Psychoanalytic theory's concepts of universal oedipal conflict and repression are flawed for studying pathological spirit possession in South Asia. Biological psychiatry is also inadequate because mental illnesses are shaped by culture-bound categories of experience. Dissociation theory provides a more suitable framework for this research. The article reviews the history of paradigm shifts in psychiatric theory relevant to spirit possession.
Psychoanalytic theory has been misapplied in anthropological studies of spirit possession in South Asia. Pathological spirit possession in that region may share an etiology with multiple personality disorder in North America, both arising from spontaneous trance reactions to extreme environmental situations, especially child abuse. Reanalyses of previously published case histories of spirit possession illnesses in South Asia, viewed through dissociation theory, reveal possible causes that earlier psychoanalytic frameworks overlooked.