Les « superstitions » à l’épreuve de la modernité : un retour en grâce ?

Abstract

Have we finished with superstition, from the point of view of history, of ideas and of psychology? Nothing is less certain. On the basis of some ancient or recent publications on this topic, this article attempts to pinpoint the fact that, owing to the empirical and theoretical topicality of superstition, it certainly deserves better than the ideological and intellectual disqualification it has been subjected to. Recent reflections, inspired by anthropological and psychological approaches, seem part of a new interest in beliefs and symbols previously mastered by dominant and exclusive systems of thoughts, be they religious or profane. But a close examination of the effective uses of the notion of ‘superstition’ demonstrates that the projective stigmatization of the ‘Other’ remains a relevant point of departure from which it can be rehabilitated, alongside the latest psychological approaches of belief.