Mediumship and mental health: tensions from ethnopsychiatry/ethnopsychology

Objective: To discuss the phenomenon of mediumship in its interface with health, using ethnopsychiatry/ethnopsychology as a theoretical prism of analysis and reflection. Method: Theoretical study, supported by a narrative review of the scientific literature. Results: Studies in the area of religiosity/spirituality (R/S) indicate the importance of this dimension to promote health, but still with little space for the consideration of phenomena such as mediumship, especially with reference to religions of African matrix like umbanda and candomblé. The need for a non-medicalizing approach to cultural and spiritual phenomena such as the trance of possession, characteristic of mediumship, is emphasized, offering an insight into the ethnotheories present in religious communities about these events. Two main movements were observed, one associating mediumship with psychopathology and another with mediumship as mediator of mental health care. Although religious spaces also offer a kind of informal health care through psychic consultations with incorporated spirits, there have been few interventions in the literature regarding this perspective of care. Conclusion: The production gap in the area of mediumship in its interface with the promotion of mental health unequivocally demonstrates the innovative nature of the field of study that relates mediumship to a perspective of care and acceptance that must cross the incorporation of R/S in the most varied health practices.