Santé et spiritisme: itinéraires thérapeutiques de la troisième révélation en France et au Brésil

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Antropologia Social, Florianópolis, 2011.Abstract : This thesis aims to investigate the therapeutic itineraries of the third revelation, or spiritism, in France and Brazil. The investigation is achieved in urban contexts, that is to say Paris and the metropolitan region of Brasília. The itineraries of spiritism and health, in plural, translate the idea of a circulation of representations and practices, which are not tight and closed, but are socially, historically and culturally modified. Spiritism was born as a science and philosophy in France. It was settled as a religion in Brazil. As it will be presented, its knowledge and practices are in permanent (re)construction. This thesis goes through the disputes between spiritism and science in these both countries. In Brazil, having been consolidated as a religion, a label that guarantees constitutional protection, ?spiritism of white table? had to face ?low spiritism?. This issue is relevant to show that the spiritist practices analyzed were (and still are) marginalized. They have been historically situated in the limits of illegality. Nowadays, they are frequently considered as frauds. These expressions, although obsolete, are also applied to reveal a fluid dichotomy: there are religious mobility and even incorporation of other dimensions of spiritual healing in this country. Finally, the discussion details the conflicts between spiritism and specifically medicine. Spiritist representations and practices reach, therefore, the domain of health, which acception is not resolute either. In this domain, the research is extended to the notion of spirituality. Beside the conventional medical knowledge, there is the ordinary knowledge (Michel Maffesoli, 2007), according to which both health and disease comprehend, other than bio-psycho-social dimension, the spiritual dimension. This displacement of meanings permeates not only religious and scientific questions, but also political, ethical and juridical questions and interrogates the very definition of healing. According to spiritism, it is not only the body that gets sick. The spirit must also be treated. In this sense, there are several indicators of spiritual diagnostics and treatments? efficacy. In this thesis, there are reports of healing of patients and narratives of mediums that attend spiritist institutions as well as interviews with physicians, members of medical-spiritist associations, researches in medicine concerning the relationships between health and spirituality and an announcement issued by the Brazilian Medical Federal Council. What do these individuals and groups say about the subject of the present research? How to explain the successful cases? Is it suggestion, placebo effect, symbolic efficacy? What are the divergences and convergences between health and spiritism? These are the itineraries that this thesis attempts to cross. And it is from these paths that we intend to open new perspectives of comprehension of the other and of ourselves