Freud labeled religion as a "universal neurosis"

If you believe very strongly in any particular religion, that dogma is going to affect your perceptions, and as a result, your mental outlook.

But this premise isn't simple, and any snapshot is likely to be incomplete.

Let look at a few examples.

Many Muslims have very strong belief systems that keep women, as sort of 2nd class citizens. I suspect that would create self esteem problems with Muslim women.

There is evidence that some religious groups may have a higher incidence of schizophrenia than do other groups.

Researchers have reported that Jehovah's Witnesses have a somewhat higher rate of schizophrenia, and that the disorder is more common among cloistered nuns than among active nuns.

There may be something about the structured lifestyle provided by conservative religions, or the life of contemplation and reflection found in a cloistered life, that appeals to the person whose sense of reality differs from that of people not affected by schizophrenia.

Folks with schizophrenic delusions include religious imagery are simply using religion as an expression of the altered reality. (SOHH: Hello, George Bush)

This is actually a sensible thing to do, (SOHH: as long as the person doesn't have the power to destroy a country) given the nature of religious experiences.

However desirable they may be, religious visions and feelings of contact with the divine are very private events. If I have a religious experience, I may try to convey that experience to you but any description I offer is unlikely to give you the same sense of awe and wonder that I myself experienced.

The unique quality of religious experiences renders them intensely personal and private. Little wonder, then, that an individual whose sense of reality is somewhat different from other people's may turn to religious modes of expressing that reality.

Before anyone takes me to task for suggesting religious folks are schizo, please standby.

I would not deny the positive effects of religion for the person or for society.

A majority of folks respond that religion is a source of comfort.

Many patients admitted to the medical services indicated that religion is the most important factor (more than family or friends) that enabled them to cope with the stress of their illnesses. Among hospitalized patients as the severity of the medical illness increased, religion was increasingly used as a coping behavior. In many studies, investigators found that persons who were more religious had greater well-being.

According to the World Health Organization this year, Depression is the fourth leading cause of ill health and disability amongst adults worldwide. By 2020, it is expected that mental health disorders will represent the world’s largest health problem.

Patients who depended heavily on their religious faith to cope were significantly less depressed than those who did not. Research workers found better adaptation, lower rates of depression, and less frequent negative emotional states among the more religiously active. One study reported that failure to attend church services at least weekly was associated with an almost 40 percent increase in the risk of depression among 1,855 New York City residents.

Self-esteem is another important mental health outcome because a lack of it has been strongly linked with depression. One study found that persons who relied heavily on religion to cope actually had very high levels of self-esteem. A number of researchers have now reported lower rates of suicide (the most dire consequence of depression) among those who are more religiously involved.

Like depression, anxiety and worry are widespread in America today. It was found that frequent church attenders actually experienced significantly lower rates of anxiety disorder than did infrequent attenders and those with no religious affiliation. These results were strongest among younger persons ages 18 to 39.

There are at least three natural mechanisms by which religion might promote mental health:

-a system of beliefs and mental attitudes.

-increased social support and promotion of interaction with others.

-emphasizing a focus on others and on a power higher than the self.

I have acquaintences who are Jehovah Witness'. The following reminds me of their beliefs/activities:

-Active participation in congregational prayers brings people into contact with others of similar age who have common interests and with whom social relationships may form.

-Religious doctrines promote social interaction by encouraging positive social attitudes and self-sacrifice. Studies have shown that church attendance is strongly related to almost every dimension of social support. Social support in turn, is related to lower rates of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and other mental health problems. Indeed, emotional support from others is a major therapeutic tool used in all forms of counseling and psychotherapy.

- Religion's social effects include its impact on the family unit and on the rearing of children. Studies have shown that religiously active marriages are more satisfying and less prone to divorce. Religious families are also likely to instill religious values in children, stressing commitment and character development, including honor and respect for parents. These values may later affect whether children are willing to help out aging parents or siblings. The future care of older adults in society may rest on such values.

