"He Who Has the Spirits Must Work a Lot": A Psycho-Anthropological Account of Spirit Possession in the Dominican Republic.

A Dominican Republic Vodou priest, followed from childhood to early adulthood, learned to control and adapt dissociative manifestations into a professional role, transitioning from a child with many problems. A multidisciplinary, developmental approach integrating ethnographic observation and psychological constructs explains how originally dysfunctional expressions of spirit possession became personally and socially beneficial. The community's shifting attitudes toward him are also accounted for by specific psychological and cultural conditions.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In this paper we present a multidisciplinary, developmental analysis of a Dominican Republic Vodou servidor ("Marcos"), from childhood to early adulthood, integrating ethnographic observation, field documentation, and anthropological analysis, with relevant constructs from developmental, personality, and clinical psychology. Marcos transitioned from a child with many problems to a young adult who has learnt how to control and adapt dissociative manifestations into a professional role as a Vodou priest. Most empirical studies on spirit possession (SP) have rarely taken a longitudinal, multidisciplinary approach, which may better account for such a complex phenomenon. Adopting such an approach helps make sense of both the continuity and changes in Marcos, as well as of his community's shifting attitudes towards him. We describe how specific psychological and cultural conditions help explain the change from originally dysfunctional expressions of SP to personally and socially beneficial ones. [anomalous experience, dissociation, gender, spirit possession, Vodou].