Can religious cults be therapeutic? Does therapy just imply that the patient gets relief, or does it enable him to cope with his own imbalance? Do certain traumas result from conflicts with kin, or from ritual transgressions, specific to the culture? These questions concern the relation of the individual to his culture, and the imagery of the person to that of illness and mental disturbance. The contributors to this volume draw on anthropology as well as psychotherapy in their case studies from South and South-East Asia. Possession, in various forms, is at the core of such healing rituals. The analyses presented show that there is a common social idiom of illness. The interpretation of the healer is sometimes based on a social memory about illness or abnormal behaviour. The healing process implies power relationship and induces the patient to act out his symptoms. While some contributors keep the dimension of the person with its trauma as the focus of their interpretation, others prefer to consider possession as a cultural mechanism stemming from ritual expression. The therapeutic value of possession is acknowledged though some contributors focus on its symbolic efficacy rather than on the system of thought behind it. Exploring multiple therapy systems, including allopathy, astrology and exorcism, this book shows that healing rituals allow communication between cultural codes. Acculturation may play a crucial role both as a source of disorder and a way of restoring harmony.