"El duende" and other incubi. Suggestive interactions between culture, the devil, and the brain.

The belief in persecution or possession by evil sprits is still popular in Latin American countries. Observations were made on 12 Columbian families who were haunted by 'el duende' (a special kind of imp, goblin, or poltergeist) and other spirits. Interviews elicited a detailed account of events, a demographic and socioeconomic description ofthe families, exploration of the psyhosocial antecedents, and a psychiatric evaluation of individual members of the group regared as key persons. Possible psychodynamic mechanisms are involved in the production of the phenomenon and factors in the successful 'therapeutic'interventions of spiritualist rather than psychiatric or religious healers. The interaction of culture , folk belief, and the brain impaired by lesion or faulty learning appears as the important accountable dimension.