Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T14:38:53.030Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Possession Syndrome: A Comparison of Hong Kong and French Findings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

P. M. Yap
P. M. Yap*
Affiliation:
Hong Kong University Psychiatric Specialist Hong Kong Government
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The phenomena of “spirit-communication” in mediumistic trance, of “spirit-possession” and of “demonopathy” are closely related, and known to both East and West. Clinical psychiatrists, however, have taken little interest in them, with the exception of some French and a few Spanish authors. These conditions nevertheless do present themselves to the psychiatrist in many countries and it is misconceived to think that they are to be found only in outlandish cultures, the preserve of the field worker in ethnology. It is true that M. J. Herskovits (1951, 1958) has argued that certain kinds of behaviour categorized in terms of culture-bound concepts cannot be applied to other societies, so that African and Afro-American spirit possession, for example, cannot be compared with apparently similar “psychopathological seizures” in the West. No doubt such behaviour receives different cultural definitions according to their respective backgrounds, but this does not exclude the possibility of a specific psychological mechanism being common to them all.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 106 , Issue 442 , January 1960 , pp. 114 - 137
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1960 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aubin, H., L'Homme et la Magie, 1952, p. 76. Paris: Desclée de Brouwer.Google Scholar
Benoit, H., The Supreme Doctrine, 1955, pp. 10, 11. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cassier, E., An Essay on Man, 1944. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Ch'ien Mu, , “The conception of spirits and deities in the history of Chinese thought”, in The New Asia Journ., 1955, 1, 1–43. Hong Kong: New Asia Research Institute (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Delay, J., “Délire de possession diabolique”, Press méd., 1945, No. 11, March 17th, p. 143.Google Scholar
Despinoy, M., Mellon, R., and Tuelié, Y., “Délire de possession diabolique, tuberculose pulmonaire, alternance du délire et des poussées”, Ann. méd. psychol., 1953, 111, 392.Google Scholar
Elliot, A. J. A., Chinese Spirit Medium Cults in Singapore, 1955, p. 165. London: London School of Economics.Google Scholar
Ey, H., Études Psychiatriques, 1950, volume 2, p. 428. Paris: Desclée de Brouwer.Google Scholar
Field, M. J., “Mental Disease in Rural Ghana”, J. Ment. Sci., 1958, 104, 1043–1051.Google Scholar
Giscard, M. P. “Le probléme de possessions diaboliques” (abstract), Ann. méd. psychol., 1948, 106, 91.Google Scholar
Gordon, H. L., The Maggid of Caro, 1949. New York: Pandes Publishing House.Google Scholar
Hambro, E., The Problem of Chinese Refugees in Hong Kong, 1955. Leyden: A. W. Sijthoff.Google Scholar
Harper, E. B., “Shamanism in South India”, Southwest J. Anthropol., 1957, 13, 267–287.Google Scholar
Herskovits, M. J., Man and his Works, 1951. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Idem , “Some further comments on cultural relativism”, Amer. Anthropologist, 1958, 60, 266–273.Google Scholar
Hsu, P. C., Ethical Realism in Neo-Confucian Thought, 1933. Peiping: Yenching University Press.Google Scholar
Jung, C. G., “On the psychology and pathology of so-called occult phenomena”, 1902. Republished in his Collected Works, 1957, volume 1. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Idem , “The psychological foundations of belief in spirits”, Proc. Soc. Psychical Res., 1921, 31, 75–93.Google Scholar
Idem , “Psychological commentary”, in The Tibetan Book of the Dead, by Evans-Wentz, W. Y., 1957, p. xxxvii. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lecky, P., The Self, ed. by Moustakes, E., 1956, chapter 8. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Leroy, , Lecky, P., and Portier, C., “Délire systématisé de persecution et de possession démoniaque consécutif à des pratiques spirites”, Ann. méd. psychol., 1930, 88, 217–232.Google Scholar
Lhermitte, J., “Les psychoses de possession diabolique”, Rev. méd. franc., 1944, No. 4, April, 51–54.Google Scholar
Idem , “Essai sur les phénomènes de possession démoniaque”, Encéphale, 1946–7, No. 10, 261–282.Google Scholar
