Based on research among possessed and mentally ill patients and an examination of depictions of mental health issues in the popular media in the state of Kerala, India, this article examines apparent changes in the incidence and form of spirit possession and the proliferation of psychological idioms such as "tension" and "depression." These changes involve a decline in the incidence of...
Spirit Possession: Modernity and Power in Africa. Heike Behrend and Ute Luig. eds. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999. vi. 170 pp., figures, photographs, index.