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Paranormal and Dissociative Experiences in Middle-Eastern Jews in Israel: Diagnostic and Treatment Dilemmas

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Paranormal and Dissociative Experiences in Middle-Eastern Jews in Israel: Diagnostic and Treatment Dilemmas PARANORMAL AND DISSOCIATIVE EXPERIENCES IN MIDDLE-EASTERN JEWS IN ISRAEL: DIAGNOSTIC AND TREATMENT DILEMMAS Eli Somer, Ph.D. Eli Somer, Ph.D., is Director of tlle Israel Institute for involve involuntary behavior or influences by forces that are Treatment and Prevention of SU'ess and a Senior Lecturer notconsidered partofthe self. Persons manifesting both phe­ at the School ofSocial Work at the niversity ofHaifa, both nomena are usually good hypnotic subjects (Ackstein, 1982; in Haifa, Israel Putnam, 1989); amnesia is a central element in both cases (Ellenberger, 1970), and these two types ofexperience can For reprintswrite to Eli Somer, Ph.D., School ofSocial Work, be reproduced expel;mentally in hypnosis (Putnam, 1986; University ofHaifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel Richeport, 1992). Castillo (1994) reported that it appears that there are ABSTRACT two factors determining how a particular episode of posses­ Four Israelijewish persons ofMiddle Eastern cultural heritage pre­ sion will be perceived in the South Asian (Indian and Sri sentedfor consultationfollowing unsuccessful helpingattlmlpts deliv­ Lankan) cultural context. First, if the possessing entity is a ered by variousfolk and spiritual healers. Thefour patients suffered human personality, the episode will be perceived as a rare from the following DSM-IV defined problems: Post-traumatic Stress mental illness, and psychiau'ic treaunent will be sought. In Disorder, Dissociative Disordernot Othe>wise Specified, Schizophrenia most possession cases in South Asia, the possessing agent is - paranoid type, and Histrionic Personality Disorder coupled with manifested as a ghost, a demon, or a god. In the case ofbene­ a Conversion Disorder with Seizures. The patients construed their volent possession by a god or a goddess, treatment is usual­ suffering in cultural idioms implicating supernatural experiences. Iy notsoughtand the experience is regarded as a gift. In cases Many of their symptoms "esembled dissociative clinical pictures. of malevolent possessions, traditional folk healers are usu­ However, unlike many dissociative disorde>'patients described in the ally approached for help (Amarasingham, 1980; Kahar, Western scientific literature, these persons refused to accept any of 1982). A reanalysis ofpreviously published case histories of thei,' possession-like experiences as possible manifestations oftheir spirit possession illnesses in South Asia from the perspective own dissociated egl>-states. The paper desClibes the struggle to find ofdissociation theory suggested that, like dissociative disor­ common wound on which significant cross-cultural help could be ders in North America, these pathologies mightalso be reac­ offered to indigenous people manifestingdissociative and othersymp­ tions to extreme situations in the environment (Castillo, tomatology. 1994) . Many Hispanics in Latin America and in the United Anthropologist Erika Bourguignon argued that spirit States have been reported to hold beliefsystems ofEspil;tismo possession was a universal phenomenon, insofar as all known and Santeria, in which spirits are thought to have both the religions contained such types of experience, regardless of ability to make people physically and emotionally ill and the how they were defined (1976). Hers is a non-etiological per­ power to cure them (Berthold, 1989). Several articles about spective on the nature of spirit possession. She viewed the Hispanic patients' perception of their illness through a cul­ phenomenon mostly as a culturally shaped altered state of tural perspective have been published (Comaz-Diaz, 1981; consciousness influenced by social programming and uni­ Ruiz & Langford, 1976, 1982). The database on articles writ­ versal human cognitive features. Another theoretical per­ ten about Hispanics and dissociation is growing (Alonso & spective in the anthropology ofspirit possession stems from Jeffrey, 1988; Martinez-Taboas, 1989; Ronquillo, 1991) with Freud's psychoanalytic theory and views spirit possession as some papers warning that dissociative phenomena may be culturally shaped hysteria, viewed as an irrational, emotion­ misdiagnosed as schizophrenia in this ethnic group (Rendon, al state, caused by repressed oedipal desires in the uncon­ 1974; Steinberg, 1990). scious (Freud, 1962). Another influential perspective on tlle Another culturally condoned expression ofdistress fre­ phenomenon is based on Pierrejanet's dissociation tlleory quently seen among Hispanic women is ataque de nemios. and views possession as culturally shaped divided con­ Descriptions ofthis clinical presentation include dissociation sciousness Ganet, 1889). Several interesting parallels exist (Lewis-Fernandes, 1994), seizure-like responses (Guarnacia, between possession and dissociative phenomena. They both Canino, Rubio-Stipee, & Bravo, 1993), and panic-like respons- 174 DlSsoamo;.;. 