Conceptualizing "Demonic Possession" Today: Jettisoning Traditional Christian Interpretations
Keywords:
demons, evil spirits, demonic possession, paranormal, parapsychological, Christian understanding, psychological understanding, DSM-5, DID with Possession-form Identities, Conversion Disorder, dissociative disordersAbstract
The author evaluates the traditional Christian understanding of "demonic possession," which necessitates an exploration of the "paranormal" phenomena that reportedly occur with the condition. After explaining how the symptoms of "possession" can be accounted for, the author shows the DSM-5 nomenclature provides appropriate diagnostic categories for this dissociative and/or conversion condition, and that the psychological literature allows one to conceptualize “demonic possession" in a meaningful way. The author then reveals a way to bring together a modern religious and psychological understanding of "demonic possession" that jettisons traditional Christian interpretations, as well as offers concluding commentary on the findings.
References
American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th Ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Baglio, M. (2009). The rite: The making of a modern exorcist. New York: Doubleday.
Boring, M. E., & Craddock, F. B. (2004). The people's New Testament commentary. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. Bourguignon, E. (1991). Pocession. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. (Previously published 1976)
Brakke, D. (2006). Demons and the making of the monk: Spiritual combat in early Christianity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Brown, R. E. (1994). An introduction to New Testament Christology. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.
Catholic Church. (1995). Catechism of the Catholic church. New York, NY: An Image Book/Doubleday.
Cohen, E. (2007). The mind possessed: The cognition of spirit possession in an Afro-Brazilian religious tradition. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Collins, J. M. (2009). Exorcism and deliverance ministry in the twentieth century: An analysis of the practice and theology of exorcism in modern western Christianity. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock.
Cortés, J. B., & Gatti, F. M. (1975). The case against possessions and exorcism A historical, biblical, and prychological analysis of demons, devils, and demoniacs. New York, NY: Vantage Press.
Cuneo, M. W. (2001). American exorcism: Expelling demons in the land of plenty, New York, NY: Doubleday.
Davies, S. (2014). Spirit possession and the origins of Christianity. Dublin, Ireland: Bardic Press.
Duffey, J. M. (2011). The Anneliese Michel exorcism: The implementation of a safe and thorough examination, determination, and exorcism of demonic possession. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock.
Ellenberger, H. F. (1970). The discovery of the unconscious: The history and evolution of dynamic psychiatry. New York, NY: Basic Books. Forsyth, N. (1987). The old enemy: Satan and the combat myth. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Grün, A. (2001). Images of Jesus (J. Bowden, Trans.). New York, NY: Continuum.
Harmless, W. (2004). Desert Christians: An introduction to the literature of early monasticism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Harrington, W. J. (2010). Jesus our brother. The humanity of the lord. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.
Hegeman, E. (2010). Multiple personality disorder and spirit possession: Alike, yet not alike. In J. Petrucelli (Ed.), Knowing, not knowing and sort-of-knowing Prychoanalysis and the experience of uncertainty (pp. 99-114). London, England: Karnac Books.
Howell, E. F. (2011). Understanding and treating dissociative identity disorder: A relational approach, New York, NY: Routledge.
Huskinson, L. (2010). Analytical psychology and spirit possession: Towards a non-pathological diagnosis of spirit possession. In B. E. Schmidt & L. Huskinson (Eds.), Spirit possession and trance: New interdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 71-96). New York, NY:Continuum.
Hyman, R. (2014). Cold reading: How to convince strangers that you know all about them. In B. Farha (Ed.), Pseudoscience and deception: The smoke and mirrors of paranormal claims (pp. 39-55). Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Käsemann, E. (2010). On being a disciple of the crucified Nazarene Unpublished lectures and sermons (R. Landau, Ed. & R. A. Harrisville, Trans.). Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing.
Kelly, H. A. (2004). The devil, demonology and witchcraft: The development of Christian beliefs in evil spirits (Rev. Ed.). Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock.
Kelly, H. A. (2006). Satan: A biography. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Klass, M. (2003). Mind over mind: The anthropology and prychology of spirit possession. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Kluft, R. P. (1991). Multiple Personality Disorder. In A. Tasman, & S. M. Goldfinger (Eds.), American prychiatric press Review of psychiatry (Vol. 10, pp. 161-188). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.
Küng, H. (2002). Eternal life? Life after death as a medical, philosophical, and theological problem (E. Quinn, Trans.). Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock. (Previously published 1984)
Küng, H. (2010). What I believe (J. Bowden, Trans.). New York, NY: Continuum.
