Title: Demonic Foes. My Twenty-Five Years as a Psychiatrist Investigating Possessions, Diabolic Attacks, and the Paranormal.
Author: Richard Gallagher
Publisher: HarperOne (October 6, 2020)
Hardcover: 272 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0062876478
Book review by Athanasios Komianos
Years ago, I had run into a Washigton Post article entitled: As a Psychiatrist I Diagnose Mental Illness. Also, I Help Spot Demonic Possession. I was so glad that one more psychiatrist went out in public and talked openly about the possibility of demonic possession. I knew that one article was not enough for the knowledge and experience of Dr. Gallagher. He has studied in the most prestigious American Universities and served in numerous psychiatric clinics. Proficient in the Classic Studies (Ancient Greek and Latin) he certainly has the caliber and efficiency to differentiate between mental illness and spiritual affliction. To my delight he finally came out with this book sharing his insights and expertise on the subject. Having been a scientific consultant to the Board of the International Association of Exorcists, based in the Vatican since the nineties, he is considered to be the most experienced scientist on the subject.
Dr. Gallagher cautions believers and sceptics alike to be open minded and alert. He says outright that “spiritual beings don’t show up on X-rays” and he warns that the Rite of Major Exorcism of the Catholic Church “is not a magic formula that will cast out demons automatically and completely liberate suffering victims without effort from the afflicted individuals themselves … exorcists are not wizards…and exorcisms are not magic bullets.” Throughout the book he is trying to help the reader to understand the difference of mental disease as compared to the spiritual malady. He talks about the levels of demonic affliction. The infestation is usually directed to places, houses, beds, pets, icons, holy objects, etc. It is a direct attack on things that are surrounding the victim. Oppression is a more direct attack on the victim and it usually external in nature. The attacks “are pummeled physically by ‘outside forces’.”
He provides us with several case studies that he has had a personal encounter with the victims and attended some of the exorcisms. He had the ability to consult with the victims (not his patients) and evaluate the mental health of the individuals taking pains to assure that there was no mental health issue, or a need for medical treatment or hospitalization. He also stresses the need to realize the extent as well as the components that constitute possession. Possession, the most severe form of demonic attack which is characterized by further paranormal attributes like superhuman power, the speaking and understanding of foreign tongues, the preternatural knowledge of facts about the lives of assistants and bystanders of an exorcism, impossible bodily contortions, and even cases where levitation took place, are some of the features that no psychotic will ever report as Professor Gallagher claims. He stresses the fact that possession is not an everyday phenomenon that occurs often. On the contrary, its rarity is compelling. He says that only a minor fraction of the cases that reach the press are real cases of possession that could meet the criteria set by the Church. As he notes: “as with all scientific conclusions about complex subjects it is the sum of the hard evidence, either for, or against such a conclusion, that should be the deciding factor.”
Overall, the book is very illuminating since it helps the reader go through many aspects of this controversial topic. It is not an easy thing to scroll over all these very delicate lines that cross fragile boundaries between science and religion. Dr. Gallagher is a master at that. One very important insight from his work is the finding that he describes: “the tendency for demonic states to imitate medical conditions… the “pseudo-possessions” I prefer to call them ‘counterfeit possessions’ because the term underlines how evil spirits can consciously mimic genuine illnesses or disorders to disguise or mask their presence… but interestingly, and this is a crucial point, evil spirits do not seem able to “get it right.” Their power to only imitate medical conditions remains flawed, and hence their manifestations are not a truly accurate imitation of an actual medical or psychiatric disorder.”
He also makes a very balanced and accurate historical presentation of the concept of possession in the course of human history and by examining most cultures.
However, to my surprise I was astonished by his inaccurate report of the Mount Rainier Case, the case that the film The Exorcist was based on. The case lasted only four months, but he writes (p.25) that it took many years. If this is not a typo then most probably, he has not studied the Jesuit Report on the series of Exorcisms on Ronald Hunkeler, the afflicted teenager (Rueda, 2018). I hope the editor will restore this typo in the second edition.
Another pitfall on this book is the way Dr. Gallagher views Parapsychologists. Unfortunately, he adopts the mainstream indifference to this field naming it bluntly unscientific and pseudoscience. He is not aware of the amazing work that has been done in the laboratories and the field work by scientists that have far more stringent standards than mainstream scientists, what a pity indeed.
The usual suspect the “False Memory Syndrome” is recruited again to debunk claims on paranormal experiences of victims of satanic rituals. Of course, one should be very careful in accepting such claims at face value. On the other hand, we should not throw out the baby with the water. He attacks on the self-acclaimed amateur therapists, spriritualists, New Age fads, “spiritual explorers”, “psychic readers” and neo-shamans to name but a few, who unintentionally according to Gallagher open the back door to possession. Hypnosis could not avoid his attack either: “Hypnosis, a dubious way of trying to help people recall memories, is a common element in many false memory cases. These recollections have been labeled “repressed memories” by some. But when elicited under such conditions, they have repeatedly been shown to be unreliable, especially after long years of a total lack of recall of such dramatic episodes.”
No one could agree more on his attack on the multimillionaire televangelists who ‘exorcise’ either by ‘shaking off’ demons or by ‘blowing’ or slapping people on their foreheads live on TV.
He also attacks Freud’s initial findings when he was employing hypnosis and eliciting incestual experiences and rapes. Unfortunately, for psychology Freud not only abandoned hypnosis and devised free association and dream analysis but also developed a construct of the Oedipus complex (Bliss 1986). For Dr. Gallagher that was a move to the correct direction which shows us that he is totally unaware of the work of his colleague professor Bliss from the University of Utah who claimed that when inmates at the University hospital with MPD were hypnotized most of them run into cases of rape at a very young age and in some cases the rape was done by members of the family (Bliss 1986). The physicians in some of the cases were able to verify the stories that were revealed through hypnosis, in effect possibly verifying the original findings of Freud as well. They also debunked the classic FMS explanation and pointed out that all these could have been real stories that came up through hypnotic recollection.
The utmost miss though according to my point of view, is the fact that Dr. Gallagher only acknowledges possession by demons. He does not in any way entertain the idea of possession by spirits or other entities. Ι would most probably attribute this to the fact that as a clinician he never employed hypnosis in his practice. Alternatively, could we attribute this to possible “Christian bias?” I would not say so, Drs Shakuntala Modi, Bill Baldwin, Carl Wickland to name but a few were no less Christians than he is, but you will not find their names in his work. He clearly states that the best book on Possession was written by the German scholar Traugott Oesterreich, and I could not agree more (Oesterreich, 1974). However, this book is full of stories of possession by human discarnates as well. Why does he avoid the issue? Probably because he follows the dictum that “paranormal events of all sorts should always be presumed to be diabolic until proved otherwise.” On the other hand, he criticizes his colleague Scott Peck on confusing a spiritual disorder as a mental condition and on performing exorcisms on his patients, sometimes with a very hefty fee. He also thinks very little of Peck’s mentor Martin Malachi and his work on exorcisms.
Demonic Foes is a book that needs to be on your book selves. Any therapist will gain benefit by reading it. Even if you may disagree in some respect with the author, there are treasures to be revealed throughout.
References
Bliss, Eugene L. (1986). Multiple personality, allied disorders and hypnosis. Oxford University Press.
Rueda, Sergio A. (2018). Diabolical possession and the case behind the Exorcist. McFarland & Company Inc. Jefferson, North Carolina, 2018.
Oesterreich, Traugott Konstantin.(1974). Possession: Demoniacal and other among primitive races, in Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Modern Times. Causeway Books, New York.