“A Hospital on the Spiritual Plane”: Human-Spirit Entanglements in Brazilian Spiritist (Mental) Healthcare
The paper combines multi-sited ethnographic research and media anthropology. It highlights performative aspects of Spiritist contributions to (mental) healthcare in Brazil and beyond, focusing on human-spirit relations. These imply that afflicting spirits (obsession) involved in human suffering are...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Italian |
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Dipartimento Culture e Società - Università di Palermo
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Archivio Antropologico Mediterraneo |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/aam/10222 |
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| author | Helmar Kurz |
| author_facet | Helmar Kurz |
| author_sort | Helmar Kurz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The paper combines multi-sited ethnographic research and media anthropology. It highlights performative aspects of Spiritist contributions to (mental) healthcare in Brazil and beyond, focusing on human-spirit relations. These imply that afflicting spirits (obsession) involved in human suffering are afflicted themselves, and thus, treatment (disobsession) must address them, too. Since the establishment of biomedicine and psychiatry as scientific disciplines in 19th-century Europe, Spiritist approaches complemented (mental) health epistemologies and practices. Spiritists view humans as bio-psycho-social-spiritual beings, meaning that spiritual health and illness factors must be integrated with biomedical and socio-psychological treatments. This idea has gained significant recognition in Brazil, sustaining the public healthcare sector and recently reaching out transnationally, too. This contribution explores how Brazilian Spiritism practices and related media contents produce meaning, explanatory models, and metacommentaries regarding individual, socio-political, and spiritual aspects of (mental) health/care. It delves into mediumship practices that aim to treat not only humans, but also afflicting spirits, who are guided to a “hospital on the spiritual plane.” |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-26a020e2e62445029d6b136fc2e1c4f6 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2038-3215 |
| language | Italian |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Dipartimento Culture e Società - Università di Palermo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Archivio Antropologico Mediterraneo |
| spelling | doaj-art-26a020e2e62445029d6b136fc2e1c4f62025-08-20T03:32:09ZitaDipartimento Culture e Società - Università di PalermoArchivio Antropologico Mediterraneo2038-32152025-06-01282710.4000/145oq“A Hospital on the Spiritual Plane”: Human-Spirit Entanglements in Brazilian Spiritist (Mental) HealthcareHelmar KurzThe paper combines multi-sited ethnographic research and media anthropology. It highlights performative aspects of Spiritist contributions to (mental) healthcare in Brazil and beyond, focusing on human-spirit relations. These imply that afflicting spirits (obsession) involved in human suffering are afflicted themselves, and thus, treatment (disobsession) must address them, too. Since the establishment of biomedicine and psychiatry as scientific disciplines in 19th-century Europe, Spiritist approaches complemented (mental) health epistemologies and practices. Spiritists view humans as bio-psycho-social-spiritual beings, meaning that spiritual health and illness factors must be integrated with biomedical and socio-psychological treatments. This idea has gained significant recognition in Brazil, sustaining the public healthcare sector and recently reaching out transnationally, too. This contribution explores how Brazilian Spiritism practices and related media contents produce meaning, explanatory models, and metacommentaries regarding individual, socio-political, and spiritual aspects of (mental) health/care. It delves into mediumship practices that aim to treat not only humans, but also afflicting spirits, who are guided to a “hospital on the spiritual plane.”https://journals.openedition.org/aam/10222medical anthropologyBrazilmediumshipperformativityspiritism |
| spellingShingle | Helmar Kurz “A Hospital on the Spiritual Plane”: Human-Spirit Entanglements in Brazilian Spiritist (Mental) Healthcare Archivio Antropologico Mediterraneo medical anthropology Brazil mediumship performativity spiritism |
| title | “A Hospital on the Spiritual Plane”: Human-Spirit Entanglements in Brazilian Spiritist (Mental) Healthcare |
| title_full | “A Hospital on the Spiritual Plane”: Human-Spirit Entanglements in Brazilian Spiritist (Mental) Healthcare |
| title_fullStr | “A Hospital on the Spiritual Plane”: Human-Spirit Entanglements in Brazilian Spiritist (Mental) Healthcare |
| title_full_unstemmed | “A Hospital on the Spiritual Plane”: Human-Spirit Entanglements in Brazilian Spiritist (Mental) Healthcare |
| title_short | “A Hospital on the Spiritual Plane”: Human-Spirit Entanglements in Brazilian Spiritist (Mental) Healthcare |
| title_sort | a hospital on the spiritual plane human spirit entanglements in brazilian spiritist mental healthcare |
| topic | medical anthropology Brazil mediumship performativity spiritism |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/aam/10222 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT helmarkurz ahospitalonthespiritualplanehumanspiritentanglementsinbrazilianspiritistmentalhealthcare |