The History of Witchcraft: A Review with Some Psychiatric Comments
ROBERT D. ANDERSON M.D.1
1 Clinical instructor in psychiatry, University of Washington School of Medicine, and acting chief, Mental Hygiene Clinic, Veterans Administration Hospital, Seattle
Witchcraft, held to be an anti-Christian heresy with evil supernatural powers, is distinguished from common superstition and reviewed. The author suggests individual and group psychodynamics to explain the delusion, its inclusion of perverse sexuality, and its treatment by sadistic aggression. Opponents of the delusion are mentioned, and the role of mental illness among both the persecutors and the persecuted is defined.
