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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1985

Witchcraft, witchcraft beliefs and the black people of South Africa. Some medicolegal considerations.

The limitations and validity of psychiatric diagnosis, especially as it pertains to medicolegal cases, are discussed. Two clinical cases are used to demonstrate some of the problems. Two young black men were facing charges of murdering a woman; in one case the victim was not a relation and in the other she was the subject's mother. During the period of observation no hard signs of psychosis could be demonstrated, yet the second subject later became overtly psychotic, while the first was and remained normal. Suggestions about diagnostic procedures are made.

Black or African American↗
PubMed1986

Witchcraft and psychotherapy.

Belief in witchcraft, which serves a variety of social functions and personal defences, is bound to emerge in psychotherapy with individuals from a culture that holds such beliefs; endeavouring to understand it can open up new therapeutic possibilities. The nature of witchcraft, the profiles with which it intrudes into therapy, and the socio-psychological functions it fulfills are considered. Referring such patients to witchdoctors is morally unjustifiable, but the witch-doctor's folk-image provides a floating transference, around which the therapeutic relationship can be built. In dealing with witchcraft-ideation, understanding is based as much on cultural as on personal empathy, and to enhance its relevance, therapy may appropriate some of the functional dynamics of the witchcraft system into its own therapeutic manoeuvres.

Africa↗
PubMed1975

The social and psychological reality of European witchcraft beliefs.

In recent years there have been a number of books and articles on witchcraft in general and European witchcraft in particular. The majority of these works contain the implicit or explicit assumption that witchcraft was a cruel, irrational delusion that resulted in the deaths of perhaps hundreds of thousands or innocent victims (Anderson, 1970). While I do not for a moment dispute the horrible cruelties and hideous tortures inflicted on many of the accused, I do feel that it is essential to point out that in terms of the culture and belief structure of Late Medieval and Post Reformation Europe, not only was a belief in witchcraft not irrational and a delusion, but also it did in fact make good sense.

Europe↗
PubMed2001

Witchcraft, genealogy, Foucault.

This paper is a genealogical reflection on both the historiography of European witchcraft and the dynamics of witchcraft trials. I argue that traditional scholarly assumptions about the 'unsophisticated' nature of early modern European mentalities result in inadequate representations of accused witches and of the social contexts and processes of the trials. Genealogy, by contrast, problematizes fundamental notions such as reason, order, power and progress in ways that not only provide a different range of effective tools for the analysis of belief in witchcraft, but also underline its crucial significance for social theory. In the final section, an analysis of a typical trial is undertaken employing key genealogical insights into confession, torture, truth, governmentality, power, pleasure and pain.

Europe↗
PubMed1979

Depression, witchcraft beliefs and super-ego development in pre-literate societies.

When guilt feelings and self-accusations made their first appearance as symptoms of depression in Europe and Africa, as noted in a previous paper, this followed a period of heightened witchcraft beliefs in both locations and was sometimes first noticed in the form of voluntary witchcraft confessions, raising the question of a possible connection between the two types of change. Using the concepts of "group ego" and "group super-ego" to which Eric Wittkower has contributed, it is suggested that the heightened witchcraft beliefs were a defence against an individualizing change which would eventually lead to the inward turning to aggression and reproach and hence to the symptoms mentioned.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Witchcraft or mycotoxin? The Salem witch trials.

BACKGROUND: The Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 have been studied by many historians looking for the complex social, political, and psychological determinants behind the community-wide hysteria that led to a travesty of justice and the deaths of 20 innocent Puritans. Recently, ergot poisoning has been put forth by some as a previously unsuspected cause of the bizarre behaviors of the young adolescent girls who accused the townsfolk of witchcraft. In this essay the circumstances behind the ergot poisoning theory for this historical event are described. When the evidence is weighed carefully both pro and con, it seems unlikely that ergotism explains much of what went on in colonial Salem.

Claviceps↗
PubMed1989

Role of skin lesions in the Salem witchcraft trials.

