Religion and Spirituality in Psychiatry

Religion/Spirituality and Dissociative Disorders 151Schindelholz provides a description of Barbara’ssymptoms. At the end of August 1971, “Besidesvarious unexplainable afflictions, scratches suddenlyappeared all over her legs and red spotscovered her face. At that time, she had to quither job. Coughing, suffocating, rigid fingers, andback pain became more and more common. Shealso had the feeling that somebody was pushingneedles into her head, neck, lungs, and stomach.Whenever she entered a Catholic church (shebelonged to this faith), she was immediately ableto fold her rigid fingers and the coughing stoppedinstantaneously” (p. 10). Her health problemsforced her to quit her job in a children’s home.Barbara recounts that some time earlier, during alunch break, she had been reading about the lifeof a saint, and she had told herself that she’d liketo have a little of that saint’s sanctity. When shelaid the book down, she suddenly heard a lugubriousvoice. At the end of October 1971, shebegan to develop tremendous physical strength:During a crisis, four men were required to keepher lying on her bed. On October 29, she startedhearing voices and talking to them. The appearanceof her face changed. She grimaced full ofhatred, becoming unrecognizable during thattime – always between 11 p.m. and 1:30 or 2 a.m.There were seven different masculine voices whorefused to tell her their names, but who introducedthemselves with numbers. They talked agreat deal and answered questions. Number 1was a bit boorish and number 2 seemed to be thespokesperson for the others. Number 2 was theone who talked the most and was present at eachsession. Number 3 appeared only rarely and wasextremely violent. His voice was coarse and raucous.He violently threw Barbara against the wallsand threw objects across the room. SometimesBarbara had to put her head under the cold waterfaucet for fifteen minutes in the winter time. Herphysical health remained unaffected althoughshe was a frail girl weighing no more than fortykilograms at that time. Number 4 was haughtyand arrogant and appeared only rarely. Number5 was genteel, and the language he used was veryrefined. Number 6 was more serious and did notoften participate. Number 7 revealed his identityonly at the end of the ordeal, “saying that he wasa prince of hell” (p. 11). All of this went on for sixand a half years, occurring about 80 percent ofthe time. However, the voices did not disturb herat three different times of the year: Christmas,Easter, and during the summer holidays. FatherSchindelholz carried out many exorcism ritualsduring these years, always at the girl’s home (shestill lived with her parents). He only performedthese rituals between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. whenthe voices manifested themselves, and someoneelse always attended these sessions. These witnesses,her family and close friends, met to helpsupport Barbara during her crises. After awhile,her parents were the only ones who continued toattend.Father Schindelholz describes his first meetingwith Barbara, when he arrived at 9:30 p.m. at thefamily home. “She came up to me immediatelywhen the door was opened. She greeted me witha smile and a cheerful ‘Good evening father.’ But Iperceived an expectation in her; she had the lookof someone who asks: ‘Is this one capable of morethan the others’” (p. 13). Afterwards, everybodysat down and chatted about everyday things.Barbara listened closely to the conversation andlaughed heartily when somebody told a joke.Nothing seemed to distinguish her from othergirls her age. Father Schindelholz noticed thatthere were no watches or clocks in the room andthat Barbara wasn’t wearing one either. Suddenlyshe stood up very straight and went quickly toher room. The priest looked at his watch; it was11 p.m. Everybody followed her. “The young girlhad thrown herself on the couch and was writhingin a strange way. I watched her attentively,but she didn’t seem to pay any attention to thepeople around her. She was short of breath, gasping,and her face was slightly redder than before.Her mother sat down beside her. The rest of uswere standing above her. I took the risk of askingthe ritual question: ‘Who are you?’ A suddenspurt of saliva in my direction was the answer. Istepped back and asked the same question, whichtriggered a litany of irate curses in response.I was able to catch a few words like: ‘pork of adog, dirty pig, head of a monkey, balls of a sheep,