Delusion, possession and religion†

Abstract

Background: Religion and psychiatry may be both considered to be two different ways of explaining the unknown, of responding to questions about the meaning of life, and of bringing healing.

Aims: To discuss the border between religion and psychiatry.

Method: This lecture explores the interface between religion and psychiatry and discusses the border between soul and mind.

Results: Religious beliefs may affect behaviours and may been seen on a psychopathological continuum with overvalued ideas and delusions. There is an overlap between psychiatric and religious categories, in possession states described in research literature and by many cultural groups. Several studies suggest possible factors for differentiating schizophrenia from demonic influence and report on the efficacy of exorcism among possessed/psychotic subjects. Diagnostic criteria have been proposed for dissociative trance disorder or possession disorder.

Conclusions: Both mental health professionals and religious believers may require criteria to distinguish adaptive and maladaptive expressions of religious experience.

Keywords: Psychiatry; delusion; possession; psychosis; religion.