“A 'self-absorbed crackpot shaman' responds”

…"In my presentation, I suggested that nervous breakdowns maybe the Western equivalent of the shamanic initiatory crisis and that many people, who have a ‘nervous breakdown', rather than being ‘mentally ill' and needing a pharmaceutical treatment, may be people with special gifts who have been "called" to be healers or shaman. Referring to anthropologist Larry Peters' description of the initiatory crisis of a Nepalese shaman, Walsh comments, "In the West, such behaviour would usually be regarded as psychopathology. However, in shamanic cultures, this crisis is interpreted as selection by the spirits, the victim is destined to be a shaman, and the "new inspired" is understood to be undergoing a difficult but potentially valuable developmental process."

http://paganpublishings.blogspot.com/2010/05/self-absorbed-crackpot-shaman-responds.html