PSYCHIATRY AND THE POPULAR CONCEPTION OF POSSESSION AMONG THE BANGLADESHIS IN LONDON

Authors
BOSE R
Citation
R. Bose, PSYCHIATRY AND THE POPULAR CONCEPTION OF POSSESSION AMONG THE BANGLADESHIS IN LONDON, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 43(1), 1997, pp. 1-15
Citations number
56
Categorie Soggetti
Psychiatry
Journal title
International Journal of Social Psychiatry → ACNP
ISSN journal
00207640
Volume
43
Issue
1
Year of publication
1997
Pages
1 - 15
Database
ISI
SICI code
0020-7640(1997)43:1<1:PATPCO>2.0.ZU;2-2
Abstract
Two detailed case histories of young people possessed by spirits are p resented to show that expressions of distress are shaped by cultural b eliefs from the very inception. It stands in marked contrast to the We stern psychiatric view of possession beliefs as cultural explanations offered for underlying pathological processes. This has serious implic ations for the practice of psychiatry in increasingly multi cultural s ocieties.