POSSESSION PSYCHOTHERAPY IN AN URBAN SETTING - ZEBOLA IN KINSHASA

The Zebola ritual is one of the possession therapies in the great possession complex of Northwest Zaire. The distinction between trance and possession is used here to identify its originality alongside the other possession groups of the region. Possession is viewed as a language which permits persons to articulate their individual experiences; considerable attention is given to ways in which persons of various milieux adopt this language of possession. Those living in rural areas have more ready access to it than those in cities. The nexus of internal transformations undergone in the ritual's movement from one milieu to another is examined, in terms of its etiological system, its diagnostic process, its symptomatology, and its therapy. This therapy is itself structured along three bipolar dichotomies, the individual and the group, the traditional and modern, and the sacred and the profane. Zebola's profound therapeutic originality and its adaptive capacity are apparent in the way it mediates these oppositions. © 1979.