Approaches to psychotherapy in Africans: do they have to be non-medical?

Efforts at medical psychotherapy in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital are appraised. Six popular generalisations that have tended to discourage attempts at medical psychotherapy in Africa are presented and illustrated by thirteen vignettes derived from our experience in psychotherapy among Nigerians in the last six years. The vignettes encourage reappraisal of these popular generalisations with a view to modifying them and stimulating more effort by others in the same direction. Methods used are discussed and relevant literature is reviewed.