This article discusses the demonic possession of a young Muslim woman in Sri Lanka and explores the contrast between notions of selfhood which stress the stable and permanent features of the self, and those which treat the person in more protean or fluid terms. These latter notions, which are part of more general idioms of displaced agency (so-called 'spirit possession'), become more prominent in situations of acute personal affliction. The article considers similarities and differences between this case of possesion and Freudian accounts of the person. Although there are broad similarities between aspects of Freudian metapsychology and the language of demons and possesion, the two therapeutic procedures differ in the context in which they are expected to operate, and the links they make between narrative, healing and the social world.
目次
becoming coeval with one's own history 693 Buddhist persons 696 Fatima's story 698 the Fatima's dead grandmother 700 possession and analysis 700 epilogue 707 notes 707 references 709 Fatima et les caramels enchantes: un essai sur la contingence, la narration et la therapie 710 resume 710
