Exorcism and Possession in Psychotherapy Practice

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Abstract
There has been an evolution in the layman's concept of mental disorder. Medieval belief in possession by demons and witches gave way to a 19th century medical model and more recently classical psychoanalytic formulations. Concurrently professional helping endeavour has moved increasingly from a more traditionally medical to psychotherapeutic process, and from a classical psychotherapeutic process wherein the therapist remained to a degree unresponsive and detached to a more modern emphasis on such qualities as empathy, sensitivity, reliability, and optimism as ingredients of successful psychotherapeutic practice. Freud's account of Haizmann's demonological neurosis usefully formulates the possession concept in psychological terms. However, recent developments in psychotherapeutic practice argue for a validity in the possession model of psychological distress. The possessing forces of object relations psychology are of course not the possessing demons and witches of medieval times but the possessing good and bad objects of early intrapsychic life set up through processes of introjection and incorporation in response to frustration in the early infant-mother relationship. Points of similarity in this comparison should not obscure features of contrast — there is no place for histrionic manipulation nor for a moralistic attitude in the practice of psychotherapy. A case is described to illustrate these points.

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