Sanctified madness: the God-intoxicated saints of Bengal.
Social science & medicine (1982) January 1, 1985 A Morinis
In South Asia, the 'saintly madman' appears outwardly like a lunatic but is revered because his disregard for convention stems from heightened consciousness, not incapacity. This paper examines two God-intoxicated saints from Bengal and asks whether 'God intoxication' qualifies as a culture-bound syndrome. The concept of culture-bound syndrome is too narrow to capture the key issues, which concern how cultural practices and models shape mental states—both deviant and normal. All cultures cultivate a limited range of mental states, so questions raised by culture-bound syndromes are part of broader questions about how all mind-states relate to their socio-cultural environment. The conclusion is that God intoxication is a uniquely Bengali mental condition, with variants across South Asia and kinship to other mystical states, but the term 'syndrome' is not useful.