Psychoanalytic Conversations with States of Spirit Possession : Beauty in Brokenness

Shalini Masih grew up as a child in a stimulating environment of priests and healers, witnessing firsthand states of spirit possession along with its potential to heal. In adulthood, her psychoanalytic training prompted her to revisit these experiences from a critical perspective, motivating her to take the tools of psychoanalysis outside the realms of the clinic into the wider spaces of traditional healing. The outcome of her detailed exploration acknowledges the hugely productive interface between cultural manifestations and questions of psychoanalytic theory, without reducing the phenomenon of spirit possession to something formulaic. Instead, Psychoanalytic Conversations with States of Spirit Possession: Beauty in Brokenness highlights the intrinsic beauty of this complex and enriching experience, illustrating relevant themes through the use of culturally sensitive psychoanalytic conversations with participants who felt haunted and possessed by ghosts. The author’s journey reveals the ghosts of her own inner world, and she draws upon her reveries, dreams, and nightmares to make sense of the deeper unconscious processes in her informant’s testimonies, journeys that are so often undertaken from one grotesque ghost to another, until these ghastly beings reappear as broken part-selves in search of the glue of spiritual meaning.