Idem , “Les démonopathies engendrées par l'encéphalite epidémique 0ethargique)”, Progr. med., 1955, 83, 115–116.Google Scholar
Idem , Vrais et faux possédés, 1956, Chap. 1. Paris: A. Fayard.Google Scholar
Lin, T. Y., “A study of the incidence of mental disorders in Chinese and in other cultures”, Psychiatry, 1953, 16, 313–336.Google Scholar
Linton, R., Culture and Mental Disorders, 1956, p. 118 f. Springfield, Illinois: Thomas.Google Scholar
Mars, L., La Crise de Possession dans le Vaudou, 1946. Port-au-Prince Imprimerie de l'ÉtatGoogle Scholar
Idem , “Nouvelle contribution a l'étude de la crise de possession”, Psyche, 1951, 6160, 640–669.Google Scholar
Idem , and Deveraux, G., “Haitian Voodoo and the ritualization of the nightmare”, Psychoanal. Rev. 1951, 38, 334–342.Google Scholar
Mead, G. H., Mind, Self and Society, 1934, Ed. by Norris, C. W. Part III. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mei, Y. P., “The Basis of social, ethical and spiritual values in Chinese philosophy”, in Essays in East–West Philosophy, 1951, pp. 301–316. Ed. by Moore, Charles A. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Michaux, L., Gallot, H. M., and Dubois, J. C., “Accès dipsomaniaques avec délire episodique de possession chez un éthylique chronique”, Ann. méd. psychol., 1947, 105, 385–390.Google Scholar
Mischel, W., and Mischel, F., “Psychological aspects of spirit possession”, Amer. Anthropologist, 1958, 60, 249–260.Google Scholar
Miyake, K., “On the psychoses observed in Japan”, Trans. 6th Congress Far East. Assoc. Trop. Med., 1925, 801–814. Tokyo: Kyorinsha Med. Pub. Co.Google Scholar
Murphy, G., “Psychology and psychic research”, Brit. J. Psychol., 1953, 50, 26–49.Google Scholar
Idem , “The boundaries between the person and the world”, ibid., 1956, 47, 88–94.Google Scholar
Needham, J., “The sceptical tradition”, in Science and Civilization in China, 1956, volume 2, pp. 365–395, and 286 f.n. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Orzeck, A. Z., et al., “Multiple self concepts as effected by mood states”, Amer. J. Psychiat., 1958, 115, 349–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Österreich, T. K., Possession, Demoniacal and Other, 1930. English translation by Ibberson, D. London: Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Parapsychology Foundation, Proceedings of the Fourth Conference, 1957. New York.Google Scholar
Pickford, R. W., “An hysterical medium”, Brit. J. med. Psychol., 1943, 19, 363–366.Google Scholar
Pidoux, C., “Les états de possession rituelle chez les Mélano-Africains”, L'Évolution psychiat., 1955, 26, 271–283.Google Scholar
Schiff, P., and Simon, R., “Délire de possession zoopathique succédant à un délire de grossesse chez une obèse post-encéphalitique”, Ann. méd. psychol., 1933, 91, 612–615.Google Scholar
Sullivan, H. S., The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry, 1953, pp. 17, 208f., 316f., 322f., 346f., ed. by Perry, H. S. and Gawel, M. L. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Suzuki, D. T., The Zen Doctrine of No Mind, 1949, p. 139f. London: Rider.Google Scholar
Thigpen, C. H., and Cleckley, H. M., The Three Faces of Eve, 1957. London: Secker and Warburg.Google Scholar
Thouless, R. W., “Review of Mr. Whately Carrington's work on trance personalities”, Proc. Soc. Psychical Res., 1937, 44, 223–275.Google Scholar
Tylor, E. B., Primitive Culture, 1891, volume 2, pp. 113, 394. London: Murray.Google Scholar
Vinchon, J., The Concentric Method, 1931, chapter 6, by Laignel-Lavastine, M. London: Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Wheelis, A., The Quest for Identity, 1958, pp. 19f, 174f, 200. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Wilhelm, R., The Secret of the Golden Flower, 1942, with a commentary by C. G. Jung. London: Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Wolff, M. S., “Notes on the Vodoun religion in Haiti with reference to its social and psychodynamics”, Rev. Int. d'Ethnopsychiat. Normale et Pathologique, 1956, 1, 209–240.Google Scholar
Yang, C. K., “The functional relationship between Confusian thought and Chinese religion”, in Chinese Thought and Institutions, 1957, pp. 269–290, ed. by Fairbank, John K. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Yap, P. M., Suicide in Hong Kong, 1958, p. 28f. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Yeh, E. K., “Recurrent urticaria alternating with psychosis”, Psychosom. Med., 1958, 20, 373–378.Google Scholar
Zenker, E. V., Histoire de la Philosophie Chinoise 1932, pp. 313, 314. Paris: Payot.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.