Trances, crises and diagnoses: religion and spirituality in recent debates of the psy knowledges

Author(s)

Lucas Toledo Martins Baccetto

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
• Defense date: 2021-02-25

Examining board members

Rodrigo Toniol; Carly Barboza Machado; Emerson Giumbelli

• Advisor: Rodrigo Toniol

Abstract

The object of this research is the recent debates carried out by psychiatrists and psychologists around the theme of religion and spirituality. The empirical focus is the creation, of two diagnostic categories in the main guide to psychiatric diagnoses in the United States, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), in 1994: "religious or spiritual problem" and "dissociative trance disorder". The analysis focuses on how the proponents of these two diagnoses articulate a series of psychological and anthropological concepts, conceptualizing religious and spiritual experiences as normal phenomena or as psychopathologies. It is also of interest the relation of their productions in the field of transpersonal psychology and in studies on psychological dissociation. From the reading of scientific articles, academic works, and interviews, we seek to understand how new and distinct psychological understandings about phenomena such as religious trance, spiritual possession, and transcendental experience are produced. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 18/25198-1 - Classificatory policies: spirituality as diagnosis
• Grantee: Lucas Toledo Martins Baccetto
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master