Religion & Mental Health
From 'A Challenge to Religion on Health' by A Shaw
Mental health is rarely mentioned in the same breath as religion, because of the all-too-obvious examples of florid religiosity as a symptom of mental illness; and the disgraceful history of persecution of mentally ill people, as objects of devilish possession by people who knew no better or believed it to be God's punishment. But this only partly explains the role of religion in mental health.
The problem is not just that there are 'mentally ill' people who think they are God or Jesus, or have 'seen' or 'heard' them in visions or voices. Or have experienced other visual or auditory hallucinations in which they 'see' religious figures. In these phenomena the brain is simply using material that is familiar from every day life and culture, as it does to construct dreams.
The distorted thinking of superstition can reinforce neurosis and exacerbate the symptoms of personality disorder causing guilt and anxiety and distorted perception that undermines or exaggerates selfesteem. This can cause problems at family, social and community level and affects how mentally ill people are treated. How other people react to them can contribute significantly to the confusion and distress experienced in mental illness.
It is also clear that many of the manifestations of mental illness, neurosis, and drug, or poison induced experiences have their counterparts in religious 'experience' and ritual. And the techniques of induction, conditioning and reinforcement - that are used in hypnosis and hypnotherapy, are also used in alternative therapies, brainwashing, and cults. Furthermore, these same techniques are used to induce belief in gods and religions at an early age - by authority figures such as, parents, priests and teachers.
Julian Jeynes in his book 'The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind '[9] also links aspects of 'experience' demonstrated in hypnosis, religion and schizophrenia in explaining his ideas on the origin of consciousness. If I understand him correctly, it is, he thinks a throwback to a former mode of a pre-conscious way of 'thinking' and acting.
What look to us like bizarre, beliefs of primitive tribes on all inhabited continents, and cult beliefs could also be seen in this light. Belief in ancestral spirits that guide or control behaviour, trance states, and sacrificial behaviour - could also be seen as manifestations of this earlier, more primitive, less rational mode of thought, rather than the more independent, rational thought patterns of modern people.
The problems of religion in relation to mental health are seen at other levels too, and in other eras. In the past, the cure for mental illness (caused by god or the devil) was to be 'saved' or to have the devil 'driven out' by exorcism. Religious attitudes stigmatised mental health and those who suffered from it, and this can still be seen today.
Although many more people do understand mental illness, many others pay lip service to being sympathetic while in reality maintaining age-old superstitious fears, but this is not surprising because it is difficult to understand disordered thinking and the often strange behaviour it can lead to.
This lack of knowledge can be seen in people's attitudes to the locking up of mentally ill people, even when they are not a danger to the public. It has also prevented rational consideration and research into the causes and treatment of mental illness, and is compounded by attitudes to mind or mood altering drugs either for recreation or medication.
Throughout Europe and the Americas, mental illness was regarded as not only incurable, but as a disgrace, often as divine punishment for sin, or caused by satanic possession. 'Lunatics' were treated with the utmost cruelty and humiliation: degraded, chained, beaten, and displayed as objects of entertainment and derision.
Mental illness and drug-induced psychosis led women to be persecuted as witches. In some cases the reason for the symptoms of their supposed victims has since been found to be the neurotoxic effects of natural substances such as ergot in their bread, or accidental poisoning with fungi. Epidemics in East Anglia and France in the 16th century were put down to 'possession by evil spirits' and the Puritan 'Witch-finders' pursued women and children with religious vigour, and many were hanged.
Pressure for reform in the care and treatment of the mentally ill came not from the Church, but from doctors and scientists. The progress over the last 150 years has been brought about through rational, scientific investigation and secular interest in mental health, and progress has not been helped by superstitious practices that still persist in this field, such as 'faith' healing.
As society becomes less religious and more rational, understanding and humanitarian, so progress in social care and science can progress to a brighter future for the mentally ill and distressed- a process that will be hard for the religions to resist.
