Abstract

GIMENEZ BELIVEAU, Verónica. Catholic therapies, modern discomforts: Healing processes and exorcism in Argentina. Soc. relig. [online]. 2017, vol.27, n.47, pp.33-59. ISSN 1853-7081.

The exorcism is a well-knownpractice since the origins of Christianity. It lies in facing the hostile presence of a spirit in the body of the faithful. The specialist's intervention has the objective of chasing out the intruder spirit. In catholic contexts, the priest has the monopoly of this ritual. However, a group often supports the exorcist. Seen as a legitimate demand for some Church members, and an expression of psychiatric illness by others, the practice of the exorcism has found a way to grow in some parishes in Buenos Aires' suburbs. I will expose here the development and results of a qualitative research accomplished in Buenos Aires between 2013 and 2015. I've worked with three groups created by catholic priests that carry out, every week, rituals of exorcism. The possession, and the subsequent ritual of exorcism, lack of a cinematographic make in scene. The participants understand both possession and expulsion as a process related to health, healing and liberation, and the practices are lined up with the quest of wellbeing. The possession and the ways of facing this symptom express some unspecific discomfort which form is being constituted in the ritual sociability.

Keywords : Exorcism; Healing Process; Discomfort; Catholicism; Argentine.