, the ritual's communal support and dramatic actions leave him feeling uplifted. The talk concludes with reflections on the importance of community and ritual in mental health, contrasting Western practices with the empowering approach of the Senegalese community.
Takeaways
- 📝 The speaker, Andrew Solomon, battled with severe depression and wrote about his journey to recovery.
- 💊 Initially, Solomon believed only medication and certain talking therapies could treat depression.
- 🔄 His perspective changed upon realizing that various treatments could alleviate depression if they improved one's mood.
- 🧘♂️ Solomon explored a wide range of treatments, from experimental brain surgeries to hypnotic regimens.
- 📝 A woman's yarn crafting helped her overcome depression, illustrating the diverse ways people can heal.
- 🌍 Solomon discovered that depression is not confined to Western cultures but is a universal human experience.
- 🇸🇳 In Senegal, he learned about tribal rituals and the 'unop', a traditional healing ceremony for depression.
- 🐏 Solomon participated in an 'unop', which involved a complex ritual including music, dancing, and animal sacrifice.
- 🩸 The central ritual involved Solomon being tied with animal intestines and burying the pieces of a sacrificed ram.
- 🌟 Despite not believing in the animistic principles, Solomon felt uplifted by the communal support and the ceremony's intensity.
- 📚 Solomon later learned that similar healing practices exist in Rwanda, emphasizing the importance of community and activity in mental health treatment.
Q & A
What was the speaker's initial perspective on treatments for depression?
-Initially, the speaker believed that only medication and certain talking therapies were effective treatments for depression.
How did the speaker's view on depression treatments evolve?
-The speaker's view evolved to consider a wider range of treatments effective, realizing that if a treatment made someone feel better, it could be considered a cure for depression, which is an illness of how one feels.
What was the significance of the woman who made things from yarn in the speaker's research?
-The woman who made things from yarn represented the idea that unconventional methods could be effective in treating depression, as she found relief through this activity.
Why did the speaker travel to Senegal?
-The speaker traveled to Senegal to research tribal rituals used for treating depression, after learning about them from a friend living there.
Who is Madame D and what role does she play in the speaker's story?
-Madame D is a practitioner of the unop, a traditional ritual for treating depression in Senegal. She plays a central role by conducting the ritual for the speaker.
What was required for the speaker to participate in the unop ritual?
-To participate in the unop ritual, the speaker had to buy specific items including African fabric, a calabash, millet, sugar, cola beans, and live animals such as roosters and a ram.
What was the central part of the unop ritual like for the speaker?
-The central part of the unop ritual involved the speaker getting into a makeshift wedding bed with a ram, being covered and buried under cloth by villagers dancing around, and then being 'released' with the ram's throat slit and covered in its blood.
How did the speaker feel after participating in the unop ritual?
-The speaker felt exhilarated and 'up' after the ritual, even though they did not believe in the animistic principles behind it, due to the communal support and the unique experience.
What was the reaction of the Rwandan mental health worker to Western mental health practices?
-The Rwandan mental health worker criticized Western mental health practices for not involving communal support, music, or outdoor activities, which they felt were necessary components for treating depression effectively.
Why were some Western mental health workers asked to leave Rwanda after the genocide?
-Some Western mental health workers were asked to leave Rwanda because their practices did not align with the cultural needs and expectations for treating depression, lacking elements like community involvement and physical activity.
Outlines
📚 Personal Struggle and Exploration of Depression Treatments
The speaker, Andrew Solomon, shares his personal journey with depression, highlighting the severity of his condition and how it impacted his daily life. He initially believed that only medication and certain talking therapies were effective treatments. However, his perspective changed as he discovered the wide array of treatments available, including unconventional methods. He emphasizes the importance of how one feels, suggesting that if an unconventional method improves one's mood, it can be considered a cure for depression. Solomon also discusses the global nature of depression, noting its presence across cultures and time. His friend David introduces him to tribal rituals in Senegal as a form of depression treatment, prompting Solomon to travel there to learn more.
🌍 Cultural Insights on Depression Treatment in Senegal
Andrew Solomon's journey to Senegal to understand the local approach to treating depression is detailed. He meets Madame D, who practices the 'unop' ritual, and expresses his desire to witness this ritual. Although initially hesitant, Madame D agrees to perform an 'unop' for Solomon, tailored to address his depression. The preparation involves a shopping list of items, including African fabric, a calabash, millet, sugar, cola beans, and live animals. The process is described as a shamanic experience with music, and Solomon is instructed to participate in various activities, such as holding and dropping objects, to cleanse his spirit.
