Psychosis as an Extreme State
Routledge eBooks April 28, 2026 DOI: 10.4324/9781032648750-10 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that psychosis can be understood as an extreme state within specific cultural contexts, and that shamanic apprenticeship, such as the South African ukuthwasa of sangoma traditional healers, can involve trance states with psychotic features that blend distress with spiritual development, often framed as spiritual emergencies. Contends that cultures take differing positions on the dialectic between distressing and spiritual states. |
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to appreciate psychosis as an extreme state within a specific cultural space, namely among the traditional healers or shamans of Indigenous communities. This position on psychosis has long been pertinent to some cultures in which the shamanic apprenticeship can seemingly present with psychotic features in distressing extreme states. This is especially relevant in the training of emergent trance states, and thus a blending of psychotic distress together with spiritual development can occur, often in the form of spiritual emergencies. The extreme states of the ukuthwasa, the apprenticeship of sangoma traditional healers in South Africa, will be presented to illustrate this. It is worth considering the dialectic between distressing and spiritual states, as various cultures take different positions in this regard.