The Psychology of Bewitchment (Part II): A Psychoanalytic Model for Conceptualising and Working with Bewitchment Experiences

Abstract

This article extends the phenomenological description of bewitchment experience outlined in Part I, arguing for a viable psychological explanation of what is claimed to be a supernatural phenomenon. Any adequate explanation must satisfactorily account for the four characteristic features of bewitchment experience; that is, a paranoid state of mind, the presence of a precipitating interpersonal context of hostility and envy, a dichotomous moral and religious belief structure, and the subjective experience of having one's body infiltrated by poisonous substances or destructive alien entities. Beginning with Freud's claim that all supernatural belief systems unconsciously express and simultaneously defend adherents against universal instinctual impulses and anxieties, Klein's object relations psychoanalytic model is proposed as a useful interpretive framework to understand the four interrelated aspects of bewitchment. Bewitchment, it is argued, is a culturally sanctioned supernatural belief system used defensively by individuals to protect themselves against acknowledging and experiencing a range of painful and anxiety-provoking feelings, typically involving hostility, envy, and loss. Bewitchment arises when individuals split off and project problematic self aspects elicited by adverse or stressful experiences, locating these in hated or envied others, who are then believed to use witchcraft to magically attack and harm the victims. This theoretical model is supported and illustrated by means of a case study of the psychodynamic treatment of a ‘bewitched’ patient. This case is used to demonstrate some of the psychotherapeutic challenges of treating patients who attribute their psychological difficulties to magical influences.

Keywords

bewitchment Klein object relations possession psychoanalysis psychotherapy

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