In the late 17th century, several hundred people were tried for the crime of practicing witchcraft in Salem Village, Massachusetts. Twenty-four people died before the Superior Court of Judicature dismissed the remaining cases and Governor Phips pardoned and granted amnesty to all of the accused and convicted. The evidence used to convict a person of being a witch included spectral evidence confessions, and apparent proof of that person's alleged supernatural abilities. Also used as evidence were skin lesions characteristic of what were termed "devil's marks" or "witch's marks." It was believed that the devil would confirm his pact with a witch by giving her or him a mark of identification. Devil's marks included a variety of skin lesions described as flat or raised, red, blue, or brown lesions, sometimes with unusual outlines. Witch's marks were most probably supernumerary nipples. It was believed that familiars (agents of the devil, usually in animal form) would receive sustenance by being suckled. In the Salem witchcraft trials, a variety of skin lesions were used as confirmatory evidence that the accused person had made a pact with the devil, but there is no indication in the trial transcripts that anyone was convicted based on this evidence alone.

Dermatology↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Health practice at the technologic/folk interface: witchcraft as a culture-specific diagnosis.

"Witchcraft illness" is a widespread belief among many people, even after acculturation to technological concepts of illness etiology. Two cases are presented to show that such beliefs can complicate physical or psychological dysfunctions, or themselves can be the primary origin of physical or psychological dysfunctions. In both instances, witchcraft beliefs take on a dynamic of their own and must be resolved both in terms of the patient's culture as well as the clinician's treatment plan. Considering such phenomena from the vantage point of family systems provides useful insights into etiology as well as amelioration. The latter requires engaging all parties in the health care system-clinician, patient, family, and indigenous health caretakers.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Witchcraft's syndrome: Munchausen's syndrome by proxy.

A 28-year-old man presented to the Dermatology Outpatient Department with a complaint of a burning sensation and soreness over his left cheek and left ear of 10 days duration. It had started suddenly one morning when he woke up from sleep. He noticed a large blister with intense redness over his left cheek, associated with a burning sensation. There was a history of similar episodes over the past year, and all were sudden in onset, involved the cheeks, and were noticed after waking up from sleep. The patient volunteered that the episodes were always associated with a drinking spree the previous night. The individual was a healthy man with a wife and two children. The patient had been dependent on alcohol for the past year, and had been consuming alcohol for many years. On examination, there was an eschar occupying almost the entire cheek, with a few scattered lesions over the left tragus and left external ear. Peripheral scarring was noted with hyperpigmentation. While the angle of the mouth was superficially involved on the left side, the oral mucosa was normal. The right cheek also showed a few areas of scarring with patches of alopecia. There were no similar lesions elsewhere on the body. The peculiar history and the morphology of the lesion, that defied any classical diagnosis description, prompted us to interrogate both the man and his wife with regard to any serious differences. After much persuasion and on assurance of secrecy, the wife admitted that her husband was an alcoholic and was neglecting his family. When her efforts to prevent his drinking failed, she resorted to this drastic measure. Each time he passed out after a drinking bout, she poured acid on his cheek, hoping that the sequelae would frighten him from drinking. The acid was readily available to her as she used it for domestic cleaning. The couple were sent for psychiatric evaluation as Munchausen's syndrome by proxy (MSBP) or witchcraft's syndrome (WS) was suspected. Detailed psychiatric evaluation, together with psychometric assessment, revealed that the patient had an alcohol dependence (Axis-I diagnosis) and had a cyclothymic personality. Severe marital discord due to alcohol dependence had been present for the past 2 years. Evaluation of the patient's wife revealed that she was under significant psychologic distress. She showed major depressive symptoms with a histrionic personality. She revealed that she had resorted to using the corrosive out of frustration and anger over the behavior of the patient while he was in an inebriated state. The couple are currently undergoing psychiatric treatment.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

The Bargarran witchcraft trial--a psychiatric reassessment.

