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The sacred self: A cultural phenomenology of charismatic healin
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Book Reviews
The Sacred Self: A Cnltm'al Phenomenoiolff of ~ s t i e Healing, by Thomas J. Csordas. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1994. xvi + 327 pp. NP (hardback). "What is it to be human? How does one understand one's own self Who, or what, gives definition to that self?." These are some of the questions addressed by anthropologist Thomas Csordas in The Sacred Self. Employing a methodology he calls "'cultural phenomenology," Csordas enters the world of Roman Catholic Charismatics (primarily from New England) to examine how that community uses healing rituals to form and re-form the selves of its members. Csordas employs standard anthropological research tools (i.e., interviews with group members--both healers and subjects; and observation of the rituals themselves). Csordas goes beyond external observation and analysis, however, by also including the Charismatics' own reflections on their experiences, noting that such self-reflection is part of the healing process itself. To ignore their personal sense of what happened, therefore, would be to limit the evidence to only the observable. Stating, however, that he sees phenomenology and semiology as "methodological twins" (p. ix), he supplements those more traditional methods with the insights of such contemporary theorists of language such as Pierre Bourdieu and Paul Riceour. This theoretical reflection on his collected evidence is one of the hallmarks, and strengths, of the book. After defining his task, noting the strengths and limitations of traditional anthropological approaches and proposing his supplemental vision (Chap. 1), Csordas sets the stage for his discussion of the rituals themselves, attending to a description of the performers---the healers and the patients--and the various genres of ritual healing (Chap. 2). Here he points out the major difference between conventional psychotherapy and/or medicine on the one hand, and Charismatic healing on the other: "'Essential to the Charismatic healing system is a concept of the person as a tripartite composite of body, mind, and spirit... [Psychotherapy and medicine] are predicated on a concept of the person as a dualistic composite of body and mind" (p. 39). This distinction is what allows both the healers and patients to make use of conventional methods (i.e., therapy and medicine) as well as the Charismatic healers' arts. This distinction also helps explain the rituals themselves and how those rituals "'work," both in terms of their healing effectiveness and in creating the "sacred self" (the focus of Chap. 3). Understanding deep psychological problems underlying distress, or realizing that there may be a virusbased disease at work in one's body only explains, for the Charismatics, one level of the problem; it indicates only one level of cure or relief. The other level that requires attention is the imagination (the semiological and phenomenological underpinnings of this discussion are laid out in Chap. 4). What might thus be required is a "healing of relationships" or a "healing of memories," that is, an autobiographical healing process (Chap. 5 and 6 provide extended examples and analysis of this).
Charismatics also understand that some maladies might be the work of demonic forces. These demons can include the traditional "Seven Deadly Sins" and "Occult/ Witchcraft," or more "psychotherapeutic" demons e.g., Low self-image, Rejection, and Unforgiveness). The demons themselves and the rituals for expelling them (known as "Deliverance") are the subject of Chap. 7 and 8. "Resting in the Spirit" and how this sacred swoon points to distinct pictures of the self and its relationship to God and the community are the focus of the last major chapter (9). In the final (10th) chapter, Csordas tries to tie up the loose ends, noting a very large one: " . . . if healing is the creation of a sacred self, it might be objected that we have never said what the sacred self 'is'. Our answer must be that if the self is elusive, it is because there is no such 'thing' as the self. There are only self processes, and these are orientational processes" (p. 276). To work through almost three hundred pages of often dense prose (when Csordas is at his most theoretical) and arrive at such a conclusion might be quite annoying to some readers. On the other hand, the descriptions of the rituals, the accompanying narrations and analysis, the delineation and differentiation between the rituals, and the constant referral to the "touchstone" of the tripartite nature of the Charismatic person do give a relatively clear picture of what the "sacred self" would be. What Csordas has achieved, therefore, is not a description of the end product, but how the end product might be achieved. The end product itself can be described only in relation (or process) terms. In other words, the "sacred self" is such only in relationship to that Other that continually defines its sacredness. The healing rituals of the Catholic Charismatics operate out of this assumption and reinforce it, not only through words and images (such as the "healing of memoties", but though bodily performances (such as the laying on of hands and "resting in the Spirit"). Csordas has negotiated his path through this material with great compassion and understanding. He takes the Charismatic community, its healing practitioners and its beliefs very seriously. There is no scientific condescension, for example, in the discussion of revelation or demonpossession. On the other hand, he is quite ready to note when a ritual did not work for him; he freely confessed that he had "'neither the cultural knowledge nor the spontaneous disposition to respond correctly" to a healer attempting to employ a received "word of knowledge" (p. 144)--the point being that there was more going on in this "supernatural" process than simply divine intervention. Overall, The Sacred Self is a very fine work, well worth the time for a reader interested in how religious belief and practice reinforce one another, and with how those beliefs and practices converge with broader cultural systems. It is also valuable for its (successful) attempt to employ a wide variety of the tools at the scholars' hands, both traditional and contemporary. Office of Religious Affairs Gnry R. Blower
University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte, NC 28223, U.S.A.
