The social construction of "The disease of the nerves": a cultural syndrome consequence of the violence of the armed conflict suffered by individuals from three rural populations of the Southwest of Colombia

Abstract

This article presents the results of an ethnoepidemiological study on the cultural syndrome “the disease of the nerves”, that describes the way in which some members of rural populations of the south west of Colombia, who have suffered directly the violence of the armed actors in the Colombian conflict, have culturally constructed this syndrome from their experiences, the meaning they give it and the language of the symptoms they create, which allows them to communicate and describe their pain, anguish and sadness, as well as their understanding and way of communicating, live and overcome their sufferings and adversities. The study is based on a qualitative ethnographic methodology. The data collection techniques were participant observation, in-depth interviews and life stories. For data analysis, we proceeded to search for culturally constructed categories based on a pragmatic semantic model that allowed the content analysis to be organized. In the population interviewed, it was observed that the high level of resilience was presented in less than half of the sample, thus leaving more than 60 % of the people with mental and emotional problems inherent to the war, including post-traumatic stress. This work allows us to state that the ethnomedicine of these populations has responded to the aggressions of violence by armed actors, creating diagnostic and healing systems that are reflected in cultural syndromes such as “nerve disease”. A significant number of the people interviewed show long-term affectations that it is important to investigate with interdisciplinary teams that can understand the bio-psycho-social context that the peasant communities of the Colombian southwest have lived and are experiencing, and thus be able to elaborate appropriate interventions in the specific cultural contexts.