Global mental health and trauma exposure: the current evidence for the relationship between traumatic experiences and spirit possession

Tobias Hecker · Lars Braitmayer · Marjolein van Duijl

50 citations0/0 files storedEuropean Journal of Psychotraumatology

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology Mental Health Treatment and Access Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Abstract

BACKGROUND: We present a literature review on trauma exposure and spirit possession in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite the World Health Organization's objective of culturally appropriate mental health care in the Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020, and the recommendations of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee to consider local idioms of distress and to collaborate with local resources, this topic still receives very little attention. Pathological spirit possession is commonly defined as involuntary, uncontrollable, and occurring outside of ritual settings. It is often associated with stigmatization, suffering, and dysfunctional behavior. While spirit possession has been discussed as an idiom of distress in anthropological literature, recent quantitative studies have presented support for a strong relationship between traumatic experiences and pathological possession states. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this review was to investigate this relationship systematically in LMICs, in view of the debate on how to address the mental health gap in LMICs. METHODS: Twenty-one articles, published in peer-reviewed English-language journals between 1994 and 2013, were identified and analyzed with regard to prevalence of possessive trance disorders, patients' sociodemographic characteristics, and its relation to traumatic experiences. RESULTS: The review and analysis of 917 patients with symptoms of possessive trance disorders from 14 LMICs indicated that it is a phenomenon occurring worldwide and with global relevance. This literature review suggests a strong relationship between trauma exposure and spirit possession with high prevalence rates found especially in postwar areas in African countries. CONCLUSIONS: More attention for possessive trance disorders in mental health and psychosocial intervention programs in humanitarian emergency settings as well as in societies in transition in LMICs is needed and justified by the results of this systematic literature review.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 50 citations exist upstream.

References

2013Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 2013Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 2010Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM ‐ IV ‐ TR )2011Grand challenges in global mental health 2001Lifetime Events and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in 4 Postconflict Settings 1994Spirit Possession Revisited: Beyond Instrumentality 2003Common mental disorders in postconflict settings 2009Past horrors, present struggles: The role of stigma in the association between war experiences and psychosocial adjustment among former child soldiers in Sierra Leone

Cited by

2018Delusion, possession and religion†2023Nonordinary Experiences, Well-being and Mental Health: A Systematic Review of the Evidence and Recommendations for Future Research

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.