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Anxiety, depression, and religiosity - a controlled clinical study
- Authors:
- PFEIFER Samuel, WAELTY Ursula
- Journal article citation:
- Mental Health Religion and Culture, 2(1), May 1999, pp.35-45.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Studies on religiosity and mental health have yielded mixed results. There are few studies in clinical settings, many of which are limited to an older population. This study had the goal of firstly exploring the interrelation of neuroticism and religiosity in clinically diagnosed patients in Switzerland compared with a group of healthy controls, and secondly, exploring differential aspects of positive or negative perceptions of religion in the individual. The findings support the clinical observation that the primary factor in explaining neurotic functioning in religious patients is not their personal religious commitment but their underlying psychopathology. Patients and healthy controls differ in the way they experience supportive and conflicting aspects of religiosity.
Clinically significant religious impairment
- Author:
- HATHAWAY William L.
- Journal article citation:
- Mental Health Religion and Culture, 6(2), July 2003, pp.113-129.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Recent psychodiagnostic practice, as embodied in the DSM IV, requires that psychopathological features result in a ‘‘clinically significant impairment’’ to qualify as a ‘‘mental disorder’’ in many cases. The impairment must be in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. The current proposal is that clinicians should consider the potential impairment in religious functioning arising from mental disorders in diagnostic process. It is suggested that psychopathology may result in a clinically significant religious impairment that is defined as a reduced ability to perform religious activities, achieve religious goals, or to experience religious states, due to a psychological disorder. Various existing approaches to studying the relationship between religious functioning and psychopathology are briefly reviewed and oughly categorized as either focused on ‘symptomatic religiosity’ or reflecting a ‘religiously sympathetic’ posture. Yet, in both of these approaches, religion has predominantly been construed as an exogenous variable contributing to mental health in some fashion (for good, for ill, or for both). The current proposal suggests that clinicians should also consider religion in endogenous perspective. So construed, religion is a significant domain of adaptive functioning, which may be adversely impacted by psychopathology. A discussion of various clinical, research and ethical issues involved in realizing the proposal is provided.
Cognitive distortions of religious professionals who sexually abuse children
- Authors:
- SARADJIAN Adam, NOBUS Dany
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18(8), August 2003, pp.905-925.
- Publisher:
- Sage
This study uses grounded theory to investigate the cognitive distortions in the self-report statements of 14 clergymen who had sexually abused children. These clergy were residents at an assessment and treatment center for child molesters. The content of the offenders' cognitive distortions was identified and categorized into thematic groups. These categories were found to relate to the various stages of the offending cycle. A tentative model was generated that illustrates the relationship between the categories and the hypothesized sequence of thought facilitating the initiation and maintenance of sexually abusive behavior. In addition, a number of cognitive processes were identified as contributing to offenders' beliefs. The study also reveals that the clergymen used their religious role and relationship with God within their distorted beliefs. These beliefs were predominantly concentrated in the areas of giving themselves permission to offend, denial of likelihood of getting caught, reduction of guilt after offending, and maintaining a positive sense of self.
Suicide terrorism: a case of folie à plusieurs?
- Author:
- SALIB Emad
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Psychiatry, 182(6), June 2003, pp.475-476.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
The terrorist mind is dark but not unfathomable. The literature on suicide terrorism refers to the beliefs and personality of the leader, the social structure of the group, and makes references to irrationality, brainwashing and morbid psychology. However, it is not clear from the available literature whether mental illness among suicide terrorists is any higher than in the general population. Lasègue and Farlet introduced the term folie à deux ('madness of two') in 1897 to describe the occurrence of shared delusions in two or more people who live in close proximity and are relatively isolated from the outside world and its influences. Behaviour based on beliefs induced by powerful suggestion in circumstances where a state of religious fanaticism or practices are potent and relevant factors is difficult to demarcate from shared delusional beliefs such as occur in folie à deux. Folie à plusieurs (madness of many) arises when many recipients are willing to share such beliefs. Folie partagée (shared madness) might provide some explanation of this.