Emotional Health
From 'A Challenge to Religion on Health' by A Shaw
It is accepted now that ones state of mind can affect ones physical mental and emotional health.People are particularly vulnerable to illness, during periods of distress and in the immediate aftermath of the shock of 'life changing' events especially bereavement.
It has always been one of the last cards to be played in discussion of religion, when all other arguments have been exhausted, that religion, "whatever you think of it", and "even if is not true", is a comfort in times of trouble. But is that really true? Certainly there are those for whom it has been a comfort, but like prayers, we don't hear about all the ones that don't get answered. And how much of this comfort has been because religion has provided community or family support that is not available to others? How much comfort provided on a sectarian basis has excluded those without religious belief?
Many people still stick to religion because it is all they have or all they know, and do not have the confidence in their own human capabilities - My view is that encouraging reliance on religion far from making people strong keeps them 'dependent' and insecure. Not everyone has a family or priest or religious community to fall back on. The only reliable network that can work for everyone, is secular community-based support, but this has not been able to develop.
The problem has been that family and church have dominated this 'service' to the exclusion of secular support services that are available to all regardless of religious beliefs? It has been a traditional part of the religion's hold on individuals.
Fear of isolation keeps people within the fold, within the family, and because of this, secular support networks have not been able to develop. This was less evident in the past, when families were larger, and less atomised, with less social mobility, and when it was all but compulsory to belong to one or other of the churches even if actual belief was weak.
Now when families are so much smaller, and so many families are fragmented by choice, travel and opportunity, it is no longer necessary for people to pretend belief that they do not hold. But there are many more people without a support network. Lonely people are vulnerable. Nor is belief in God itself a reliable source of comfort. For many people the disillusionment and confusion that accompanies the realisation that religion is no guard against catastrophe comes as a shock at a time when they can least cope with it. (Though this is often suppressed because confronting it may be too painful.) Like the childish fantasies of 'guardian angels' and' imaginary friends' they may be a temporary comfort, but they are no substitute for the realisation that comes with maturity, that human beings are resilient. They have a range of coping mechanisms that are more likely to see them through bad times, as well as, if not better than, any fantasy.
This and the development of community-based support systems upon which we have hardly started, are the way to support people in their times of need.
The Power of Prayer?
(‘Alternative Therapies’)
It is regularly claimed that prayer and faith are healing, and the continuing call on 'alternative therapies' is testament to the appeal of this easy, no side effects, answer to illness. But does it work? And if it does, does it work as a result of mystical supernatural forces, or are there more rational explanations of why the alleviation of stress and anxiety improve one's feelings of health and wellbeing.
Does it work? And of course the answer is yes. It has been shown that stress, anxiety and depression lower the body's resistance to disease, exacerbates symptoms and delays recovery. These states of mind hinder the body's natural physiological coping and healing mechanisms. So anything that lowers these factors will improve health and wellbeing to some extent. Many other things will work in the same way - chalk pills and potions (placebos) - sympathetic support of family and friends - treatment and care by doctors and nurses who instil confidence with 'a good bedside manner' - conventional, science based medical or surgical treatments - a shopping spree or a good holiday - even convincing mumbo jumbo! All can make you feel better, and will help you to get better, particularly from conditions in which there are significant psychological factors. And of course most conditions are self-limiting and will get better on their own anyway. The problem comes when superstition and 'faith' are used as a substitute for diagnosis, evidence based treatment, care and follow up.
And further when such experiences lead to the confirmation of superstitious beliefs that affect many other areas of life, personal, social, and then stray into public policy making and public life and politics, and affect the lives of non-believers in many ways. Ways that, as I think I have shown, are far from health promoting!
Understanding how close are health and religion through human physiology is the subject of 'A Theory of Belief'[12]. It explains how the inculcation of religion is a 'side effect' of human physical and mental physiology and uses the same psychological techniques to induce and reinforce belief that are used in health and other areas of human life.
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