Spirit possession and its treatment in the context of ethnopsychiatry in Malta

Abstract

This study is a theoretical essay on spirit possession and its treatment in Malta. While traditionally mental illness was believed to have been caused by spirits, and it was the sole prerogative of the exorcists to cure such illness, today the understanding of mental illness has become the prerogative of the biomedical world. Similar with Arab, Jewish and Christian countries, Malta shares many beliefs and practices concerning the paranormal which have now become medicalized as a disorder of abnormal behaviour. This study argues that reality and the classification of psychopathology are culturally patterned.