Hoenig J, Wijesinghe C
Confin Psychiatr. 1979;22(1):19-33.
After a brief description of the popular beliefs on the causation of illness held in Sir Lanka, eight illustrative case histories are presented. Although the incidence of religious-supernatural contents of mental disorders has been decreasing in the West it is by no means rare. It does, however, occur mostly in psychotic illness, whereas in Sri Lanka it occurs with great frequency in both psychotic and neurotic conditions. The indigenous exorcistic methods of treatment will be more effective in some cases than in others and a careful diagnosis will provide indications as to the choice of treatment.
在简要描述了斯里兰卡流行的关于疾病成因的观念之后，本文给出了八个说明性的病例史。尽管西方精神障碍中宗教 - 超自然内容的发生率一直在下降，但这绝非罕见。然而，它大多发生在精神病性疾病中，而在斯里兰卡，它在精神病性和神经症性状况中都极为频繁地出现。本土的驱魔治疗方法在某些情况下会比其他情况更有效，仔细的诊断将为治疗选择提供依据。
