Violence and the sacred: theoretical reflections and clinical considerations in reference to exorcism experiences

Abstract

This paper aims to offer some insights into the origins of violence in the spheres of the “profane,” the “sacred,” and
the “religious.” For this reason, the contents of these dimensions are recalled and the mechanisms through which
aggression manifests are analysed. Indeed, in the dialectic between the “sacred” and the “profane,” destructiveness
originates where the Sacred, as an organizer of values underlying individual life experiences and a shared vision of
the world, fails to translate into a Religion, which, according to its etymology, is an effective reference to the other
and an authentic appeal to the other, that is, to a You that becomes the foundation and limit of the Self itself. To
confirm this, several cultural experiences are reported, lived in a clinicalexperimental
setting and verified through
observation and psychodiagnostic methodology. This study involved a sample of subjects recognized as possessed
by local religious authorities, with the aim of identifying signs and symptoms of psychopathological interest, including
violent behaviour, the presence of specific clinical conditions, and the level of psychosocial functioning. From this
perspective, the practice of exorcism, the psychic phenomena observed during the procedure and any
psychopathological manifestations before and after the event are also described.