#268: Desmangles responds to Tetgren (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: leslie desmangles <leslie.desmangles@mail.cc.trincoll.edu>

I read and appreciated Tetgren's moving testimony of his brother's personal
history, and thought that it took a great deal of courage to recount it.

I do think that his story raises two issues that would be the subject of
some interesting research. First, what is the rate of mental depression
among Haitians? Is it lower there than in the U.S.? Second, how many of
these mental disorders in Haiti are simply not reported to the medical
community because many Haitians characterize them as symptomatic of spirit
possessions and hence seek religious cures?  

Does anyone know if what Tetgren reports is correct that there appears to
be fewer cases of mental depression in Haitian families than there are in
the U.S.?

Leslie G. Desmangles