🐏 The Unop Ritual: A Cultural Healing Experience
The narrative continues with Solomon's participation in the unop ritual. He describes the intense and elaborate ceremony, which includes being in a makeshift wedding bed with a ram, symbolizing the expulsion of negative spirits. The ritual is a communal event with music, dancing, and the eventual slaughter of the ram. Solomon is covered in the animal's blood, signifying a rebirth. The experience is overwhelming, both physically and emotionally, but ultimately leads to a feeling of exhilaration and a sense of community support.
🌱 Cross-Cultural Comparison of Mental Health Practices
In the final paragraph, Solomon reflects on a conversation he had in Rwanda about the unop ritual and its similarities to local practices there. He contrasts the communal and celebratory nature of these cultural treatments with the more individualistic and somber approach of Western mental health practices. Solomon suggests that the Western methods may not be as effective because they lack the community involvement and the physical and emotional engagement that rituals like the unop provide. The speaker concludes with applause, indicating the end of his talk.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Depression
💡Treatment
💡Recovery
💡Cultural Rituals
💡Anop
💡Community
💡Symbolism
💡Spirits
💡Healing
💡Music and Dance
💡Cross-cultural Perspectives
Highlights
The author's personal journey from depression to recovery and their interest in various treatments.
The realization that depression is an illness of how one feels, and various treatments can be effective.
The exploration of experimental brain surgeries and hypnotic regimens as potential treatments for depression.
A woman's testimony about finding relief from depression through crafting with yarn.
The cultural perspective on depression and its treatment across different societies.
The author's friend David's invitation to Senegal to explore tribal rituals for treating depression.
The introduction to the 'unop' ritual, a traditional Senegalese healing practice.
The author's unexpected opportunity to participate in an 'unop' ritual for their own depression.
Preparations for the ritual, including shopping for specific items and the purchase of a live ram.
The detailed description of the 'unop' ritual process, including wearing a loin cloth and being rubbed with millet.
The use of music, specifically 'Chariots of Fire', during the ritual.
The central part of the ritual involving a 'wedding bed' with the ram and the community's participation.
The intense experience of being buried under cloth and the subsequent release during the ritual.
The slaughter of the ram and the symbolic meaning of the blood in the ritual.
The final parts of the ritual, including being tied with the ram's intestines and burying pieces of it while reciting a phrase.
The author's emotional response to the ritual and the community's support.
The contrast between the 'unop' ritual and Western mental health practices discussed in Rwanda.
The importance of community, music, and physical activity in mental health treatment as observed in Rwanda.
Transcripts
ladies and gentlemen Andrew
Solomon so I'm not depressed
now but I was depressed for a long
time I'm even less depressed now
I was depressed for a long time and I
wrote about being depressed and I lived
for a long time with blinding depression
and had long stretches when everything
seemed hopeless and pointless when
returning calls from Friends seemed like
more than I could do when getting up and
going out into the world seemed
painful when I was completely crippled
with
anxiety and when I finally got better
and started writing about the process of
recovery I became very interested in all
of the different kinds of treatment that
there were for depression and having
started as a kind of medical
conservative thinking that there were
only a couple of things that worked
medication and certain talking therapies
and that that was really it I very
gradually began to changed my mind
because I realized that if you have
brain cancer and you decide that
standing on your head and Garling for
half an hour every day makes you feel
better it may make you feel better but
the likelihood is that you still have
brain cancer and you're still going to
die from it but if you have depression
and you say that standing on your head
and gargling for half an hour makes you
feel better then you are actually cured
because depression is an illness of how
you feel and if you feel really great
after you do that then you're not
depressed anymore so I began to think
all kinds of things could work and I
researched everything ranging from
experimental brain surgeries to hypnotic
regimens of various kinds I had people
writing to me because I had been
publishing on this subject there was one
woman who wrote to me and she said that
she had tried actually electroshock
treatments and a variety of other
approaches to depression medication and
therapy and she had finally found the
thing that worked for her and she wanted
me to tell the world about it and that
was making little things from yarn
um some of which he sent
me and none of which I'm wearing right
now but in any event um I had that um
that rich engagement and I also became
interested as I was doing this work in
the idea that depression existed not
only in the Civilized West as people
tended to perceive it to exist but
actually across cultures and had existed
across time and so when one of my
dearest friends my friend David HEC who
was living for a little while in senagal
said to me do you know about the tribal
rituals that are used for the treatment
of depression here I said no I don't
know about them but I would like to know
about them and he said well if you come
for a visit we could try to do some
research on this topic and so I set off
for senagal and I met David and I was
introduced to David's then girlfriend
now ex-wife
