| The present study is an iconographic and psychological examination of Ethiopian prayer scrolls. These religious artworks are believed to have therapeutic effects in the context of faith healing rituals conducted by Christian clerics in Ethiopia called dabtaras. The study will consider the scrolls from the point of view of the dabtaras, as tools to heal spirit possession, and also offer an interpretation from the point of view of Western psychology. In order to accomplish this multidimensional analysis, the study applies the interpretative disciplines of anthropology and Jungian analytical psychology. From the anthropological perspective, the art and text of an individual scroll are subjected to an in-depth iconographic analysis, on the basis of Ethiopian religious symbology, in order to illuminate the curative function of the scroll during exorcism. From the psychoanalytic perspective, the same scroll is analyzed through the lens of five archetypal profiles. This latter analysis is followed by an exploration of how trance, an essential component of scroll exorcism, might facilitate archetypal engagement and transference so that the patient envisions a renewed and healed self. The study then draws upon the strategies of hermeneutics, engaging the researcher in differing interpretative positions, including the effects of the investigative process on her own intellectual constructions. In conclusion, the study provides suggestions for adapting the Ethiopian prayer-scroll model for use by art therapists and educators outside of the Ethiopian cultural domain. |