In 1697, seven people were condemned at Paisley for using witchcraft to torment Christian Shaw, daughter of the laird of Bargarran. For seven months, Christian had bizarre seizures during which she claimed to see the Devil and her tormentors assaulting her. She also exhibited pica and said that the foreign material had been forced into her mouth by her invisible assailants. The notable Glasgow physician, Matthew Brisbane, was consulted and gave evidence at the trial; he could find no natural explanation for the pica. It is likely that Christian had a dissociative (conversion) disorder after being cursed by a servant. Christian recovered and later married the minister of Kilmaurs. After his untimely death, she established a highly successful spinning business which lead to the Paisley cotton industry.

Dissociative Disorders↗
PubMed2002

The distinction between witchcraft and madness in colonial Connecticut.

This essay argues two points in regard to early New England: first, that witchcraft is not a significant aspect of the history of mental illness; and second, that seventeenth-century society had a cultural protocol for distinguishing one from the other. The examples discussed in detail are from Connecticut, but they are representative of colonial New England as a whole.

Colonialism↗
PubMed1978

Witchcraft illness in the Evuzok nosological system.

The Evuzok nosological system is structured with respect to two frames of reference, one designating illness as an empirical reality (descriptive subsystem), the other designating it according to its religious, magical and social significance (etiological subsystem). The articulation of these two subsystems is brought about in the process of diagnosis. Having examined this system as a whole, the author devotes his attention to a particular set of etiological categories, those which associate illness with witchcraft (nocturnal illnesses). He attempts to define their distinctive traits and, from this, to determine their common elemental structure. This study, based on a number of years of fieldwork, is part of an ongoing research program on African folk-medicine pursued by the Laboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative of the Université de Paris X.

Cameroon↗
PubMed1977

Witchcraft and soul loss: implications for community psychiatry.

The author uses the case study of a Chicana patient who believes in witchcraft and soul loss to illustrate the importance of understanding alternate theories of disease causation. He describes the patient's unsuccessful attempts to find treatment appropriate for her culturally determined beliefs and feels her efforts were hampered because she was a member of a culture in transition. She was finally treated through home visits and medication. The author discusses factors related to the underuse of mental health services by Chicanos and the role of the indigenous therapist. He also suggests how mental health centers can be made more relavant to Chicanos by providing such services as home visits and family therapy.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

[Head hunting and hair witchcraft (Mummies 2)].

In this second essay on mummies and embalment, 1 of the most primitive, but nevertheless very interesting examples of artificial mummification is described: the Tsantsas or shrunken heads of the Jíbaro Indians of the basin of the High Amazon River. While the other head hunters dried, smoked or otherwise mummified the whole head of their victims, the Jíbaros shrink the tsantsa to the size of a human first, maintaining the original features as much as possible. The technique of this laborious process is discussed, as well as the ideological backgrounds of head hunting and skull worship which induced primitive men to practice such cruel customs. Another very important factor in this complicated ideological framework, is the concept of the existence of a material soul, seated in the head and especially in the hair. Therefore, the use of hair witchcraft all over the world must be mentioned too, as it implicates the "spiritual value" of the tsantsas, according to the quantity and beauty of their hair. Maybe, the relationship between the size of the head and the length of its hair, was the reason why the Jíbaros reduced the former to increase the latter. However, we can only admire these masterworks of the Indians whose motives for head hunting were not bloodthirst or cruelty, but deep spiritual concepts, as they are typical for primitive religions.

Anthropology, Cultural↗
PubMed1978

Dysesthesia, witchcraft, and conversion reaction. A case successfully treated with psychotherapy.

An intelligent, well-educated black woman from the rural South, through an interaction of psychopathology and cultural background, experienced dysesthesia as a conversion reaction and came to believe that she was the victim of witchcraft. After neurological evaluation showed no abnormalities, she was successfully treated with conventional psychotherapy. Belief in hexing or root work is still alive today and should be inquired about in patients with unusual symptoms and an appropriate cultural background.

Black or African American↗