Possession Phenomena in North America: A Case Study with Ethnographic, Psychodynamic, Religious and Clinical Implications

ABSTRACT

Despite a paucity of attention within the scholarly literature, possession experiences among DID patients in North America are relatively commonplace. Because these phenomena are overrepresented among conservatively religious patients, some of these individuals may request expulsion rituals sanctioned by their belief systems. Although the ISSD guidelines rightly advise therapists to use extreme caution when considering such rituals, they provide virtually no assistance with how such caution might be measured and what, if any, expulsion procedure might be experienced as non-abusive by patients. The author's psychotherapy of a conservatively religious woman reporting possession is presented in detail as a springboard for exploring the potential ethnographic, psychodynamic, religious, and clinical implications of her experience. Knowledge of these considerations can assist therapists in evaluating and therapeutically managing DID patients who present with possession states.

KEYWORDS:

• Possession
• expulsion ritual
• dissociation
• religion
• psychotherapy