Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for FREE ACCESS to this landmark database

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Transcultural Psychiatry
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Moreira-Almeida, A.
Right arrow Articles by Neto, F. L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Moreira-Almeida, A.
Right arrow Articles by Neto, F. L.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Spiritist Views of Mental Disorders in Brazil

Alexander Moreira-Almeida

Francisco Lotufo Neto

University of S'o Paulo

The Spiritist perspective on mental disorders exerts a great influence in Brazil. Spiritist theory supports the survival of the spirit after death with an exchange of knowledge between the incarnated and disincarnated spirits. This article reviews the texts on mental disorders and Spiritism written by four leading Spiritist authors: Allan Kardec, Bezerra de Menezes, Inácio Ferreira and Joanna de ¬ngelis. These authors advocated a model of spiritual etiology without rejecting the biological, psychological, and social causes of mental disorders. The Spiritist etiologic model for mental disorders includes the negative influences of discarnated spirits (termed ‘obsession’) or trauma experienced in previous lives. In addition to conventional medical and psychological therapeutics, spiritist séances for disobsession are recommended, as well as ‘passes’, prayers and efforts to live according to ethical principles. The importance of Spiritist views in Brazil indicates the need for more academic research on this tradition.

Key Words: channeling • etiology • medium/mediumship • mental disorders • Spiritism • spiritualism • treatment

Transcultural Psychiatry, Vol. 42, No. 4, 570-595 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/1363461505058916
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?