A protective fortress : psychic disorders and therapy at the <br />Catholic shrine of Puliyampatti (South India)

National audienceThe shrine of Saint Anthony of Puliyampatti is frequented by patients affected by troubles that are classified in biomedicine as biological, neurotic or psychotic disorders, but which are interpreted as consequences of evil spirits or sorcery. To confirm this aetiology, the relatives oblige the patient to confront every evening the power of Saint Anthony in order to reveal supernatural entities. Qs this article shows, the pressure exerted on patients by their relatives coercing them to be possessed, and the ease with which some patients submit to their will, call for a definition of the place religious therapy assumes in a plural medical context