Introduction
One angle from which to investigate witchcraft and bullying is that of intention. Intention has three parts, (1) the subject with the intention, (2) the object of attention and (3) the plan or aim to achieve a particular goal. Witchcraft can be regarded as conscious or unconscious, but there is an assumption that it reflects something about the heart or desires of the witch towards a person, object, or situation. When negative psychic energy is directed towards this object of attention there will be a corresponding negative effect upon the target unless remedial action is taken. In a circular process, the aggressor might also be a victim of psychic attack, as protective actions can cause violent intentions to rebound. The role of negative intention and the energy it generates in human society and in individuals will be examined briefly in three ethnographic contexts. In Paul Stoller’s (1987) work on sorcery in Niger, West Africa, witchcraft/sorcery is culturally normative and part of everyday discourse.1 Specialists in sorcery are well-known figures within their communities. In Jean Favret-Saada’s (1980, 1981, 2015) studies of witchcraft accusations among peasant farmers in northwestern France, witchcraft is generally hidden and referred to obliquely. Its full workings are only apparent to those ‘caught up’ in it. In the third example, Fiona Bowie’s work among spirit release practitioners and health professionals in the United Kingdom, notions of witchcraft, sorcery, possession and psychic attack are culturally marginal and their intrusion into people’s lives is generally shocking and unexpected. Contrasting these three examples allows us to explore the role of cultural discourses concerning witchcraft in relation to the processes, techniques and outcomes for aggressor and victim. Where witchcraft beliefs and practices are normative there are generally established healers/anti-witchers and recognised means of dealing with psychic attack. Where it does not form part of the wider cultural discourse, the victim has to work harder to find meaning and a context for their experience, and to find support in dealing with it. Both witchcraft and bullying are forms of violence in which relationships are central and in which victims and aggressors almost always know each other. The moral harm that results reflects relationships that have gone wrong in some way.
