Int J Soc Psychiatry. 1989 Autumn; 35(3): 245-51.

Behavioural perspectives on a Sri Lankan healing ritual.

Bartlett A.

Interim Secure Unit, Hackney Hospital, London, UK.

The paper briefly discusses the way different disciplines have approached the study of illness and healing crossculturally. The theoretical advantages and difficulties of using a behavioural perspective are then outlined. This is then applied to the Sanni Demon ritual of the Sinhalese Buddhists; this ceremony is used to end demonic possession. It is acknowledge that the anthropological and psychoanalytic analyses are useful but it is also shown that the ritual constitutes behavioral treatment. The implications of this in relation to universalistic ideas of normal and abnormal are discussed.