This distinctive volume examines the psychological claims of spirit possession and psychosis as they are linked to child sexual abuse, intimate partner violence, and poor mental health. In the context of both clinical complaints and community-based determinants, this book uses Jungian and Fanonian theory, political history, and case study analysis to explore the systems at work in projecting internalized traumas of colonialism and personal powerlessness onto a scapegoated demonic presence affecting victims/survivors of sexual violence. It focuses on populations of the global south but is relevant to victims of oppression worldwide, considering the personal unconscious and cultural complexes that influence a sense of being overtaken and controlled by supernatural or intrapsychic forces, or a desire to be. Psychosis, Spirit Possession, and Child Sexual Abuse offers an alternative framework for understanding mental processes that lead to symptoms such as auditory or visual hallucinations that often get misdiagnosed and mistreated. This is important reading for practitioners and scholars of depth psychology and is of keen interest to academics in the fields of foreign and cultural studies, as well as students and researchers in sociology, religion, or anthropology.

"This distinctive volume examines the psychological claims of spirit possession and psychosis as they are linked to child sexual abuse, intimate partner violence, and poor mental health. In the context of both clinical complaints and community-based determinants, this book uses Jungian and Fanonian theory, political history, and case study analysis to explore the systems at work in projecting internalized traumas of colonialism and personal powerlessness onto a scapegoated demonic presence affecting victims/survivors of sexual violence. It focuses on populations of the global south but is relevant to victims of oppression worldwide, considering the personal unconscious and cultural complexes that influence a sense of being overtaken and controlled by supernatural or intrapsychic forces, or a desire to be. Psychosis, Spirit Possession and Child Sexual Abuse offers an alternative framework for understanding mental processes that lead to symptoms such as auditory or visual hallucinations that often get misdiagnosed and mistreated. This is important reading for practitioners and scholars of depth psychology and is of keen interest to academics in the fields of foreign and cultural studies, as well as students and researchers in sociology, religion or anthropology"--

Explores the links between anger, rage, violence, evil, and creativity and describes a dynamic therapeutic approach that can help channel anger and violent impulses into constructive and creative activity.

This book provides a fascinating historical and cultural overview of traditional beliefs about spirit possession and exorcism around the world, from Europe to Asia and the Middle East to the Americas. Possession and exorcism are elements that occur in nearly every culture. Why is belief in spiritual possession so universal? This accessible reference volume offers a broad sample of the traditions and cultures involving possession and exorcism, presenting thoughts on this widely popular topic by experts from the fields of anthropology, sociology, religious studies, history, neuroscience, forensics, and theology. The entries cover the subject of possession and exorcism across all inhabited continents, from the Bronze Age to the 21st century, providing information that is accessible and intriguing as well as scholarly and authoritative. Beyond addressing the Christian tradition of possession and exorcism, Pentecostalism, and "New Age" and less widely known Western concepts about possession and exorcism, this work examines ideas about possession and exorcism from other world religions and the indigenous cultures of Asia, Africa, and the Americas. It also covers historic cases of possession and presents biographies of famous theologians, exorcists, and possessed individuals. High school and undergraduate readers will learn about world history, religious and spiritual traditions, and world cultures through a topic that figures prominently in popular culture and modern entertainment. Bibliographies that accompany each entry as well as a selected, general bibliography serve to help students locate print and electronic sources of additional information.

The relatively frequent occurrence of rapid onset and very brief, but often florid, psychotic states, with periodic recurrence, alongside relatively low rates of PTSD and chronic psychosis, were unexpected findings from the 2004 East Timor Mental Health Study, conducted in the context of the country’s recently won independence and in the wake of the atrocities endured in the protracted fight for sovereignty. Further unanticipated was the frequent association of recurrence with the time of the new moon (fulan lotuk) and other times or places of sacred (lulik) or associated cultural significance. The perceived violation of culturally sacrosanct lulik obligations often also appeared to foreshadow the initial onset of such patterns of distress. Significant episodes of trauma and loss appeared a hidden feature of affected individuals histories, which we argue have become symbolically entwined with local cultural understandings of ritual obligation, sacredness, and taboo. This volume develops a dynamic but contextualized multi-level formulation of psychosis and psychotic-symptoms, able to incorporate a range of factors from the biological, through the sociocultural, to the political. The work is truly interdisciplinary drawing on both the quantitative and qualitative findings of our own study but further supported through local ethnography and broader anthropological enquiry into the outcomes of psychosis in non-Western settings; psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic anthropology; evidence and theory exploring links between trauma, dissociation and psychosis; and novel culturally-adaptable psychosocial focused interventions for psychosis. We situate both evidence and theorising in wider epistemological and political context, including in relation to the movement for Global Mental Health. Culturally patterned presentations of brief remitting-relapsing psychosis are ultimately conceived as the trade-off between competing fragmentary and synthetic forces: the former in part secondary to the lasting and deleterious effects of overwhelming loss, trauma and adversity; the latter emboldened by cultural meaning and social response in the context of broad ecological pressures demanding survival and resilience.

