Charity
How has charity been seen in religious tradition? How has it been understood by psychologists? What are the relations between religious affiliation and charitable activity, and how well do we understand that psychological processes involved?
The practice of charity is demanded in all religions (Argyle, 2000): all major religions have clear requirements: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and others. Charity is generally seen in two ways in religious tradition. First, donating a fixed proportion of ones income and agricultural produce to appropriate beneficiaries is a religious duty. Religious traditions also endorse providing assistance – financial, food and whatever else is required - to the needy. These two practices overlap, but there are distinct religious duties: taking and donating a fixed proportion of property, even if there is no desperately needy recipient, and assisting the needy – even if one has already given away ones tithes, one is still obliged to help. Charity is considered as enhancing the spirituality of the donor, and is regarded by many commentators as the highest religious virtue (e.g. Shneur Zalman of Liadi, 1973; Porter, 1993)
In psychology, the term charity is seldom indexed in social psychology and psychology of religion textbooks. This does not mean the topic is seldom studied: charity has come under the heading of altruistic behaviour in general (Macaulay & Berkowitz, 1970). Altruism has been defined as ‘behaviour that aims at a termination or reduction of an emergency, a neediness, or disadvantage of others and that primarily does not aim at the fulfillment of own interests,’ (Montada & Bierhoff, 1991), the behaviour being carried out voluntarily.
There has been much debate about whether altruism, helpfulness and charity can be truly selfless, or whether they result from innate own-group and kin helpfulness, or other motivations which are not selfless. These include increased status, social desirability or social approval, and the assuaging of guilt (Carlsmith & Gross, 1968). More recently, Seligman (2001) has argued that the practice of charity and kindness stems from a psychological strength, the practice of which will result in greater psychological health. For example Loewenthal (2007) cites the case of a depressed holocaust survivor who reported a steady gain in psychological well-being after being advised by a rabbi to give charity regularly.
Does religion promote altruism in general and charitable behaviour in particular? Most recent work has supported the view that this is the case. For example, in the UK in 1993, those for whom religion was said to be very important, gave about $50 monthly, compared to $15 monthly from those who said religion was not important (Argyle, 2000). In the USA (Myers, 1992), weekly church attenders gave away 3.8% of their income, and non-attenders, 0.8%. Regnerus (1998) reported that charitable giving was affected mainly by whether a person professed a religion, regardless of what that religion was. The relations between socio-economic status and charitable giving are slightly complex, but on the whole, the better-off give away more. The straightforward explanation of these findings is that religiously-active people are likely to behave according to religious injunctions. The relations between religion and charity apply not only to financial giving, but to voluntary work (Lynn & Smith, 1991), and to humanitarian compassion (Perkins, 1992). Religiosity is a much better predictor of charitable giving and activity than is economic status – and religion predicts giving to non-religious causes, as well as to religious causes (Brooks, 2003).
We can conclude that there is growing evidence that religious activity and identity correlate very reliably with the practice of charity, and some suggestion that charitable activity may promote psychological health. There is scope for more detailed investigation of the cognitive and motivational factors that underlie these effects.
Primary sources
Argyle, M. (2000) Psychology and Relgion. London: Routledge.
Inaba, K. & Loewenthal, K.M. (2009) Religion and Altruism. In P.Clarke & P.Beyer (eds) Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Loewenthal, K.M. (2007) Religion, Culture and Mental Health. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Secondary sources
Brooks, A.C. (2003) Religious Faith and Charitable Giving. Policy Review, 121.
Carlsmith, J. & Gross, A. (1968), Some effects of guilt on compliance, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 11, 232-239.
Lynn, P. & Smith, H. (1991), Voluntary Action Research, London: The Volunteer Centre.
Macaulay, J. R. & Berkowitz, L. (eds) (1970), Altruism and Helping Behavior: Social Psychological Studies of some Antecedents and Consequences, New York: Academic Press.
