My 17-year-old niece cut her wrist for the fifth time this year. Our priest says she is demon-possessed, but I think a mental health specialist is a better option. How can I help my sister navigate this adolescent crisis?
During my training as a doctor in the early 70s at the University of Nairobi, we did all manner of things that I now know to have been wrong. We, for example, treated patients with what our teachers called “hysteria” by making them inhale concentrated ammonia, which was a most cruel way of attending to the mostly young women who came to us on account of all manner of distress.
