Mastery of Natural Self-Evidence: A Phenomenological Psychopathology Study of Shamanic Illness in Modern China
Da Fang, Kan Feng
Religions October 27, 2026 DOI: 10.3390/rel17111251 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Ethnography Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | People experiencing shamanic illness in Inner Mongolia and Jilin, China |
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Key findings | Argues that shamanic illness in contemporary China faces new stigmatization despite medical anthropology's destigmatizing work, and proposes that it is neither purely an organic psychopathology nor merely the acquisition of bodily skills but a dynamic interplay of resonance, exhaustion, restoration, and coupling of vitality and conation that culminates in the subject's mastery of natural self-evidence. |
Abstract
Medical anthropology has played a major role in destigmatizing shamanic illness. It has liberated shamanic illness from psychiatric labels such as hysteria, superstition, and mental disorder, and has relocated it within cultural, social, and historical contexts. However, shamanic illness in contemporary China now faces new challenges of stigmatization. This paper adopts phenomenological psychopathology, using its philosophical resources to enrich and extend the empirical research of medical anthropology. Drawing on both literature and multi-sited ethnographic research conducted in Inner Mongolia and Jilin in 2026, it articulates the first-person subjective experiences across the four stages of shamanic illness in modern China—pre-onset, onset, training, and consecration. It thereby furnishes a theoretical basis for shamanic illness and for interpreting its novel developments. The study ultimately shows that shamanic illness is neither a purely organic psychopathology nor a mere process of acquiring bodily skills, but rather a dynamic interplay of resonance, exhaustion, restoration, and coupling of vitality and conation, which finally culminates in the subject’s mastery of natural self-evidence. This research extends the perspective of medical anthropology, offers a new theoretical framework for understanding non-ordinary spiritual experiences embedded in cultural contexts, and simultaneously extends the empirical scope of phenomenological psychopathology to cross-cultural applications.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Plantas con madre": plants that teach and guide in the shamanic initiation process in the East-Central Peruvian Amazon. Curanderos, apprentices, and herbalists in East-Central Peru, including Mestizo,... | 2011 | Qualitative study | n = 36 |
| Purging and the body in the therapeutic use of ayahuasca Healers and participants in shamanic tourism contexts of the Peruvian Amazon and... | 2019 | Ethnography with literature review | n = 227 |
| The Globalization of Ayahuasca Shamanism and the Erasure of Indigenous Shamanism Western tourists and indigenous peoples in Iquitos, Peru | 2016 | Ethnography | |
| Shamanism and Rock Art in Far Western North America Historic hunter-gatherer cultures of California and the Great Basin | 1992 | Ethnographic review and analysis | |
| Working with “La Medicina”: Elements of Healing in Contemporary Ayahuasca Rituals Ayahuasqueros and Western participants in shamanic tourism in Iquitos, Peru | 2012 | Ethnography |
Citations in the library
Cites 10
- Shamanism and the Origins of Spirituality and Ritual Healing Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture February 8, 2010
- THE LIFE, DEATH, AND REBIRTH OF A MAPUCHE SHAMAN: Remembering, Disremembering, and the Willful Transformation of Memory Journal of Anthropological Research April 1, 2010
- A Critique of Philosophical Shamanism The Pluralist June 15, 2022
- A Cultural Pathway to Addressing Contemporary Mental Illness: Construction and Healing Logic of the “Virtual Illness” Concept in Shamanism in the North of China Religions April 1, 2026
- From “mind–matter” duality to “body–situation” mechanism —the phenomenology of the body on how shaman soul retrieval heals the sick Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine October 6, 2025
and 5 more in the library