Book Reviews
The Sacred Self: A Cnltm'al Phenomenoiolff of ~ s t i e Healing, by Thomas J. Csordas. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1994. xvi + 327 pp. NP (hardback). "What is it to be human? How does one understand one's own self Who, or what, gives definition to that self?." These are some of the questions addressed by anthropologist Thomas Csordas in The Sacred Self. Employing a methodology he calls "'cultural phenomenology," Csordas enters the world of Roman Catholic Charismatics (primarily from New England) to examine how that community uses healing rituals to form and re-form the selves of its members. Csordas employs standard anthropological research tools (i.e., interviews with group members--both healers and subjects; and observation of the rituals themselves). Csordas goes beyond external observation and analysis, however, by also including the Charismatics' own reflections on their experiences, noting that such self-reflection is part of the healing process itself. To ignore their personal sense of what happened, therefore, would be to limit the evidence to only the observable. Stating, however, that he sees phenomenology and semiology as "methodological twins" (p. ix), he supplements those more traditional methods with the insights of such contemporary theorists of language such as Pierre Bourdieu and Paul Riceour. This theoretical reflection on his collected evidence is one of the hallmarks, and strengths, of the book. After defining his task, noting the strengths and limitations of traditional anthropological approaches and proposing his supplemental vision (Chap. 1), Csordas sets the stage for his discussion of the rituals themselves, attending to a description of the performers---the healers and the patients--and the various genres of ritual healing (Chap. 2). Here he points out the major difference between conventional psychotherapy and/or medicine on the one hand, and Charismatic healing on the other: "'Essential to the Charismatic healing system is a concept of the person as a tripartite composite of body, mind, and spirit... [Psychotherapy and medicine] are predicated on a concept of the person as a dualistic composite of body and mind" (p. 39). This distinction is what allows both the healers and patients to make use of conventional methods (i.e., therapy and medicine) as well as the Charismatic healers' arts. This distinction also helps explain the rituals themselves and how those rituals "'work," both in terms of their healing effectiveness and in creating the "sacred self" (the focus of Chap. 3). Understanding deep psychological problems underlying distress, or realizing that there may be a virusbased disease at work in one's body only explains, for the Charismatics, one level of the problem; it indicates only one level of cure or relief. The other level that requires attention is the imagination (the semiological and phenomenological underpinnings of this discussion are laid out in Chap. 4). What might thus be required is a "healing of relationships" or a "healing of memories," that is, an autobiographical healing process (Chap. 5 and 6 provide extended examples and analysis of this).
Charismatics also understand that some maladies might be the work of demonic forces. These demons can include the traditional "Seven Deadly Sins" and "Occult/ Witchcraft," or more "psychotherapeutic" demons e.g., Low self-image, Rejection, and Unforgiveness). The demons themselves and the rituals for expelling them (known as "Deliverance") are the subject of Chap. 7 and 8. "Resting in the Spirit" and how this sacred swoon points to distinct pictures of the self and its relationship to God and the community are the focus of the last major chapter (9). In the final (10th) chapter, Csordas tries to tie up the loose ends, noting a very large one: " . . . if healing is the creation of a sacred self, it might be objected that we have never said what the sacred self 'is'. Our answer must be that if the self is elusive, it is because there is no such 'thing' as the self. There are only self processes, and these are orientational processes" (p. 276). To work through almost three hundred pages of often dense prose (when Csordas is at his most theoretical) and arrive at such a conclusion might be quite annoying to some readers. On the other hand, the descriptions of the rituals, the accompanying narrations and analysis, the delineation and differentiation between the rituals, and the constant referral to the "touchstone" of the tripartite nature of the Charismatic person do give a relatively clear picture of what the "sacred self" would be. What Csordas has achieved, therefore, is not a description of the end product, but how the end product might be achieved. The end product itself can be described only in relation (or process) terms. In other words, the "sacred self" is such only in relationship to that Other that continually defines its sacredness. The healing rituals of the Catholic Charismatics operate out of this assumption and reinforce it, not only through words and images (such as the "healing of memoties", but though bodily performances (such as the laying on of hands and "resting in the Spirit"). Csordas has negotiated his path through this material with great compassion and understanding. He takes the Charismatic community, its healing practitioners and its beliefs very seriously. There is no scientific condescension, for example, in the discussion of revelation or demonpossession. On the other hand, he is quite ready to note when a ritual did not work for him; he freely confessed that he had "'neither the cultural knowledge nor the spontaneous disposition to respond correctly" to a healer attempting to employ a received "word of knowledge" (p. 144)--the point being that there was more going on in this "supernatural" process than simply divine intervention. Overall, The Sacred Self is a very fine work, well worth the time for a reader interested in how religious belief and practice reinforce one another, and with how those beliefs and practices converge with broader cultural systems. It is also valuable for its (successful) attempt to employ a wide variety of the tools at the scholars' hands, both traditional and contemporary. Office of Religious Affairs Gnry R. Blower
University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte, NC 28223, U.S.A.