[Review] Therapist Secrets, a book by Tobie Nathan

I discovered this book while watching INREES videos. I have virtually no knowledge of psychiatry, but this man’s interview intrigued me and I wanted to read his book to learn more. Here’s the book description:

For fifty years, Tobie Nathan has practiced ethnopsychiatry: he welcomes and cares for patients by taking into account their history, culture, language, and beliefs. A recognized university professor and often award-winning author, he now reflects on the major milestones of his life as so many benchmarks in the development of his discipline. He sheds light on what seems essential to him and shares what he had never revealed. “The multitude of languages and cultures is the true wealth of the world.” Recently, he was called upon to establish dialogue with radicalized youth. More than ever, his method is necessary. In a divided world that distrusts difference, Tobie Nathan opens a path for the future.

You can buy it on Amazon (Amazon link) or at Fnac (Fnac link) for €22

I’ll give you a detailed summary of the book here, and I’ll add my (brief) opinion.

Born in Cairo to a Jewish family descended from a famous rabbi, Dr. Tobie Nathan was forced to exile to France during yet another purge of the Jewish community in Egypt. A student of Georges Devereux, he became the undisputed figure of ethnopsychiatry in France. After 50 years of practice, he shares his journey and research in this book: it’s his way of passing on his knowledge, even though he admits he can’t convey the methodology: “there is no universal method, therapy cannot be singular; it is multiple by nature”—you learn through your patients, each patient is unique, there’s no manual for ethnopsychiatry.

Initially trained in psychoanalysis, he wasn’t convinced by its results and tried other methods. During therapy with immigrants, he saw that they already had a rough idea of why they were sick (we’re talking about mental illness) and that it was linked to their customs, their objects, their gods… they just needed a therapist able to understand and accept the concept without judging.

To that end, Dr. Tobie Nathan also set up a new device before introducing the patient’s mother tongue into the session space. Even if the patient speaks French well, they are always accompanied by an interpreter, because certain concepts are expressed much better in their native language and are sometimes untranslatable.

The book contains a few treatment examples: for instance, Laetitia, who was mute, was said to be afflicted by a kimpi, and recognizing the kimpi in question healed the young patient. We don’t know if it was truly the kimpi, or if it was the recognition of her difference, acknowledgment of her shame at being different, that brought her out of her mutism. The author doesn’t give too much Cartesian explanation for each cured case, but we see how he leads his patients to reflect, how he reflects with them, even though he doesn’t know all the occult practices or pagan gods that exist in the world. Ultimately, each patient’s recovery depends not only on them, but often on external devices, objects, and people.

The author then discusses hypnosis and especially the hypothesis of his colleague Chertok, who considers hypnosis as the “elementary particle” of all therapies (shamanism, magnetism, healers). It’s an interesting observation, because indeed during my “trance” in holotropic breathwork, I saw some similarities with my hypnosis sessions.

There is no mental illness, only local devices, arrangements, combining behaviors, therapists, rites, and objects.

Tobie Nathan

Next, the author takes us on a tour of Africa and the Middle East of concepts, practices, and objects of which I have absolutely no knowledge:

• The disease of the spirits in Burkina Faso
• In Benin, the therapist doesn’t ask patients why they come to see him. It’s the fa that tells him. Each throw of the fa rosary gives an answer: 11, 00… 16 combinations are possible. I’m very surprised to see this binary system appear also in Benin because the Chinese Yi King works on roughly the same principle.
• In Egypt, followers of the zar (only women) express their suffering in frantic trances, letting themselves be possessed by the zar. But in exchange, they have the power to read the future and the hidden face of the present.
• In Essaouira, people possessed by a djinn are brought together during a lila, a “therapeutic night” to offer the djinns their favorite songs, dances, and sacrifices.

Dr. Tobie Nathan presents very insightful ideas and comparisons that make you think. For example, he compares invisible beings to viruses.

“As invisibles often do, as djinns or mlouk do, [the virus] tries to subjugate us to its will through illness.”

