Comparison of Brazilian spiritist mediumship and dissociative identity disorder
Författare
Summary, in English
We studied the similarities and differences between Brazilian Spiritistic mediums and North American dissociative identity disorder (DID) patients. Twenty-four mediums selected among different Spiritistic organizations in Sao Paulo, Brazil, were interviewed using the Dissociative Disorder Interview Schedule, and their responses were compared with those of DID patients described in the literature. The results from Spiritistic mediums were similar to published data on DID patients only with respect to female prevalence and high frequency of Schneiderian first-rank symptoms. As compared with individuals with DID, the mediums differed in having better social adjustment, lower prevalence of mental disorders, lower use of mental health services, no use of antipsychotics, and lower prevalence of histories of physical or sexual childhood abuse, sleepwalking, secondary features of DID, and symptoms of borderline personality. Thus, mediumship differed from DID in having better mental health and social adjustment, and a different clinical profile.
Avdelning/ar
Publiceringsår
2008
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
420-424
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
Volym
196
Issue
5
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
Wolters Kluwer
Ämne
- Psychiatry
Nyckelord
- mediumship
- dissociation
- dissociative identity disorder
- possession
- spiritism
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 0022-3018