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Voodoo Death: Some New Thoughts on an Old Phenomenon
Author(s) -
LESTER DAVID
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1972.74.3.02a00100
Subject(s) - phenomenon , mechanism (biology) , epistemology , psychoanalysis , psychology , philosophy
Criticisms of the validity of the phenomenon of death by suggestion are reviewed and rebutted. Two theories of the mechanism of death by suggestion, proposed by Cannon and Richter, are described, and a new theory is proposed. The new theory is based on Engel's concept of the giving up‐given up complex in medically ill patients and is shown to be capable of generating testable predictions about the phenomenon of voodoo death.