Health and the holy in African and Afro-American spirit possession.

Spirit possession cults are difficult to understand when only religious or only medical perspectives are used. Anglo-American research increasingly treats possession as a medical condition, while French research does not. The Afro-Brazilian candomblé cult, little studied in English, is examined through case vignettes from a Brazilian psychiatrist who is also an initiated elder. A balanced approach that considers both religious and medical motives is essential for understanding possession, and this approach aligns with the goals of medical anthropology.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The difficulty of reconciling religious and medical dimensions of ethnopsychiatric phenomena is discussed with respect to spirit possession cults. The paper documents a trend toward medicalization of the phenomenon in the Anglo-American literature, and points out the lack of such a trend in the French literature. Extended discussion is presented of the Afro-Brazilian candomblé, a cult not well represented in the Anglo-American literature. Case vignettes are excerpted from key informant interviews with a Brazilian psychiatrist who is also an initiated elder of the candomblé. It is concluded that a balanced approach that attends to both religious and medical motives of cult participants is essential for an adequate understanding of the phenomenon, and that such an approach is intrinsic to the goals of contemporary medical anthropology.