Editorial: Religion and obsessionality

Freud’s writings focus on many areas of the human condition and permeate the history of both psychology and psychiatry. One area of particular focus is that of religion, as outlined in his writings such as Obsessive Actions and Religious Practices (Freud, 1907), Totem and Taboo (Freud, 1913), The Future of an Illusion (Freud, 1927), Civilization and its Discontents (Freud, 1930), The Question of a Weltanschauung in the New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (Freud, 1932), and Moses and Monotheism (Freud, 1939).

Such writings have served as the theoretical impetus for a broad range of empirical work. One area of particular prominence has been the examination of the links between religion and mental health, and in particular that of religion and obsessional neurosis (Freud, 1907). For example:

In view of these similarities and analogies one might venture to regard obsessional neurosis as the pathological counterpart of the formation of a religion, and to describe that neurosis as an individual religiosity and religion as a universal obsessional neurosis. (Freud, 1907, pp. 126-127)

Although empirical research that has employed measures of religion and obsessional neurosis continues to be widely published, such research tends to be distributed across a diverse range of journals. Mental Health, Religion & Culture has published a number of such papers (e.g., Al-Solaim & Loewenthal, 2011; Yossifova & Loewenthal, 1999). While such diversity of outlets of the published research exposes this literature to potentially more readers and as such may be viewed as a strength, such dispersion does however make it difficult to form an overview of the way in which the field is developing.

A recognition of the growing number of submissions employing measures of both religion and obsessional neurosis, with particular reference to culture that had been submitted to Mental Health, Religion & Culture over a relatively short period of time led to the regular co-editors Lewis and Loewenthal, having the idea of holding back some of the submissions from publication within individual regular issue, so collectively they could form the basis of thisSpecial Issueentitled Religion and Obsessionality: Obsessive Actions and Religious Practices and to seek further submissions to develop the range of perspectives contained within it. To support this endeavour, a symposium entitled Religion and Obsessionality / Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) (Loewenthal, 2017), was organised at the International Association for the Psychology of Religion annual conference in Hamar, Norway, August 2017 (Lewis, Al-Solaim, & Loewenthal, 2017).

The aim of this special issue, co-edited by Lewis and Loewenthal who have both published widely in the area of religion and obsessional neurosis (e.g., Al-Solaim & Loewenthal, 2011; Lewis, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003; Lewis & Joseph, 1994a, 1994b; Lewis & Maltby, 1992, 1994, 1995; Loewenthal, 1995, 2006, 2009; Yossifova & Loewenthal, 1999), was to provide a forum for the collection of pertinent papers, and thereby providing both an overview of the current state of the literature, as well as providing a possible stimulation for future research.

In addition to this Editorial, the collection contains nine contributions that are presented within five methodological themes (theoretical, experimental, survey, psychometric, and therapeutic). First, in terms of a theoretical contribution, Loewenthal (2018) examines the OCD-religious ritual stereotype in the context of the growth in popularity of the concept of spirituality. It is proposed that individualism may encourage individual spiritual experience over organised religion involving collective ritual and practice. The view of ritual as collective, and experientially void, by comparison with individual spirituality, is still prevalent. Recent research on ritual is described and discussed, indicating the experiential, emotional and spiritual accompaniments of religious ritual. This may raise questions about any alleged causal role played by religious ritual in exacerbating OCD.

Second, in terms of experimental contributions, Thomas, Grey, and Al-Romaithi (2018) report, among a sample of, Arabic-speaking, Muslim, female students, citizens of the United Arab Emirates, an examination of the relationship between threatened moral integrity (e.g., guilt) and cleansing-related cognition and behaviours. The experimental group (N = 112) completed a task designed to threaten moral integrity (recalling past misdeeds), followed by a word-fragment completion task, where cleansing and non-cleansing completions were possible. The control-group (N = 95) completed only the word-fragment completion task. Participants recalling past misdeeds made significantly more cleansing-related word-fragment completions than their control-group counterparts. Lorona and Fergus (2018) report, among a sample 146 America, religious (Protestant (66.4%) or Catholic (26.0%)) undergraduate students, how dual-faceted disgust relates to state mental contamination among. The constructs were measured by: the Mental Contamination Record (Elliott & Radomsky, 2009; Herba & Rachman, 2007), the Disgust Propensity and Sensitivity Scale-Revised (van Overveld, De Jong, Peters, Cavanagh, & Davey, 2006), the Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Abramowitz et al., 2010), the state (“in this moment”) version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), and the General Religiousness Scale (Rowatt, LaBouff, Johnson, Froese, & Tsang, 2009). Following a thought-induction task, state mental contamination was assessed by feelings of dirtiness, indications of body parts feeling contaminated, and urges to neutralise the feelings of dirtiness. Disgust sensitivity moderated the relationship between disgust propensity and each of the three facets of mental contamination when controlling for covariates. The interaction indicated that disgust propensity was related to each facet of mental contamination only when coupled with greater disgust sensitivity.