1'01. X. ;';0. 3. September 1997 es (Liebowitz, et al., 1994). The phenomenon is seen more opporllmity to fulfill them. This is an act of divine Illere, frequently among women and is rcg:uded as a permissible llleant nOt only to purify the sinner's spirit, but also for the 1\<1y for woman to express rage (Oquendo, 1994). Elsewhere benefit of a lIni\·ersc. The ibbur of a wicked man into the in L.·uin America, in Brazil, spontaneous riuml trances are soul ofanother was called d}'bbuk. This kind ofspirit peru.... Icry common in everyday life and spiritist medicine is tJ<Hed humans to lind refuge frOIll Ix:rsecutioll. These spir­ becoming professionalized. Forexample. psychiatrist Eliezer itS ofsinners were doomed to remain in limbo, esposed to .\Iendes ran a clinic in which he tried to unify the personal­ rmhless persecution by angelic and demonic beings (Nigal. it\' stnlClurc of multiples using mediums (Mendes. 1976). 1980). The term d)"bbuk was employed 1Il0stl)' by Ashkena7i In Ital)' a natiol\\lide sur..ey of beliefin demons and in (Eastern European) Jews. ScphardicJe\\'s, who li\'ed mostly magic re\'caled that 46% ofthe respondents belic\'ed in the \\'ithin the Muslim orbil ofpo\\'er (the Middle East), adhered dcvil and that respondent.'; with !>lIch beliefs tcnd 10 experi­ to the tcrminolob'}'oftlle e.u·lyk'lbbalistic liter-Hure in which ence a higher incidence of paranormal phenomenona the possessing agent \\~",s named ;Ill "evil spirit ~ (Bilu, 1980). (Marra. 1990). Carena and Cipolla (1993) reponcd dinical Hundreds of thousands of SephardicJewish refugees wcre ()l,sc["vations on dell10nic posscssion in certain gcographi­ absorbed into the Israeli socictyduring 1950s. Howevcr, many c,l area!> in Italy. Another Italian sludy (Ferracali. Sacco, & ol'tlle (ulturallyconslituted sctofconceptSimponed to Israel Lazzari, 1996) looked at the psychological test resulL" of ten by these WilVCS of immigration had to be pcrmitted or dis­ persons undergoing exorcisms for dellolllic trance posscs­ carded in order to achicve social aC(ultur,ltioll (Palgi, 1963). "ion states. The investigators found that these persons had Man)' culture-specific l>l'T1dromes arc rapidl), dis.'lppearing in many traits in common with dissociative identity disorder ISr<ld; thc \\'eslem-oriented '~lluesespressedby the modern IMticlltS. slate are perceived as rcprescntingan enlightened prefel'rc.:d A cross<ullural slUd)" ofproblems that invoh'ed altered ideal for man)' former inunigmntS and their offspring. !>tates ofconsciousness within Balinese culture was published Nevertheless, ethnic traditions hal'e madea strongcomcback bl Luh KetutSurgani and GordonJensen (1993). In thiswork. in Israel and are fealUred f{,:gularl)' in contempordfyfolk alld the amhors esplain that spirits are seen in B..lli as a normal rock. music as well as in the local film indusll"}'. In Illy 0\\11 part oflife. beginning\,ith the manifestation at binh offour practice. I have noted Ihat some ofm}' Middle EasternJc\\'ish ~piritllal forces that ilHeract to fonn a person's personality. pmienu have seemed inclined to usc spiritist folklorc.....bascd rhe\' noted the significance of their research for ps)"­ idioms in theirauempts tocxprcssand esplain theirsuffcring chotherap}': ~Clinical implicationsare that II'hen the patient to me. A currem renewed imerest in cuhure-spccific issucs believes in thc spiriUlal essence of his condition, the clini­ in ps)'chotherap)' in Israel is '11so reflected in published arti­ cian II1I1St have a broad pcrspecli"e to accept the spiriLUal cles on topics related to ps)'chopatholof,'1' and reli&rlous 1ll)'S­ factor and communicate with the patielll in his or her own ticism (e.g., Greenberg. Witttum. & Buchbinder, 1992; terms as well as in psychological terms- (Surg::mi &.Iensen. WitzlUm, Greenberg, & Buchbinder, 1990); the belief in 199~, p. 128). tr,lnsmigr:nion ofsouls as reflected in PS)'cholherapy (Daie, Possession statcs have been docu111entcd in Jewish Witl.lurll, r-.<fark. & RabinowiTZ. 1992) and exorcism in ps)'­ suurces from the sixtecnth ccnllu)'. ~""nyofthc traditional chOlherapy (Somer, 1993). folk talcs invoke the term "dybbuk possession." In Hebrew Arguing from a Westem perspective, Fraser (1993) the noun d)'bbuk designates an cslemal agent cleaving or raised the concern that negative eflects may result when dis­ clinging 10 a person. Dybbuk possession invoh'ed the spiritS sociative states are misinterpreted as poSSt:ssion states. He of the dead as posscssing agentS. Theconcept is deri"ed from suggested that patient.'; preseming with recollcctions of Jewish m)'stical philosophy, the Kabhala. Thc kabbalistic doc­ Satanic rimal
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