SPIRIT POSSESSION AND HEALING AMONG WOMEN IN THE ABRAHAMIC TRADITIONS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF RELIGIOUS, CULTURAL, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

Spirit possession is a complex phenomenon situated at the intersection of religion, gender, culture, healing, and understandings of mental distress. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam contain diverse traditions concerning spiritual beings, possession, prayer, healing, exorcism, ritual protection, and religious authority, but these traditions do not understand possession in identical ways. This paper comparatively examines representations of women's experiences of spiritual possession and healing within the three Abrahamic traditions and considers them in dialogue with contemporary psychological and psychiatric perspectives. It distinguishes between scriptural teachings, later religious interpretations, and cultural practices, as well as between culturally recognized possession experiences and clinically significant conditions. In Judaism, particular attention is given to dybbuk possession and its gendered social and religious dimensions, especially in early modern Jewish contexts. The Christian discussion examines New Testament narratives concerning Mary Magdalene, the daughter of a Syrophoenician woman, and the woman described as being bound by Satan in Luke, while also considering contemporary Christian approaches to discernment and care. The Islamic discussion considers Qur'anic references to jinn, later interpretations of possession, practices of ruqyah, and the Prophetic account of a woman experiencing recurrent seizures recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari. The psychological discussion addresses dissociation, trauma-related symptoms, culturally shaped interpretations of distress, and the clinical distinction between possession experiences and psychiatric disorders. The paper argues that possession should not be reduced either to a purely supernatural explanation or to a purely psychiatric category. Instead, religious meanings, cultural contexts, gender relations, individual experiences, and professional healthcare may interact in complex ways. A context-sensitive approach is therefore needed to protect women's dignity, agency, safety, and access to appropriate forms of care.