動物附身經驗

Possession State by an Animal

A 63-year-old married male patient, Mr. A, a competent railroad worker, has lived in the mountain area near metropolitan Taipei for 20 years. He started to attend Taoism spiritual ceremony at age 30 years, when a religious ritual resolves his transient sense of spiritual infl uence, under the stress of romantic frustration. He denied any involvement of Shamanism or passivity experience in the past. He has no history of alcohol drinking habit, substance use, or underlying medical condition. Three months before admission, Mr. A was fi ercely attacked and chased by a boar that he had raised for 10 years. His neighbors came to help kill the boar. Afterward, he started to feel being possessed by the boar. He felt that its hair was sweeping his body, its feet stepping on his chest, and its soul wandering through his viscera. He also reported passivity experience and alteration of consciousness level, forcing him involuntarily running into the mountain and chopping trees. He regarded the experience as “revenge of the boar.” Mr. A was well-oriented with intact reality testing, but was depressed for being possessed. He did not have any period of amnesia, total replacement of identity, auditory hallucinations, or boarlike manner. The fi ndings of brain CT and laboratory studies were normal. His possession state and depressive symptoms were improved soon, after he had received risperidone 2 mg/day. His antipsychotic drug was discontinued two weeks later without any recurrent symptoms.