Descending with angels: Islamic exorcism and psychiatry: a film monograph (Anthropology, Creative Practice and Ethnography)

Islamic exorcism or psychotropic medication? “Descending With Angels”, based on 18 months of fieldwork with patients and healers, explores two highly different solutions to the same problem, namely Danish Muslims who are possessed by invisible spirits called jinn. A Palestinian refugee has been committed to psychiatric treatment after a severe case of jinn-possession which caused him to destroy the interior of a mosque, crash several cars and insult a number of people. He sees no point in psychotropic medication since his illness has already been treated with Quranic incantations. In the meantime, a local imam battles a jinn-spirit and tries to explain the Muslims of Aarhus that they should stop worrying so much about jinn, magic and other mundane affairs since nothing can harm anyone except by the permission of God. This book and film provide an account of the invisible dynamics of possession and psychosis, and of how the bodies and souls of Muslim patients are shaped by the conflicting demands of Islam and the psychiatric institutions of European nation-states. Over several years, Christian Suhr followed Muslim patients being treated in a Danish mosque and in a psychiatric hospital. His analysis reveals how both psychiatric and Islamic healing work not only to produce relief from pain, but also entail an ethical transformation of the patient and the cultivation of religious and secular values through the experience of pain. Creatively exploring the analytic possibilities provided by the use of a camera, both the book and film show how disruptive ritual techniques are used in healing to destabilise individual perceptions and experiences of agency, so as to allow patients to submit to the invisible powers of psychotropic medicine or God. Descending with angels addresses several timely topics - Islam in the West, mental health, intercultural cohabitation - and provides new theoretical perspectives on the agency of the invisible in human life. It will be of particular interest to scholars and students of anthropology, psychiatry, film and media studies, and the study of religion and Islam. The book comes with limited online access to the film. Separate license for public or classroom use can be purchased from Documentary Educational Resources (www.der.org) Over several years, Christian Suhr followed Muslim patients being treated for jinn possession and psychosis in a Danish mosque and in a psychiatric hospital. Through rich filmic and textual case studies, he shows how the bodies and souls of Muslim patients become a battlefield between the moral demands of Islam and the psychiatric institutions of European nation-states. The book reveals how both psychiatric and Islamic healing work to produce relief from pain, and also entail an ethical transformation of the patient and the cultivation of religious and secular values through the experience of pain. Creatively exploring the analytic possibilities provided by the use of a camera, both text and film show how disruptive ritual techniques are used in healing to destabilise individual perceptions and experiences of agency, which allows patients to submit to the invisible powers of psychotropic medicine or God.