M. De Masi, E. Marchiori, G. Colombo - Vol. 10, September 2004, Issue 3
Testo Bibliografia Summary Indice
Update article Il tarantismo: un fenomeno
al confine tra rito e psicopatologia
Tarantism: a phenomenon at the border between rite and psychopathology
Tarantism is a now rare phenomenon, once typical of the popular culture of the Apulia region. It occurred more frequently in young women than men.
The tarantula is a spider; its poison was considered to be the cause of a pathological state with behaviour and symptoms similar to those of a hysteric attack. This symptomatology was treated by the entire community through a ritual characterized by substantial components of archaic religiousness.
Tarantism is a phenomenon with various aspects; it is, in fact, object of interest in different areas of research: anthropology, theology, sociology, psychology, psychiatry.
This paper, starting from the social, historical-cultural and religious antecedents that underline the development of the phenomenon, pays attention to the most relevant explicative hypotheses. It investigates the psychopathological components and, in particular, the relation between tarantism and dissociative phenomena. Generally speaking, the authors propose that the epigenesist of tarantism is related not only to the traumatic conditions of people’s life, but also, more specifically, to different kinds of sexual abuse.