ABSTRACT
In Italy and in other Western countries, ethnopsychiatry was defined in the past as that part of popular medicine concerned with interpreting and treating nervous and psychological disturbances and what was considered abnormal behaviour. As a study and therapy of mental and psychological disturbances of subjugated cultures, ethnopsychiatry shows, at least in the Italian experience, points of contact and differentiation with "erudite" psychotherapeutic and psychiatric practice. The social and cultural dimension of health and illness, together with the medical practices used in today's "creolized" societies, can be better understood if we are aware of the historical and anthropological aspects of both "people's" popular traditions and of traditions belonging to cultures currently considered "other". In traditional visions, both conservative and innovative currents coexist and give life to three prevailing dynamics: "permanence" of the traditional vision; "syncretism", or adaptation of the traditional and the modem; and "modernization".
