Bezetenheid in de Nederlandse context

Abstract

This thesis answers the question: What are the beliefs of Muslim caretakers in the Netherlands on possession, their patients with complaints of possession and the treatment of those patients? The research shows on the one hand that Muslim caretakers working in the mainstream mental health domain see possession as an idiom their patients use to describe their illness rather than a disease. On the other hand Muslim caretakers in the alternative domain see possession as a disease. Their patients with complaints of possession are Muslim and have mostly a Turkish or Moroccan background. They are also predominantly female and are described by the caretakers as weak. An important notion in the treatment and curing of possession of Muslim caretakers within both domains is getting control over the jinn who possess the person. This study also demonstrates that the sociocultural environment plays a role in different aspects of the explanatory model of possession, namely causing, signaling and the treatment of possession.