Spiritual and Mental Health Crisis in Globalizing Senegal

This book explores the history of mental health in Senegal, and how psychological difficulties were also expressed in the terms of spiritualism, magic, witchcraft, spirit possession and ancestor worship. It operates as a suspension bridge between scholarship on witchcraft and magic and the history of psychiatry and psycho-analysis.

Alice Bullard (Ph.D. & ESQ) is a lawyer specializing in human rights, trafficking, personal status, and mediation. Previously, she was a professor of history at Georgia Institute of Technology, U.S.A

Introduction 1. Healing at Fann Hospital 2. Physiology of Trauma, Fear, and Anxiety: Polyvagal Theory 3. A Case of Impotence / Xala 4. The Man Who Makes Trees Cry: A Healer's Art 5. Witch Narratives: Stolen Souls and Aggression 6. Devoured by Fear in Childbirth and Haunted "No-Good" Children 7. Trauma Defenses: Denial, Dissociation, and Magical Thinking 8. Ancestors 9. Bouffée Délirante: Living Myth and Madness