But who handles my soul ? Hybrid words and practices between psychiatry and religious rituals in the contemporary Greek context

Abstract

With the recognizing of mental suffering within the "normal" population, there is nowadays in Greece a new therapeutic scene where heterogeneous representations and practices intersect and interact, often with difficulty. Among these, the Orthodox Church is a major player in these "marginal", "non Western" offers. In a context in which religion, taken for granted, is involved in the organization of daily life, in which psychoanalytic practice is very marginal and psychiatric therapy focuses on the prescription of psychotropic drugs, the investigation focuses on the journey of suffering women. The use of exorcism and confession concurrently with drug treatment creates hybrid stories that combine supernatural entities and chemical powers.