Demons on the Couch: Spirit Possession, Exorcisms and the DSM-5 by Michael Sersch

Michael J. Sersch’s (2019) Demons on the Couch: Spirit Possession, Exorcisms and the DSM-5 is an immaculately researched and referenced treatise on possession and exorcism presented through the lens of modern psychotherapy and the DSM-5 (the diagnostic bible of the mental health field.) Sersch states in his introduction: In writing this book, I hope to answer why demonic possession has held a cultural fascination for over two millennia as well as how clinicians can successfully and ethically deal with patients who legitimately believe they are possessed by a spiritual force. There is also mounting evidence that integrating a patient/client’s worldview into clinical practice, including their spirituality and faith practices, increases their likelihood of getting better (Lund, 2014) which is a position I am overtly advocating. (p. 5) He also claims that he has no desire to attempt to prove or disprove spirit or demonic possession (p. 5). His approach is largely clinical and pedagogical: what does a clinician do with a patient who claims they are possessed? Sersch divides his thesis into three sections, each section dealing with a different aspect of possession and exorcism. The first section, appropriately enough, deals with the history of spirit possession, demon possession, and different forms of exorcism. The second section is more clinical in its approach going into detail on such topics as the different designations for diagnoses found in the various editions of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM) such as Multiple Personality Disorder (an older label having been replaced with Dissociate Identity Disorder in the fourth edition of the DSM (APA, 1994)). The third section focuses on suggestions for the clinician, again: how does the clinician handle patients claiming to be possessed?

Treatment of psychiatric disorders in the middle ages

The article shows that medicine in the Middle Ages was based on the principles of scholasticism, which rejected any scientific discoveries and contrasted faith and science, which made its development impossible in general. Methods of treatment, used in medieval medicine, based on gross superstitions, reduced to the belief in the healing power of amulets and talismans; attributing to human health the location of stars; the role of conspiracies and the healing power of crushed stones and minerals. The medieval church linked the causes of disease with two main factors: illness, as God's punishment for human sins, and illness, as an obsession with evil forces. It is established that the basis of medieval medicine was primarily the teachings of the medieval church on the immortality of the soul, saints, diseases, which were dominated by gross pagan beliefs and philosophy, which made not only impossible the development of medicine as such, but also led to mass epidemics, unsanitary conditions, the growth of neuropsychiatric diseases, reducing the duration and quality of life. People with mental disorders have historically been either ignored or institutionalized. Their disorders were not easy to understand and therefore treat. Society often feared and carried out superstitions about people with mental illness that were based on culture and religious beliefs. Those who demonstrated evidence of mental illness were accused of committing sinful crimes and wrongdoings under the influence of the devil. Throughout history, the disease has been associated with demon possession or as punishment for some wrongdoing. Terrible surgeries aimed at freeing demons or healing the brain from disorders have been unsuccessful. Short periods of humane treatment have occurred throughout history. The very concept of disease, adopted in medieval medicine, according to the teachings of the papacy, reduced the disease either to God's punishment or to obsession. In both cases, no real medical understanding of the disease, and, consequently, the development of methods for diagnosis and treatment of diseases in principle was not necessary.

Human Action in the Fall

The Christian tradition takes moral evil with radical seriousness. The tradition is divided on how to read Genesis 3 as seen in the work of Augustine and Symeon the New Theologian. We need several angles of vision to do justice to the fall and to human sin: a theological reading of Genesis 1–11, the many concepts used to describe sin, canonical lists of sins, hierarchies of sin, and the morphology of temptation. These enable us to develop a rich description of sin which does not undermine the goodness of creation. The deepest level of sin is represented by demon possession.

Spirit Possession in Jesus Research

Except for demon possession, possession is a neglected and under-researched topic in New Testament studies in general and Jesus research in particular. That is unlike scholars from other disciplines who realise that spirit possession is a central feature in the emergence and growth of most religious traditions. This article first explains possession as a complex neurocultural phenomenon that is widely distributed in human societies where they fulfil a range of functions. It secondly introduces the anthropological study of possession in order to show that it cannot be invoked uncritically. The anthropological study of possession contains a range of theoretical perspectives on possession which needs to be accounted for in the cross-cultural appropriation of such research. Possession is described as the culturally appropriated practice of a common neurobiological propensity at dissociation. It is suggested that such experiences and practices were common in the world of Jesus and need to be recovered as one of the roots of the emergence of the Jesus movements.