“He Who Has the Spirits Must Work a Lot”: A Psycho‐Anthropological Account of Spirit Possession in the Dominican Republic

Abstract

In this paper we present a multidisciplinary, developmental analysis of a Dominican Republic Vodou servidor (“Marcos”), from childhood to early adulthood, integrating ethnographic observation, field documentation, and anthropological analysis, with relevant constructs from developmental, personality, and clinical psychology. Marcos transitioned from a child with many problems to a young adult who has learnt how to control and adapt dissociative manifestations into a professional role as a Vodou priest. Most empirical studies on spirit possession (SP) have rarely taken a longitudinal, multidisciplinary approach, which may better account for such a complex phenomenon. Adopting such an approach helps make sense of both the continuity and changes in Marcos, as well as of his community's shifting attitudes towards him. We describe how specific psychological and cultural conditions help explain the change from originally dysfunctional expressions of SP to personally and socially beneficial ones. [anomalous experience, dissociation, gender, spirit possession, Vodou]

Depicting the Ethereal, Part I: Visual Art and Psi

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Some needed psychological clarifications on the experience(s) of shamanism

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Notq Arrives at the Clinic: How Druze Therapists Deal with the Cultural Phenomenon of Remembering and Talking about Previous Incarnation Among the Druze in Israel

“…The foregoing influences the understanding of distress and coping mechanisms in non-Western cultures (Lasater et al 2018) and may lead to misconceptions and practices that ignore local discourses (Abramowitz 2010). One way to research coping and distress in local contexts is through the study of cultural idioms (Cardeña and Schaffler 2018).…”

“…2018) and may lead to misconceptions and practices that ignore local discourses (Abramowitz 2010). One way to research coping and distress in local contexts is through the study of cultural idioms (Cardeña and Schaffler 2018).…”