Levi-Strauss' “The Sorcerer and his Magic”

In the vast field of symbolic primitive societies, the sorcerer and his magic require special attention. Unable to bring himself to admit the existence of supernatural forces capable of healing, Levi-Strauss sees the sorcerer or shaman a kind of psychoanalyst before the letter. In cases of death by conjuration or enchantment, is the social ostracism that kills. "A man does not become a witch because he heals the sick, but he healed the sick because he became a sorcerer." (Doja, 321)

Thus, somatization is long does not last. And the parallels between shamanistic cure and treatment are developed in a psychoanalytic text entitled "The symbolic effectiveness". Around the world, men tell myths, that is to say, allegorical tales to capture the origin of their institutions. Also myths they express a way of thinking common to all men, therefore participating in structural laws of the mind. (Strauss, 195)

Claude Levi-Strauss claimed that show "how the myths think in men, and without their knowledge." It would explain everything from the myth by myth, reality closed category of spirit, an expression first and most profound thought. One sees it also often carries a binary logic, by dichotomization and reports of inversion, as evidenced by a comparison due to the anthropologist Dan Sperber between "Hamlet" and "Little Red Riding Hood ". (Doja, 321)

At the base of the magical effect of Claude Levi-Strauss, is the phenomenon of complement "normal thinking (and patient groups) pathological thinking shaman". Researchers believe that abnormal thinking warlock; a shaman has a lot of fantastic, emotional interpretations. It is this warped thinking complements the normal, which is the basis of recovery of the patient. Note the fact that researchers in the field of view invariably curative magic. Magic effect cure the patient, as, indeed, the entire magical practices, according to Claude Levi-Strauss, "is composed of three elements, three types of experience".

Firstly, this is a special psychosomatic experience of the shaman, formed during his apprenticeship, initiation, and all the magical practices, and secondly, the experience of the patient, feel or do not feel relief from treatment, and, thirdly, the audience's experience of the group that their emotional reaction and understanding and participating in the process of healing.

Claude Levi-Strauss noted, and the fact that the fact that the real success of a magical ritual healing is not that important compared to how convincing the rite in terms of the group. On this basis, we can say that the researcher examined the relationship of the psyche through the magic of a shaman, magic performances, specific to a particular culture, and mental and physiological state of the "victims of witchcraft." Thus, the psychological approach explains the phenomenon of magic as a belief in the existence independent of consciousness, supernatural beings on the basis of an altered state of mind of the individual. (Doja, 321)

Since the work of Cannon, weekends see more clearly what psycho physiological mechanisms underlying the boxes documented in many parts of the world, death by enchantment or conjuration: ...