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Book Cover
E-book
Author Suhr, Christian, 1978- author.

Title Descending with angels : islamic exorcism and psychiatry : a film monograph / Christian Suhr
Published Manchester, UK : Manchester University Press, 2019
©2019

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Description 1 online resource (240 pages) : illustrations (black and white); digital file(s)
Series Anthropology, creative practice and ethnography
Anthropology, creative practice and ethnography.
Contents 1. Invisibility and Islamic healing in the West -- 2. How to take jinn possession seriously -- 3. Jinn exorcisms on YouTube -- 4. How to become a patient -- 5. Healing through sacrifice6 <i>Ruqya</i>, psychotropics, and montage -- 7. No healing here -- Index
Summary Over several years, Christian Suhr followed Muslim patients being treated for jinn possession and psychosis in a Danish mosque and in a psychiatric hospital. Through rich filmic and textual case studies, he shows how the bodies and souls of Muslim patients become a battlefield between the moral demands of Islam and the psychiatric institutions of European nation-states. The book reveals how both psychiatric and Islamic healing work to produce relief from pain, and also entail an ethical transformation of the patient and the cultivation of religious and secular values through the experience of pain. Creatively exploring the analytic possibilities provided by the use of a camera, both text and film show how disruptive ritual techniques are used in healing to destabilise individual perceptions and experiences of agency, which allows patients to submit to the invisible powers of psychotropic medicine or God
"<I>Descending with angels</i> provides a unique account of the invisible dynamics of possession and psychosis, and an analysis of how the bodies and souls of Muslim patients are shaped by the conflicting demands of Islam and the psychiatric institutions of European nation-states. Over several years, Christian Suhr followed Muslim patients being treated in a Danish mosque and in a psychiatric hospital. The book reveals how both psychiatric and Islamic healing work not only to produce relief from pain, but also entail an ethical transformation of the patient and the cultivation of religious and secular values through the experience of pain. Creatively exploring the analytic possibilities provided by the use of a camera, both text and film show how disruptive ritual techniques are used in healing to destabilise individual perceptions and experiences of agency, so as to allow patients to submit to the invisible powers of psychotropic medicine or God. <i>Descending with angels</i> addresses several timely topics - Islam in the West, mental health, intercultural cohabitation - and provides new theoretical perspectives on the agency of the invisible in human life. It will be of particular interest to scholars and students of anthropology, psychiatry, film and media studies, and the study of religion and Islam." -- Back cover
Notes Made available via: manchesterhive
MUP 2020 titles
Includes index
Audience Scholars and students of anthropology, psychiatry, film and media studies, and the study of religion and Islam
Notes In English
Description based on print record
Subject Psychoses -- Treatment -- Religious aspects -- Islam
Psychiatry and religion.
Spirit possession -- Islam.
Jinn -- Qurʼanic teaching.
Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography.
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Islamic Studies.
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Islamic Studies
Spirit possession -- Islam
Jinn -- Qurʼanic teaching
Psychiatry and religion
SUBJECT Denmark -- Religious life and customs
Subject Denmark
Form Electronic book
Author Manchester University Press, publisher.
ISBN 1526140322
9781526140326