Montada, Leo & Bierhoff, Hans Werner (1991), Studying prosocial behavior in social systems, In Altruism in Social Systems, edited by Leo Montada & Hans Werner Bierhoff, pp1-26, New York: Hogrefe & Huber Publishers.
Myers, D.G. (1992) The Pursuit of Happines. New York: William Morrow
Perkins, H.Wesley (1992), Student religiosity and social justice concerns in England and the United States: are they still related? Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 31, 353-360.
Porter, R. (1993) Religion and Medicine. In W.F. Bynum & R. Porter (eds) Companion Encyclopedi of the History of Medicine. New York: Routledge, Chapman & Hall.
Regnerus, M., Smith, C. & Sikkink, D. (1998), Who gives to the poor? The influence of religious tradition and political location on the personal generosity of Americans toward the poor, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 37, 481-493.
Seligman, M. (2002). Authentic Happiness. New York: Free Press.
Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1973), Likkutei Amarim – Tanya, Bilingual edition, N.Mindel, N.Mandel, Z.Posner & J.I.Shochet, Translators), London: Kehot. (Original work published 1796)
Conscience
How has conscience been seen in religious traditions? How has it been understood by psychologists? What do we know about the psychological processes involved in the links between religion and conscience?
The divine “still, small voice” (I Kings 19, 12) has often been used to depict conscience, the spiritual inner voice offering and urging the morally and spiritually correct path for the individual. Conscience in traditional Western religion is a given part of human constitution, but one that may be drowned by bad habits, temptations, poor upbringing, bad examples, and lack of moral education and direction. Conscience is sometimes depicted the “good inclination”, arguing with the “evil inclination”, both striving for the attention and obedience of their owner (Shneur Zalman of Liadi, 1973). Current writings on religious education are often informed and made complex by current psychological understandings of the nature of conscience, of moral growth and of philosophical issues (e.g. Astley & Francis, 1994).
There have been important psychological contributions to the understanding of conscience. This selective overview will mention the contributions of Freud, Erikson, Frankl, Kohlberg, and Gilligan. A more detailed discussion of conscience from the perspective of the psychology of religion may be found in Meadow & Kahoe (1984)
The controversy surrounding Freud’s views have masked the force and accuracy of some of his observations. He was one of few twentieth century psychological writers to give attention to conscience, an important topic otherwise widely overlooked. Freud (1924, 1940) suggested that young children experience specifically sexual feelings towards their opposite-sex parent. The wish to possess the parent is foiled by the knowledge that the parent is already owned, and by fear that the same-sex parent will seek jealous retribution on the child. This so-called Oedipal situation is resolved by the child’s identification with the same-sex parent. This gains the approval of both parents, and enables the child to gain vicarious possession of the opposite-sex parent. Aspects of this theory remain controversial, although few would argue with young children can experience intense need for control, intense attachment to their parents, or that intense positive and negative feelings can be experienced by young children and their parents. Freud’s account of girls’ development is particularly fraught with difficulty. The key point however is that, however identification with the same-sex parent comes about, there is an internalisation of the parent-figure which becomes the foundation of the G-d image. Parental attitudes are introjected, forming the basis of the super-ego, experienced as the conscience. This may have a strongly punitive character, and a distinction is sometimes made between the harsh, introjected super-ego, and the inspiring, internalised ego-ideal.
Frankl (1975) trained in Freudian psycho-analysis but developed a very distinctive variety of psychotherapy, sometimes known as existential therapy. In Frankl’s view, the over-riding motive is the will to meaning. The guide in the search for meaning and purpose is the conscience, of transcendent origin, and the therapist’s role is to support the client in their search for meaning, a search which is fundamentally spiritual (Wulff, 1997).
