S. Satoh et al., A CASE OF POSSESSIVE STATE WITH ONSET INFLUENCED BY DOOR-TO-DOOR SALES, PSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCES, 50(6), 1996, pp. 313-316
Recently in Japan, 'door-to-door sales' has become of concern because
it has created numerous legal and social problems. In this paper, a 47
year old dissociative trance disorder case who presented with possess
ion by God is discussed. Specific types of door-to-door sales is known
to use superstition and folk beliefs as tools to lure customers. In t
his particular case, these religious factors seemed to have played an
important role in the precipitation of the disorder and its presentati
on. In addition, the brain-washing environment observed in video lectu
res used in door-to-door sales seemed to play an important role in the
development of the possessive state. We also performed social psychia
tric analysis of the occurrence of the possessive state in a city area
, which has been considered to develop within traditional culture. Phe
nomenological classification by one of the authors was useful for diag
nosing underlying disorders in the possessive state.