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CHAPTER IV
THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT IN
MENTAL DISEASE
As we have already implied, religious compulsions and
delusions of the insane are not always grounded in earlier
religious experiences. It would seem that symptoms may acquire
a religious character as a result of pure coincidence.
Krafft-Ebing?! describes the case of [a thirty-year-old office
worker. His parents were healthy. The patient, very gifted as a
child, had never been ill until, as a young man, he began to -
suffer from neurasthenia with symptoms of hypochondria. The
father’s death profoundly affected him. Shortly after it occurred
two of his friends and a young servant girl in the family became
insane. The young man thereafter suffered from insomnia, lost
his appetite and began worrying lest he too lose his reason.
One day in family conversation a religious question came up
for discussion, and as he listened to it the patient was suddenly
_ struck by the idea that by a more careful observation of his
religious obligations, which hitherto he had neglected, he could
save himself from the insanity he feared. He therefore went at
once to confession ; but shortly after he began to doubt whether
had had confessed correctly. Suppose he had committed some
sin that he had forgotten and therefore failed to mention? He
began to ruminate on this question, going over the details of his
confession time after time without being able to answer it to his
satisfaction. He became more and more nervous and afraid of
insanity, more and more uncertain whether he was not already
insane, and whether, supposing he were insane, he would ever
recover. |
His depressions and broodings were always worse in the
morning. Towards evening he would feel more command of
himself. Then he would realise that his doubts about the validity
of his confession were unfounded, but he could not discard
them.
Under hospital treatment his condition steadily improved.
The periods of doubt became shorter and easier to control. His
1 Lehrbuch Der Psychiatrie, Stuttgart, 1903.
173
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