elen and um uh it turned out that elen
had a cousin whose mother was a friend
of someone who went to school with the
daughter of a person who actually
practiced the unop and that I could
therefore go and interview this woman
who had practiced the unop and so we
went off to um a small town about 2
hours outside of takar and uh I was
introduced to this extraordinary old
large woman wrapped in miles and miles
of African fabric printed with figures
of eyes and she was Madame D and we did
an interview for about an hour and she
told me all about the unop and at the
end of it feeling rather daring I said
um listen I said I I hope I I don't know
whether this is something you would even
consider I said but would it be possible
for me to attend anop
and she saidwell I've certainly never
had a foreigner the local word was to
Bob I've never had a foreigner attend
one of these before she said but
actually she said I mean you've come
through these friends and these
connections she said yes the next time I
perform an end up you may be present and
I said that's fantastic I said when are
you next going to be doing anund up and
she said oh it'll be sometime in the
next 6
months and I said 6 months is quite a
long time from me to stay here in this
town waiting for you to do one I said is
there anyone who might maybe we could
expedite one for somebody move it
forward um I'll pitch in um she said no
it really doesn't work that way she said
I'm sorry but um that that's that's how
it is and I said well I guess I won't be
able to see an and up then but even so
this conversation has been so
interesting and so helpful to me and and
I I'm a little sad leaving here about
not actually getting to see one but but
I thank you and she said well I'm I'm
glad that you could come I'm glad it was
helpful and she said um but there is one
other thing she said I I I hope you
don't mind my saying this and I said no
what what is it and she said you don't
look that great
yourself she said are you you are
suffering from depression and I said
well yes I said I I was very acute it's
kind of a little better now but but yeah
I still do actually suffer from
depression she said well I've certainly
never done this for a tu before but I
could actually do an unup for
you and I said
oh I said what an what an interesting
idea I said well um yes uh sure yeah
absolutely yes let's let's let's do that
I said then I'll have an do and she said
oh well that's great she said and she
gave us some um some sort of fairly
basic instructions and then we left and
my
translator the aforementioned then
girlfriend now ex-wife of my friend
turned to me and she said are you
completely crazy do you have any idea
what you're getting yourself into and I
said well you know all these things very
interesting she saidou crazy she said
you're totally crazy but I'll help you
if you want so we had left and the first
thing we had was a shopping list there
had been a she had you could get them to
buy the stuff but you had to pay a
search charge i' said no we'd buy the
stuff so we had to go out we had to buy
seven yards of African
fabric um we had to get um a calabash
which was a large bowl fashioned from a
gourd we had to get um 3 kilos of millet
we had to get sugar we had to get cola
beans and then we had to get two live
[ __ ] rolls two roosters and a ram
um and so elen and I went to the market
with David and with these other um
people and we got most of the things and
I said well but what what about the the
RAM and aen said we can't buy the ram
today what are we going to do with it
overnight so I saw the sense of that so
the next
day the next day we got into a taxi to
go back out 2 hours to where we were
going and I said what about the RAM and
elen said oh we'll see a ram along the
way so we were going along and going
along and there was a sagales Shepherd
by the side of the road with his flock
and we stopped the cab and we got out
and we bought the RAM for $7 and then we
had a little bit of a struggle getting
the live Ram into the trunk of the taxi
cab um so but the cab driver seemed not
at all worried even by the fact that the
ram kept relieving himself in the trunk
of the taxi cam um and so then we got to
um rufis and we got there and said well
here I am I'm ready um for my closeup
and uh the thing about the endup is that
it varies enormously depending on a
whole variety of signals and symbols
that come from above so we had to go
through this whole shamanistic process
and I still didn't know really very much
of what was going to happen so first I
had to change out of my jeans and my
t-shirt and put on a loin cloth and then
I sat down and then I had my chest and
my arms rubbed with with Millet and then
um which is a grain and then someone
said oh we really should have music um
for this and I said oh great and I
thought you know drumming I thought some
atmospheric thing and she came out with
her very prized possession which was a
battery operated tape player for which
he had one tape which was Chariots of
Fire
so we started listening to Chariots of
Fire and in the meanwhile I was given
sort of various shamis objects I had to
hold them with my hands and drop them I
had to hold them with my feet and drop
them I they would s of say oh this ogur
is well this ogur is badly there were
five assistants to Madame doof who had
all gathered around and we sort of spent
the morning like this and it was all
really um just fine and then um they
said it was maybe we started at about 8
maybe about 11: 11:30 they said well now
it's actually time for the the central
part of the ritual and I said oh okay
and the sound of drumming be the
drumming I'd been hoping for the
drumming began and so there was all of
this drumming and it was very exciting
and we um went to the Central Square of
the village where there was a small
makeshift wedding bed that I had to get
into with the ram um and I had been told
it would be very very bad luck if the
ram escaped and that I had to hold on to