An invaluable sourcebook on the complex relationship between psychosis, trauma, and dissociation, thoroughly revised and updated This revised and updated second edition of Psychosis, Trauma and Dissociation offers an important resource that takes a wide-ranging and in-depth look at the multifaceted relationship between trauma, dissociation and psychosis. The editors – leaders in their field – have drawn together more than fifty noted experts from around the world, to canvas the relevant literature from historical, conceptual, empirical and clinical perspectives. The result documents the impressive gains made over the past ten years in understanding multiple aspects of the interface between trauma, dissociation and psychosis. The historical/conceptual section clarifies the meaning of the terms dissociation, trauma and psychosis, proposes dissociation as central to the historical concepts of schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder, and considers unique development perspectives on delusions and the onset of schizophrenia. The empirical section of the text compares and contrasts psychotic and dissociative disorders from a wide range of perspectives, including phenomenology, childhood trauma, and memory and cognitive disturbances, whilst the clinical section focuses on the assessment, differential diagnosis and treatment of these disorders, along with proposals for new and novel hybrid disorders. This important resource: • Offers extensive updated coverage of the field, from all relevant perspectives • Brings together in one text contributions from scholars and clinicians working in diverse geographical and theoretical areas • Helps define and bring cohesion to this new and important field • Features nine new chapters on: conceptions of trauma, dissociation and psychosis, PTSD with psychotic features, delusions and memory, trauma treatment of psychotic symptoms, and differences between the diagnostic groups on hypnotizability, memory disturbances, brain imaging, auditory verbal hallucinations and psychological testing Written for clinicians, researchers and academics in the areas of trauma, child abuse, dissociation and psychosis, but relevant for psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists working in any area, the revised second edition of Psychosis, Trauma and Dissociation makes an invaluable contribution to this important evolving field.

First published in 1989, Dan Allender's The Wounded Heart has helped hundreds of thousands of people come to terms with sexual abuse in their past. Now, more than twenty-five years later, Allender has written a brand-new book on the subject that takes into account recent discoveries about the lasting physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual ramifications of sexual abuse. With great compassion Allender offers hope for victims of rape, date rape, incest, molestation, sexting, sexual bullying, unwanted advances, pornography, and more, exposing the raw wounds that are left behind and clearing the path toward wholeness and healing. Never minimizing victims' pain or offering pat spiritual answers that don't truly address the problem, he instead calls evil evil and lights the way to renewed joy. Counselors, pastors, and friends of those who have suffered sexual harm will find in this book the deep spiritual guidance they need to effectively minister to the sexually broken around them. Victims themselves will find here a sympathetic friend to walk alongside them on the road to healing.

Psychotic disorders are frequently misunderstood and/or misdiagnosed by many clinicians that deal with children, including clinical social workers, mental health counselors, child psychiatrists, and child psychologists. Many times it is difficult for a mental health professional to determine whether the problematic behaviors exhibited (such as hearing voices and seeing things that do not exist) are the result of an altered normal developmental process or the result of a serious mental disorder. Psychotic Disorders in Children and Adolescents will provide mental health professionals and students a resource that contains specific information needed to assess better the exact nature of what is affecting the young patient. The book addresses normal developmental process and cultural influences vs. psychotic disorders; normal grief vs. pathological grief vs. depression; and brief psychotic episodes vs. organic and chronic types of psychosis.

Our purpose in assembling the papers in this collection is to introduce readers to studies of normal and abnormal behavior in Chinese culture. We want to offer a sense o/what psychiatrists and social scientists are doing to advance our under standing of this subject, including what fmdings are being made, what questions researched, what conundrums worried over. Since our fund of knowledge is obviously incomplete, we want our readers to be aware of the limits to what we know and to our acquisition of new knowledge. Although the subject is too vast and uncharted to support a comprehensive synthesis, in a few areas - e. g. , psychiatric epidemiology - enough is known for us to be able to present major reviews. The chapters themselves cover a variety of themes that we regard as both intrinsically interesting and deserving of more systematic evaluation. Many of the issues they address we believe to be valid concerns for comparative cross cultural studies. No attempt is made to artificially integrate these chapters, since the editors wish to highlight their distinctive interpretive frameworks as evidence of the rich variety of approaches that scholars take to this subject. 'We see this volume as a modest and self-consciously limited exploration. Here are some accounts and interpretations (but by no means all) of normal and ab normal behavior in the context of Chinese culture that we believe fashion a more discriminating understanding of at least a few important aspects of that subject.

Reviews developments in pyschological anthropology and examines psychoanalytic, dialogical and social perspectives on personality and culture.