Abstract

This anthropological study of the signs of possession viewed as “traditional” by Catholic exorcists and the affective experiences of demonic possession in contemporary Italy sheds light on how signs such as “aversion to the sacred” have been contextualized within the broader Catholic tradition and institutionalized in texts, regulations, and guidelines. Ethnographic data gathered through fieldwork shows how these affective symptoms become central in the identification of possession and, consequently, in possessed people’s lives. Discourses about signs of possession, often implemented through diagnostic “tests,” shape personal experiences, and bodily affects in turn influence ideas of “aversion to the sacred.” Thus this chapter highlights the processes through which the social, cultural, and semiotic dimensions of possession can become entangled with the affective and somatic aspects of the experience.