Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Part 5. Symptomatic Religiosity in Neurosis and Insanity - 2. Symptomatic Religiosity - Compulsive Systematisation - Symptomatic Religiosity and Treatment
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY
of the personal and the general. It usually comes as the result of
a gradual process of spiritual healing and growth.
In the religious life we have to cope with all the consequences
of ill-health that are familiar in other realms of experience.
They are not the fruits of religion, and it is as absurd to hold
religion responsible for them as it would be to condemn family
life because some families are centres of strife and misery. In the
realm of the spirit, as elsewhere, responsible people distinguish
between health and disease.
Symptomatic Religiosity and Treatment
When analytical or other treatment is successful in curing a
person who has suffered from neurotic religiosity, the patient
sometimes experiences a sense of freedom and release that
causes him, not without some self-satisfaction, to announce that
he has thrown religion overboard altogether. He paints in
glowing terms the benefits to mental health of doing so.
Unhappily such people do not realise that they may be ‘emptying
out the baby with the bath water’.
The disappearance of symptomatic religiosity is certainly
something to be thankful for. It is among the greatest hindrances
to a wholesome religious life in the individual, and the occasion
of great general misunderstanding about what religion itself
should mean.
For all these reasons the wise, patient and careful treatment
of such cases is an important task for the spiritual adviser acting
in association with a medical psychologist. The work cannot be
done by a physician unfamiliar himself with spiritual realities,
nor by a spiritual adviser who suffers from symptomatic
religiosity. Perhaps in no other branch of therapeutic work is
completely trustful co-operation between physician and
pastoral psychologist more necessary.
166
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
