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Pathologizing Possession: An Essay on Mind, Self, and Experience in Dissociation
Author(s) -
Budden Ashwin
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
anthropology of consciousness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.117
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1556-3537
pISSN - 1053-4202
DOI - 10.1525/ac.2003.14.2.27
Subject(s) - possession (linguistics) , psychoanalytic theory , psychology , experiential learning , ethnography , dissociative , religious experience , epistemology , revelation , psychoanalysis , sociology , social psychology , philosophy , anthropology , theology , linguistics , mathematics education , psychiatry
In this paper, critique the classic psychoanalytic anthropological construal of dissociative spirit possession as a pathological phenomenon. I review some of the relevant theoretical and ethnographic literature on this subject but focus on the work of two prominent psychoanalytic anthropologists to explore divergent views of the psychological nature of pathological and religious experience. Emphasis is placed on the necessity for taking into account the culture specific factors that shape dissociative possession, particularly with regard to spiritual experiences. I also move beyond this view to an embodiment approach that is useful for analyzing the experiential ground of spirit possession, and thus for providing insight into how particular individual and cultural realities are constructed through dissociation. Key words: dissociation, embodiment, possession, psychoanalytic anthropology, self "Perception is never an absolute revelation of 'what is' " ‐A.l. Hallovvell (1955: 84)