The anti-witch / Jeanne Favret-Saada ; translated by Matthew Carey ; foreword by Veena Das.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Favret-Saada, Jeanne, author.

Contributor:

Carey, Matthew (Translator), translator.

Das, Veena, writer of added text.

Standardized Title:

Désorceler. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Witchcraft--France.

Witchcraft.

France.

Physical Description:

xix, 115 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : Hau Books, [2015]

Summary:

Jeanne Favret-Saada is arguably one of France's most brilliant anthropologists, and The anti-witch is nothing less than a masterpiece, A synthesis of ethnographic theory and psychoanalytic revelation, where the line between researcher and subject is blurred--if not erased-The anti-witch develops the contours of an anthropology of therapy while deeply engaging with what it means to be caught in the logic of witchcraft, Through an intimate and provocative sharing of the ethnographic voice with Madame Flora, a "dewrtcher," Favret-Saada delivers a critical challenge to some of anthropology's fundamental concepts. Sure to be of interest to practitioners of psychoanalysis as well as to anthropologists, The anti-witch will bring a new generation of scholars into conversation with the work of a truly innovative thinker. Book jacket.

Contents:

I Prelude 1

II Unwitting Therapy 11

The psychoanalyst, the anthropologist, and the native 11

The words of witchcraft 14

The agents of witchcraft 14

The ontological properties of agents and their actions 15

Narrating witchcraft 16

Exemplary narratives 17

Exhortatory narratives 21

Theory and practice 27

III Birth of a Therapy 29

Comparison of exemplary narratives 30

Bewitching and dewitching 33

The agents of witchcraft 36

Those who lack "force" 36

Dewitchers 38

Witches 38

Abnormal force 39

Trajectories 39

Origins 40

Abilities 42

IV "Oh the Witch, the Filthy Bitch, Your Neighbor..." 47

The therapeutic frame 48

Healing the unwitting 49

Violence shifters 52

The deck of cards as therapeutic journey 56

Cards with fixed meanings 57

Cards with free-floating meanings 58

Proof by tarot 59

Neutralizing the anxiety-inducing field 60

Prescribing actions 61

The therapist's voice as act of enfolding 62

The tarot cards of Mademoiselle Lenormand 64

V Those Left Behind by the Symbolic Order 81

State sanctification of custom 82

Passive resistance versus enthusiastic commitment 83

Salvation in the form of feminine wiles 84

Therapy as housework 86

On not being an "individual producer" 88

It's since I set up in my own name... 90

A catch-up institution 93

VI Being Affected 97.

Notes:

"A synthesis of ethnographic theory and psychoanalytic revelation, where the line between researcher and subject is blurred--if not erased--The anti-witch develops the contours of an anthropology of therapy, while deeply engaging with what it means to be caught in the logic of witchcraft."--Back cover.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [109]-111) and index.

ISBN:

9780990505044

0990505049

OCLC:

891618294