Is the surest path to self-fulfillment, happiness, and self-esteem is not through striving to achieve these things for the self, but rather through providing these to others ?

Many emotional disorders today result from people being focused on or preoccupied with their own selfish needs.

I think narcissistic tendencies in American society are at the root of many of our issues. This might be another post topic

I am not promoting more religion as an antidote. I (somewhat awkwardly)
contrasting and comparing my observations and notes on the topic

Any thoughts ?

Reason can be used to calm many irrational fears - heights, spiders, boogeymen in the closet, the number 13, etc, etc.

The one fear reason can never answer is the fear of death. There is no answering that fear with reason. Reason has no answer for what comes after, although it usually suggests that what follows is an eternity of nonexistence.

It may be "neurotic" to answer that fear with religion, but IMHO this is the best explanation for why Freud's "neurosis" is close to universal. Almost every religion flourishes because it offers an answer for the unanswerable.

BTW, mystical experiences, like hallucinogenic experiences, may mimic mental illness, but having them doesn't mean one is mentally ill.

As Carl Jung once said to James Joyce, regarding his sister who was confined to a lunatic asylum: "she has drowned in the waters you swim in".

It was widely thought shamans and medicine men were the crazy people of the village, given a robe and something to do; turns out they are often more mentally healthy than other villagers.

There is some evidence that religion does provide psychological benefits to its members. Even Marx knew this, this is why he called it the opiate of the masses. The problem is, take away the opiate without taking away the pain that causes it, and you only continue the suffering.

People with mental illness tend to isolate themselves from the rest of society. Their illness keeps them indoors. Mental Health professionals encourage their patients to get out and do daily activities. I'm not surprised to see statistics suggesting a curb in depression by attending religious services. Getting out and being around people is key to helping mental illness. A nurturing and supportive environment that religious services might provide is a bonus, but what's key here is getting out of the house and interacting with other human beings.

On the flip side religious texts can mask mental illness for people experiencing psychotic breaks. Some mentally ill people believe that hearing voices, seeing ghosts & demons are part of a religious experience and fail to get treatment. That also explains the cluster phenomenon described above.

I believe that the excessive religiosity seen in thought disorders such as schizophrenia comes from the struggle to understand and describe the perception of the illness itself.

The integrity of the boundary which defines the self in these poor folks is disrupted, evanescent, discontinuous, and full of holes. Thoughts which come to us from orderly sources seem to come from beyond, in people who are psychotic. "I am feeling tormented by such-and-so" feels to these people like "something from beyond is tormenting me."

Some people wish to make note of this, and say that religiosity comes from mere mental illness, and if those individuals only had better identity topology, they might be saner.

This is a fallacy. Religiosity in the mentally ill can be compared to political anxiety about domestic eavesdropping. A Freeper might say that liberals who have a problem with the NSA are paranoid, and need to be medicated.

Religiosity in thought disorder is merely a sick mind's struggling to do what we all do, and that is to make sense of our situation. It truly does feel as though one is possessed by demons or devils or other awful things. It is a lousy illness. The use of religious metaphor is the closest that they have to describe the psychotic experience, which is awful, terrible.

Perhaps we should simply become more comfortable with the humble notion that we don't know everything, and can't know everything, just let the fear go (since it's pointless to worry about something you have no control over), and live in the now.

Just a thought.

Hey, I'm religious.

There's no one more stable than me. Right?.....uh....guys? Right?

[chirp]

excellent post. Thank you for the explanation

I personally believe that most religious and mystical experiences are products of altered states of consciousness (ASCs).

ASCs mimic some aspects of what is sometimes thought to be mental illness, such as dissociation; it is more a question of lucidity and control. See Jung's remarks about Lucia Joyce.

The fact that such states can be triggered by neurochemicals such as psilocybin should make us all the more curious about them, not less so.

When we understand the nature of such experiences, I will think we will know more about why we are religious. And that is worth knowing.

I have read the rantings of paranoid lunatics, and the ravings of mystics. And I think the thing that separates them is, once again, ... clarity.