Spiritist Madness

Referenced in 1 episode

Definition

A 19th- and early 20th-century psychiatric diagnosis that treated mediumship as a leading cause of insanity in France, Brazil, and the United States.

Related episodes

The Spiritist View of Mental Disorders with Alexander Moreira-Almeida

New Thinking AllowedAug 23, 2026

Brazilian psychiatry professor Alexander Moreira-Almeida explains how Allan Kardec's 19th-century Spiritism holds that some mental disorders may stem from past-life memories or 'obsessing' discarnate spirits. In Brazil, dozens of psychiatric hospitals offer Spiritist therapies such as disobsession sessions with mediums and laying on of hands alongside conventional care. He also describes the first randomized controlled trial of these therapies and the criteria psychiatrists use to tell genuine mediumship apart from mental illness.

FS 5