him and that the reason we had to be in
this wedding bed was that all my
depression and all my problems were
caused by the fact that I had spirits in
sagol you have Spirits sort of all over
you the way here you sort of have
microbes some are good for you some are
bad for you some are neutral anyway my
bad spirits were extremely jealous of my
real life sexual partners um some of
whom are here tonight and um uh and that
we had to um mify the anger of the um of
the spirit so I had to get into this
wedding bed with the RAM and I had to
hold the ram very tightly because he he
was not having a good life this R um and
he of course immediately relieved
himself on my leg and the entire Village
had taken the day off from their work in
the fields and were dancing around us in
concentric circles and as they danced
throwing blankets and sheets of cloth
over us and so we were gradually being
buried and it was unbelievably hot and
it was completely stifling and there was
the sound of these stamping feet as
everyone danced around us and then these
drums which were getting louder and
louder and more ecstatic and more
ecstatic and I was just about at the
point in which I thought I was going to
faint or pass out um not to tread on
anyone else's story here but um and at
that key moment um suddenly all of the
cloths were pulled off I was yanked to
my feet the loin cloth that was all I
was wearing was pulled from me the poor
old Ram's throat was slit um as were the
throats of the two [ __ ] rolls and I was
covered in the blood of the freshly
slaughtered RAM and the [ __ ] rolls um
and so there I was naked totally covered
in blood and they said okay that's the
end of this part of it and
um I said well okay and they said um but
uh you uh uh they said we're actually we
there's said the next piece comes now
and I said okay we went over back to the
area where we've done the morning
preparations and one of them said but
look it's it's kind of lunchtime why
don't we just take a break for a minute
would you like a
Coke I I don't drink Coke that much but
at that moment it seemed like a really
really really good idea and I said yes
and so I sat there naked and completely
covered in animal blood um with flies
kind of gathering as they will when
you're naked and covered in animal blood
and I I drank this coke and then when I
had finished the coke they said okay now
we have the sort of final parts of the
ritual they said um so first you have to
put your your hands by your sides and
and hold your stand very straight and
very erect and I said okay and then they
tied me up with the intestines of the
ram um and in the meanwhile it was
hanging from a nearby tree and they were
there were someone said of doing some
butchering of it and they took various
little bits of it out and then I had to
kind of Shuffle over all tied up in in
intestines which most of you probably
haven't done but it's hard
um I had to shuffle over and I had to
take these little pieces of the RAM and
I had to dig holes and I had to put the
pieces of the ram in the holes
and I had to say something and what I
had to say was actually to me incredibly
strangely touching in the middle of this
weird experience I had to
say spirits leave me alone to complete
the business of my life and know that I
will never forget you and I thought what
a kind thing to say to the evil spirits
you're exercising that I'll never forget
you and I haven't so anyway there were
various other little bits and pieces
that followed I was given a piece of
paper in which all of the Millet from
the morning had been gathered I was told
that the next morning I I should sleep
with it under my pillow and in the
morning get up and give it to a beggar
who had good hearing and no deformities
and that when I gave it to him that
would be the end of my troubles and then
I put my the women sort of all filled
their mouths with water and began
spitting water all over me which it
turns out as the sort of you know it's
the surround shower effect and rinsing
the blood away for me and it gradually
came off and when I was clean they gave
me back my jeans and everyone danced and
they barbecued the RAM and we had this
dinner and I felt so
up I felt so up it had it had been quite
an astonishing experience even though I
didn't believe in the animous principles
behind it all of these people had been
gathered together cheering for me and it
was very
exhilarating and I had had a very odd
experience 5 years later when I was
working on my current book and I was in
Rwanda doing something else alt together
and I got into a conversation with
someone there and I described the
experience I'd had in senagal and he
said oh you know we have something
that's a little like that he said that's
West Africa this is East Africa it's
quite different but there are some
similarities um in some rituals here he
said you know we had a lot of trouble
with Western mental health workers who
came here immediately after the genocide
and we had to ask some of them to leave
and I said what what was the problem and
he said okay he said they came and their
practice did not involve being outside
in the sun like what you're describing
which is after all where you begin to
feel better there was no music or
drumming to get your blood flowing again
when you're depressed and you're low and
you need to have your blood flowing he
said there was no sense that everyone
had taken the day off so that the entire
Community could come together to try to
lift you up and bring you back to Joy he
said there was no acknowledgement of the
depression as something invasive and
external that could actually be cast out
of you again he said instead they would
take people one at a time into these
dingy little rooms and have them sit
around for an hour or so and talk about
bad things that had happened to
them he said we had to get them to leave
the
country thank
[Applause]
you
[Music]
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