Delusions of Witchcraft: A Cross Cultural Study

The belief in magic, particularly in love philtres and death potions, is widespread in Southern Italy and is a pathoplastic factor in psychiatric illnesses of emigrant workmen from this part of Italy. It was found that Italian labourers working in German-speaking Switzerland tended to develop a psychotic-like syndrome as a response to conflicts resulting from relationships with Swiss women. The patients believed that they were victims of a love potion. The illness consisted of an anxious depression, with perplexity, abnormal somatic sensations and a sense of fatigue and loss of vitality. All the symptoms were attributed to witchcraft, and the patient's friends and relatives were firmly convinced that the patient was bewitched. In some cases improvement occurred when the approved counter-magic was employed. Improvement occurred in all eleven patients studied, and there was no evidence of a residual schizophrenic defect. Unfortunately long-term follow-up was not possible.