Third, in terms of survey contributions, Ok and Gören (2018) report, among a sample of 298 Turkish, Muslim non-clinical participants, the association between obsessive-compulsive symptoms, as measured by the Brief Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Bejerot, Edman, Anckarsäter, Berglund, Gillberg, Hofvander, & Frisén, 2014), and religiosity, as measured by the Ok-Religious Attitude to Religion-Islam Scale (Ok, 2016), while examining the roles of personality traits, as measured by the Big-Five Inventory (John & Srivastava, 1999). The results demonstrate that while Neuroticism and Conscientiousness played a role in the prediction of the OCD score, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness accounted for a small portion of religiosity along with the OCD score.

Ghafoor, Schulz, and Mohsin (2018) report, among a sample of 200 OCD Pakistani outpatients in Lahore, the association between OCD, as measured by the Clark-Beck Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (Beck & Clark, 2002), religiosity, as measured by the Religious Activity Scale (Sitwat, 2005), and self-esteem, as measured by the Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). As predicted, high OCD significantly correlated with low self-esteem (r = −.20), and high religiosity was associated with high self-esteem (r = .18). Against the hypothesis, mediation analyses did not reveal an indirect effect of OCD on self-esteem via religiosity (b = −.02, p > .01), and OCD was associated with lowered religiosity (r = −.20).

Fourth, in terms of psychometrics contributions, Pirutinsky and Rosmarin (2018) report, among a sample of 586 Jewish community members (majority of whom were Orthodox affiliation (n = 318, 54%) and female = 400 female, 68%), and a small sample of 34 Orthodox Jewish patients presenting for anxiety treatment, the satisfactory psychometric properties of the Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity (Abramowitz, Huppert, Cohen., Tolin, & Cahill, 2002). Gallegos, Sánchez-Jauregui, Hidalgo, Davila-de Gárate, Támez-Díaz, and Fisak (2018) report among a sample of 361 Spanish speaking sample from mixed religious backgrounds, the satisfactory psychometric properties of a Spanish translation of the Pennsylvania Inventory of Scrupulosity- Revised (Olatunji, Abramowitz, Williams, Connolly, & Lohr, 2007).

Fifth, in terms of therapeutic contributions, Md Rosli, Sharip, and Wan Ismail (2018) report a clinical case study of a 20-year-old Muslim man who was diagnosed with religious OCD when he was 14 years old. He had recurrent blasphemous intrusive thoughts upon performing religious rituals which had hindered him from practising his religion of Islam. A religious integrated therapy was introduced by incorporating some of the Islamic values, knowledge, and practice during the exposure and response prevention therapy for five consecutive days along with cognitive restructuring. A considerable amount of symptom and functional relief was achieved. He excelled in his studies and equally important was able to resume practising his religion. Arip, Sharip, and Rosli (2018) report a clinical case study of a 27-year-old Muslim lady with an acute onset of contamination OCD, complicated with secondary depression. Her fear of contamination was strongly related to impurity and pertaining to Islamic rituals. Ten sessions of Islamic Integrated Exposure Response Therapy (IERT) were conducted. The patient improved clinically and objectively following the IERT.

This special issue, in addition to providing a forum for the collection of pertinent papers, and thereby providing both an overview of the current state of the literature, as well as providing possible stimulation for future research, identifies a number of apparent trends in the research. A real strength of this collection is the diversity of the research work contained within it, comprising of a range of different methodologies that have been used (e.g., theoretical, experimental, survey, psychometric, and therapeutic), and the employment of Jewish and Muslim participants.

As a final note, this collection of studies on obsessive acts and religious practices may be seen as part of a much wider initiative that has sought to examine the scientific credibility of Freudian theory (e.g., Fisher & Greenberg, 1978, 1985, 1996; Kline, 1972, 1981). However, as is common in this general area, hypotheses are difficult to conceptualise, operationalise, and test. Those specifically derived from the writings of Freud (1907) are no different.

It is our hope that this Special Issue of Mental Health, Religion & Culture has illustrated some of the diversity and richness of contemporary research examining the relationship of religion and obsessional neurosis, with particular reference to culture. In the process of drawing together this collection, we have become even more aware of the vitality within this research tradition and the range of colleagues working in the field, well beyond those represented in the present collection. We would welcome learning about other initiatives that could be considered for further collections devoted to extending interest in this theme of Religion and Obsessionality: Obsessive Actions and Religious Practices. In closing, we wish to acknowledge the authors who provided stimulating articles and efficient revisions, and our reviewers for their judicious and insightful evaluations of the manuscripts submitted. We are grateful to the regular Co-editors of Mental Health, Religion & Culture for their continued enthusiasm and support for the project, as well as their careful editorial work.

ORCID

Christopher Alan Lewis 0000-0003-2314-2899