Dr Adam Powell adam.j.powell@durham.ac.uk
Lecturer
Pollution and Purity: Understanding Voices as Punishment for Un-Wholly Sins
Powell, Adam J.
Authors
Contributors
Angela Woods
Editor
Ben Alderson-Day
Editor
Charles Fernyhough
Editor
Abstract
Drawing on Mary Douglas’ influential text Purity and Danger, with its argument about the structures of pollution and purity that inhere in many cultures, this chapter seeks to explore the link between individual voice-hearers’ understandings of their hallucinatory experiences as deserved punishment and broader structural–anthropological suggestions that symbolic transgressions of sociocultural categories demand ritual restitution. Specifically, two case studies from the Voices in Psychosis interview data are used to illustrate how Douglas’ observations concerning the cultural classifications of ‘anomalies’ and ‘abominations’ illuminate the role played by sexual mores and suicidal ideation in the self-understanding of some voice-hearers.
Citation
Powell, A. J. (2022). Pollution and Purity: Understanding Voices as Punishment for Un-Wholly Sins. In A. Woods, B. Alderson-Day, & C. Fernyhough (Eds.), Voices in Psychosis: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (82-90). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192898388.003.0010
Online Publication Date | Sep 8, 2022 |
---|---|
Publication Date | 2022-09 |
Deposit Date | Nov 4, 2022 |
Publicly Available Date | Nov 4, 2022 |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 82-90 |
Book Title | Voices in Psychosis: Interdisciplinary Perspectives |
Chapter Number | 10 |
ISBN | 9780192898388 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192898388.003.0010 |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1619853 |
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This is an open access publication, available online and distributed under the terms of a
Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial – No Derivatives 4.0
International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), a copy of which is available at
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
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