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PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY
interest in the world about him increased. Finally the
neurasthenic symptoms and the compulsive ideas disappeared. Y
It is sometimes very difficult to decide how far a religious
element in the symptoms of mental disease is the result of a
coincidence, and how far it is rooted in the patient’s total
‘religious attitude. The influence of religious ideas may be very
superficial even in a patient apparently consumed with
spiritual anguish.
In the opinion of Gadelius the sufferings of John Bunyan, for
example, were due to a religious interpretation being given to
depressing thoughts and poignant feelings caused by a diseased
nervous system. The conscience-stricken unrest of Bunyan, his
preoccupation with the crushing strictness of the law and his
fear of the eternal results of personal obduracy and failure, were
symptoms of organic disease. The sufferer absorbed these
religious ideas because they explained the intense pain he endured
and so made it more bearable.
Whether Gadelius is right or wrong in this particular
instance, there is no doubt that such a situation as he describes
does help to explain why fixed ideas are often referred to religion.
The mental processes through which this result can occur are
interesting and deserve a short discussion.
Experience and Interpretation
It is part of man’s nature to think over his experiences with
the intention of co-ordinating them and giving them coherence
and meaning. He does this even when insane, but then his
manner of interpretation is different from that of a normal
person.
Rational people seek valid grounds for the occurrences they
observe or accept explanations of them derived from common
knowledge and observation. If we see a tile fall from a roof we
try to find an explanation that will commend itself to others as
well as to ourselves.
A mentally diseased person does not do this. He derives his
explanations of events from his private ideas and feelings,
ignoring general experience because, for him, it is irrelevant.
Thus when an insane person walking along a street sees a tile
fall he does not think of recent storms, or the possibility of slates
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