“Are viruses living beings? No, they are not made of cells, but as soon as they enter their host, the cell they will infect, the viruses [become the cell].”

Then follows a long section on animated objects:

• Object-gods that would have the same roots as the golem. To make a golem and give it life, in the manner of the Kabbalists, you had to know the name of God! Similarly, a boli now displayed at the Musée du Quai Branly is a real god, a living deity. It was created according to three principles: the multiplicity of its constituent elements, their aggregation, their coalescence. To keep it alive, it had to be fed, maintained, and loved.
• In parallel, there are also objects intended to harm others. In a society where anyone can harm another through hidden objects, the world, according to the author, holds in balance, becomes polite and kind to others, so as not to suffer spells.
• Finally, we end with the “amulets” section, where the legend of Lilith, Adam’s first wife, scares people so much that they equip future mothers and their children with very sophisticated protective amulets.
• Magic squares get a brief paragraph in the book

All these methods teach us the following lesson:

To heal, it is not enough to understand, you must act. Act, not only on the patient alone, but also on their entourage, their family, their rivals, their enemies, on the atmosphere, as well…

Tobie Nathan

This observation is so true! Isn’t this the way we are supposed to heal our modern diseases, in a more holistic manner? First, not just considering the diseased organ but the whole body? (as in Shiatsu). Then, taking into account all external elements? (nutrition, psychology…).

Dr. Tobie Nathan asserts that all these folkloric objects and concepts find their counterpart in our current world:

• Isn’t the smartphone a all-powerful object-god that knows everything? That needs to be “fed, maintained” by recharging it every day?
• Aren’t the beings that possess men invisible viruses whose effects are seen through diseases?
• Don’t the amulets given to future mothers and children have the effect of attracting evil, to trick it… isn’t that how our vaccines work?

To learn more, he went to see the makers of fetish objects and confirms that it requires true craftsmanship as well as a gift for listening and understanding to make such objects. They are intelligent objects.

“Such a world is placed under the sign of complexity and intelligence, not, as has so often been repeated, of naive belief – intelligence of situations, complexity of objects, technical virtuosity of object makers… We understand why these objects fascinated the different civilizations where they flourished: Egyptian, Persian, Babylonian, Greek, Roman of Antiquity… In the West, the Middle Ages and then the Renaissance were fascinated by the existence of a secret universe of active objects, moving from fascination to condemnation for heresy.”

The conclusion that shocked me the most (in a good way), after these long chapters on animated objects, is the following:

“For from this world emerges a powerful idea, strangely modern, whose importance we only guess today – the idea that power and intelligence are not found in humans but in objects. One could even sum up the implicit theory of these complex worlds with the following formula  : There is nothing in our brains but procedures  ; everything lies in our manufactured objects. This is both our greatest wealth, which allows us to adapt to a multitude of worlds  ; it is also our fragility, for without objects, we are nothing more.”

At a time when we talk about cyborgs, AI… this conclusion couldn’t be more timely!

I didn’t particularly enjoy the last part about Georges Devereux, Dr. Tobie Nathan’s mentor, where all his personal and family secrets are revealed in broad daylight: his passion for women, his Jewish origin, his myth of being a “self-made man” – who was actually a son supported by his family until he obtained his scholarship to the USA, his surname that he franchised… In short, why all this display here, in this book? It could have been the subject of an article, or a modification on his Wikipedia page… In short, I fail to see why this chapter has its place in this book.

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To conclude, I really, really enjoyed this book.

Having virtually no knowledge of the religious practices of African peoples, Muslims, Jews, Kabbalists, I discovered so many things. The entire book brought me new knowledge, from the first page to the last, and I recommend it to everyone, whether you’re a therapist, a patient, or just an ordinary person. It’s well told, well documented (numerous annotations, comprehensive bibliography). Some passages and especially some photos scared me (I’m not at all a big fan of black magic, quite the contrary), I also wondered if I was at risk during my visit to Essaouira, the world capital of djinns 😀

You can buy it on Amazon (Amazon link) or at Fnac (Fnac link) for €22