Lhermitte, J. (2013). True or false possession? How to distinguish the demonic from the demented (A. Kheriaty, Ed.). Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press. (Previously published 1963)
Levack, B. P. (2013). The devil within: Possession & exorcism in the Christian west. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Lewis, I. M. (2003). Ecstatic religion: A study of shamanism and spirit possession (3rd Ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
McGill, A. B. (2015). Diagnosing demons and healing humans: The pastoral implications of a holistic view of evil and collusion between its forms. New Theology Review, 27(2), 70-80.
McNamara, P. (2011a). Spirit possession and exorcism: History, psychology, and neurobiology: Volume 1: Mental states and the phenomenon of possession. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
McNamara, P. (2011b). Spirit possession and exorcism: History, psychology, and neurobiology: Volume 2: Rites to become possessed, rites to exorcise "demons. "Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
Meier, J. P. (1994). A marginal Jew: Rethinking the historical Jesus: Volume Two: Mentor, message, and miracles. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press.
Moore, T. (2009). Writing in the sand: Jesus and the soul of the Gospels. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, Inc.
Oesterreich, T. K. (2015). Possession: Demoniacal and other among primitive races, in antiquity, the middle ages, and modern times (D. Ibberson, Trans.). Lexington, KY: Old South Books. (Previously published 1930)
Opsasnick, M. (2007). The real story behind the exorcist: A study of the haunted boy and other true-life borror legends from around the nation's capital. Bloomington, IN: Xlibris.
Putnam, F. W. (1989). Diagnosis and treatment of multiple personality disorder. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Ross, C. A. (1997). Dissociative identity disorder: Diagnosis, clinical features, and treatment of multiple personality (2nd Ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Russell, J. B. (1981). Satan: The early Christian tradition. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Russell, J. B. (1984). Lucifer: The devil in the middle ages. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Schillebeeckx, E. (1980). Christ: The experience of Jesus as lord (J. Bowden, Trans.). New York, NY: The Seabury Press.
Schmidt, B. E., & Huskinson, L. (Eds.). (2010). Spirit possession and trance: New interdisciplinary perspectives. New York, NY: Continuum.
Senior, D. (1992). Jesus: A Gospel portrait (Rev. Ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.
Shermer, M. (2014). Why smart people believe weird things. In B. Farha (Ed.), Pseudoscience and deception: The smoke and mirrors of paranormal claims (pp. 3-21). Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Somer, E. (2004). Trance possession disorder in Judaism: Sixteenth- century dybbuks in the near east. Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, 5(2), 131-146.
Spoto, D. (1998). The hidden Jesus: A new life. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.
Steindl-Rast, D., & Loudon, J. (1982). Become what you are: An interview with Brother David Steindl-Rast: Principles of monastic life. Parabola: Myth and the Quest for Meaning: Holy War, 7(4), 60-67.
Stephenson, C. E. (2009). Possession: Jung's comparative anatomy of the psyche. New York, NY: Routledge.
Stewart, C. (2005). Evagrius Ponticus and the "eight generic logismoi." In R. Newhauser (Ed.), In the garden of evil: The vices and culture in the Middle Ages (pp. 3-34). Toronto, Canada: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies.
Stewart, C. (2011). Evagrius Ponticus and the eastern monastic tradition on the intellect and the passions. Modern Theology, 27(2), 263-275.
Suryani, L. K., & Jensen, G. D. (1993). Trance and possession in Bali: A window on western multiple personality disorder, and suicide. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Thomason, T. C. (2008). Possession, exorcism and psychotherapy. Professional Issues in Counseling, 8(2). Retrieved from www.shsu.edu/academics/counselor-education/pic/journals/winter-2008/thomason.html
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2017). Exorcisms and related supplications. Washington, DC: International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation.
Ward, K. (2012). The nature of biblical inspiration. In W. C. Holtzen & R. Sirvent (Eds.), By faith and reason: The essential Keith Ward (pp. 175-197). Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock.
Woods, R. (2005, April 29). The devil you know [Review of the book Glimpses of the devil: A psychiatrist's personal accounts of possession, exorcism, and redemption, by M. Scott Peck]. National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved from www.natcath.org/NCR_Online/ archives2/2005b/042905/042905m.htm
Woods, R. (2009a). Topic 8: The fall of angels: How can angels sin? On Angels, demons, and the devil: Christian belief and experience [CD lectures]. Rockville, MD: Now You Know Media, Inc.
Woods, R. (2009b). Topic 10: Problem cases: Possession and exorcism. On Angels, demons, and the devil: Christian belief and experience [CD lectures]. Rockville, MD: Now You Know Media, Inc.
Young, F. (2016). A history of exorcism in Catholic Christianity. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
