Religion, spirituality, and psychosis.
Adair Menezes, Alexander Moreira-Almeida
Current Psychiatry Reports June 1, 2010 DOI: 10.1007/s11920-010-0117-7 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Humans Religion and psychology Spirituality Psychotic disorders |
| Key findings | Argues that some spiritual and religious experiences can resemble psychotic episodes while being nonpathological, that hallucinations occur in nonclinical populations and are not exclusive to diagnosed patients, and that religious content is strongly present in psychotic patients. The authors contend that criteria are needed to differentiate healthy spiritual experiences from mental disorders of religious content, and that further quality research is necessary. |
Abstract
This review discusses the relationships between religion, spirituality, and psychosis. Based on the DSM-IV, we comment on the concept of spiritual and religious problems, which, although they may seem to be psychotic episodes, are actually manifestations of nonpathological spiritual and religious experiences. Studies reporting that hallucinations also occur in the nonclinical population and thus are not exclusive to the diagnosed population are presented. Then, other studies pointing to the strong presence of religious content in psychotic patients are also presented. Finally, the criteria that could be used to make a differential diagnosis between healthy spiritual experiences and mental disorders of religious content are discussed. We conclude that the importance of this theme and the lack of quality investigations point to the necessity of further investigation.
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