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A protective fortress: psychic disorders and therapy at the
Catholic shrine of Puliyampatti (South India)
Brigitte Sébastia
The shrine of Saint Anthony of Padua at Puliyampatti is
frequented by patients affected by troubles that are classified
in biomedicine as biological, neurotic or psychotic disorders,
but which are interpreted there as consequences of evil spirits
or sorcery. To confirm this aetiology, the relatives oblige the
patient to confront every evening the power of Saint Anthony in
order to reveal supernatural entities. As this article shows,
the pressure exerted on patients by their relatives coercing
them to be possessed, and the ease with which some patients
submit to their will, call for a definition of the place
religious therapy assumes in a plural medical context.
Keywords: Religious Therapy; Possession;
Mental Disorders; Indianisation; Gender |
