Depression, witchcraft beliefs and super-ego development in pre-literate societies.

When guilt feelings and self-accusations made their first appearance as symptoms of depression in Europe and Africa, as noted in a previous paper, this followed a period of heightened witchcraft beliefs in both locations and was sometimes first noticed in the form of voluntary witchcraft confessions, raising the question of a possible connection between the two types of change. Using the concepts of "group ego" and "group super-ego" to which Eric Wittkower has contributed, it is suggested that the heightened witchcraft beliefs were a defence against an individualizing change which would eventually lead to the inward turning to aggression and reproach and hence to the symptoms mentioned.