Psychiatry And The Cults In Cross-Cultural Perspective

Abstract

The most common psychological functions assigned to religion are emotional. Religion, by giving the person identity, security, and courage, succeeds in reducing, relieving, and allaying anxiety, fear, tension, and stress. This chapter focuses on those studies on non-Western societies which make direct or indirect reference to the psychological and/or psychiatric functions of these new groups, and to those which discuss native therapeutic techniques, several of which have found their way into the West either through immigrants or through propagation by new cults. It lists theoretical and general studies on transcultural psychiatry and on non-Western traditional and folk therapy. Specific works on indigenous psychiatric treatments are also included. The chapter annotates studies of individual movements, such as cargo cults, spiritism, curanderismo, and glossolalia, which is usually referred to as a tongue-speaking movement. It contains material on, or relating to, the phenomenon of shamanism, which has occupied a prominent place in anthropological studies of religion.