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Saints and “Possession”: A Case Review Bordering Ethnopsychiatry and Cultural Diversity

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Abstract

The migrations of modern times have exposed psychiatrists and other medical experts to elements from other cultures which have to be recognised and discerned from pathology. In the present paper, we offer an overview of both historical and modern witnessings of various kinds of “possession”, with shedding light on the whole process of diagnostics—taking into account all aspects that make a person as an individual: with particular emphasis on origin, lifestyle, moral values, and ethical norms what is sometimes easily associable with culture-bound phenomena, and sometimes overstepping the border of clinical disturbance, to maximise the possibility of recovery.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences and Medical Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, B. Branchetta 20, 51 000, Rijeka, Croatia

    Toni Buterin, Amir Muzur & Bojan Glažar

  2. Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Studies, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia

    Amir Muzur

Authors
  1. Toni Buterin
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  2. Amir Muzur
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  3. Bojan Glažar
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TB contributed his idea of writing and shaping the paper. AM incorporated his experience with studying the particular topic, and BG gave the paper its final form. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Toni Buterin.

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Buterin, T., Muzur, A. & Glažar, B. Saints and “Possession”: A Case Review Bordering Ethnopsychiatry and Cultural Diversity. J Relig Health 60, 1116–1124 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-01040-5

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