title: A case of possessive state with onset influenced by 'door-to-door' sales.
abstract: Recently in Japan, 'door-to-door sales' has become of concern because it has created numerous legal and social problems. In this paper, a 47 year old dissociative trance disorder case who presented with possession by God is discussed. Specific types of door-to-door sales is known to use superstition and folk beliefs as tools to lure customers. In this particular case, these religious factors seemed to have played an important role in the precipitation of the disorder and its presentation. In addition, the brain-washing environment observed in video lectures used in door-to-door sales seemed to play an important role in the development of the possessive state. We also performed social psychiatric analysis of the occurrence of the possessive state in a city area, which has been considered to develop within traditional culture. Phenomenological classification by one of the authors was useful for diagnosing underlying disorders in the possessive state.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Obata
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Seno
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okada
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Morita
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yoshikawa
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamagami
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003702:Delusions / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008273:Magic; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D008875:Middle Aged; D010268:Parapsychology; D010343:Patient Admission; D010553:Personality Development; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012949:Social Work, Psychiatric