Reviews & Press

2024

The Healer and the Psychiatrist by Mike Poltorak (review) Patricia Fifita

The Contemporary Pacific, Volume 36, Number 1, pp. 197-200 (Review)

‘As viewers, we have an opportunity to witness the transcendent and compassionate nature of the Tongan healer and the psychiatrist, who are guided by what Poltorak astutely describes toward the end of the film as a “deep responsibility for helping and communicating with their patients.” Ultimately, viewers are left with a deeper understanding of the fluid nature of the Tongan psyche and spiritual world as it manifests across various dimensions and contexts and with a greater feeling of hope about the potential for more collaborative, integrative, culturally based, and even transformational healing and mental health care.’

Access here.

2022

‘A scene from The Healer and the Psychiatrist stayed with me long after watching the film. Not the more viscerally potent moment when traditional healer Emeline Lolohea squeezes a liquid herbal medicine into the eyes of the daughter of a Christian minister suffering from spirit possession. But rather the calm, peaceful scene of men sitting around a large bowl of kava singing in Tongan, their voices ringing out in harmony, reminiscent of a men’s church choir. These men are participating in a unique ritual—a traditional collective kava drinking ceremony, but one led by Dr. Mapa Puloka, the only psychiatrist in the Kingdom of Tonga, an archipelago of islands in the South Pacific Ocean. Frequent gathering and talking around the kava bowl is a key part of his psychiatric practice, both as a form of therapy and as a space where he makes diagnoses and assesses whether his patients’ medication requires adjustment. Kava has analgesic and sedative properties and is traditionally drunk by men in clubs. Excessive use within the community has lately come under public scrutiny and criticism. Yet Dr. Puloka compares his use to the ‘amytal interview’ technique, barbiturate-assisted interviews once used in Western psychiatry to reveal concealed emotions. “No need for injections here,” he says. “Just drink kava and talk (continued).

Aellah, G. 2022. Review of the Healer and the Psychiatrist. Religion and Society 13: 1 pgs 265-66). Full review here.

2021

‘The healer and the psychiatrist succeeds on a number of levels. It raises useful questions about cross-cultural mental health. It conveys a complicated relationship between Tongan and biomedical systems of diagnosis and cure, one that is ambiguous rather than idealized. It offers several sensitive ethnographic portraits of illness and suffering in Tonga. The filmmaker’s role in the story is unobtrusive yet valuable. In all, I would say that the movie is a visual pleasure, tinged with melancholy, that could serve as an excellent resource in courses on psychological anthropology, cross-cultural psychiatry, fieldwork methods, and the contemporary Pacific.’ (Full Review Lipset 2021)

Professor David Lipset- Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute-Film Review-December 2021

‘The Healer and the Psychiatrist is a languid film; the pacing showcases the deep caring inherent in the two practitioners’ different health care styles.’

Education Media Review-Recommended-August 3, 2021

‘As one would expect from a film maker with a strong anthropological background ….., this documentary is carried out in a naturalistic, contemplative and quietly reflective manner. It is a film which avoids straight-forward answers or the promotion of a specific polemic and, on this basis, it will appeal to mental health practitioners, researchers, students and academics of all persuasions. If there is any takeaway message from this film, it is the importance of professionals and experts acknowledging the way people understand and give meaning to their experiences in different contexts, circumstances, and cultures around the world. A universalistic, ‘one size fits all’ approach to understanding and treating ‘mental distress’, as promoted by the MGMH and their supporters, looks mute and hollow after a viewing of this film.’ (Full review :Cohen_2021_The Healer and The Psychiatrist)

New Zealand Sociology (Film Review), June 2021-Dr Bruce Cohen

Tongan News Bulletin– (Tongan and English). January, 20, 2021.

Volksfreund Online Newspaper. January 19, 2021. Featured photo of Emeline Lolohea and Paula Lolohea. Triel Ethnographic Film Festival.

2020

Tongan Broadcasting Corporation-Post Premiere talanoa (discussion). December 19, 2020