Like Frankl, Erikson (1950) was a European-trained psychoanalyst, who moved the USA and developed very distinctive ideas about the nature of psychological health and growth. Erikson was probably the most influential twentieth-century psychologist to give attention to virtue. He put forward an elaborate – and plausible – account of psychosocial development as continuing throughout the life-span, with virtues resulting from the successful negotiation of the challenges at different life stages. Potential psychopathology occurs if emerging capacities are not nurtured and supported. Erikson described eight stages in all, and it is during the third stage – from approximately ages two to five - that conscience and guilt make their appearance. As the understanding and use of language develop, along with the capability of independent action, the child may experience guilt as a consequence of adult reactions to aggressive and uncontrolled actions. Guilt may become destructive, resulting in inhibition and self-righteousness, or it may impel the child towards worthy ideals, constructive initiative and purposeful action.
We have seen that both Erikson and Frankl emphasised sense of purpose and focus on ideals as important functions of the healthy conscience. Both Freud and Erikson indicated the psychopathological functioning of the conscience whose development has been instilled too coercively or punitively. Finally, we have seen that Freud and Frankel see a close relationship (or identity) between the conscience and G-d.
We turn now to developmental theories of morality, considering Kohlberg (1976) as an exemplar. Kohlberg (1975) traced the development of moral thinking from the stage at which morality is bound by utilitarian considerations (what is good for the self), and then by prescribed rules, then through stages in which social welfare and social justice are the highest considerations, to a stage (probably not widely attained) in which an autonomous, individualised morality is concerned with universal ethical principles. In this developmental scheme, an intrinsic conscience is a feature of the stage involving autonomous morality. Kohlberg suggested that women were less likely than men to attain the higher stages of moral development, being more bound by social welfare considerations. This view attracted a strong response from Gilligan (1982), who suggested that while men are concerned with justice, which is inflexible and abstract, women’s primary ethical standard is care for others, which is flexible and context-sensitive. Belensky et al (1986) emphasised the importance for women of connected knowing, which is non-evaluative, whose motive is to understand another person in order to live together in harmony in spite of differences. These and other writers have directed attention to variations in the ways in which conscience and morality are governed, indicating the importance of gender, social factors, and cognitive development.
What, empirically, is known about the relations between conscience, religion, and psychological factors?
It is generally found that religiously-identified and religiously-affiliated people behave “better” than do others. This is consistent with the possibility that religious identification and affiliation promote knowledge of moral rules and the self-monitoring of behaviour in accordance with these rules. So for example, religious people are less likely than other to engage in criminal behaviour (Baier & Wright, 2001), and extra-marital sexual behaviour and recreational drug use (Rostosky et al, 2004; Mattila et al, 2001). Religious people are more likely than others to engage in charitable activity (Inaba & Loewenthal, 2009), and in deliberate moral practice and moral expertise (Rossano, 2008). The effects of religion are not always straightforward, for example the effects of religion may vary with gender (Rostofsky et al) or with style of religiosity (Batson, 1976).
The effects of religion on moral behaviour are broadly consistent, and we might ask whether this is because religious people have greater knowledge of moral rules, because religious people feel greater shame at the thought of wrongdoing, or religious people feel greater guilt.
Shame is normally defined as the result of social anxiety, the experience of others’ knowledge that one has done wrong and/or is bad. Guilt is individualised moral anxiety, the experience of ones own knowledge that one has done wrong and/or is bad (Freud, 1926; Meadow & Kahoe, 1984). Work on religion in religion in relation to guilt and shame suggests that guilt may be higher among the religiously-active, though findings are mixed (Hood, 1992). Shame is not higher among the religiously-active compared to others (Luyten, Corveleyn & Fontaine, 1998). Maltby (2005) has shown a complex pattern of relationships between different styles of religiosity, and different types of guilt, for example intrinsic (“sincere”) religiosity may be linked to healthy guilt. These findings have been produced in western, generally Christian cultures, and we know little as yet about guilt, shame and religion in other cultural and religious contexts.
This overview has suggested three broad conclusions. One is that we may distinguish between two aspects of conscience: a harsh, introjected super-ego, and an internalised, encouraging and inspiring ego-ideal. Second, empirical work broadly supports the view that religion is generally associated with “better” and more moral behaviour. Third, religion may generally promote guilt but not shame. The psychological processes involved in understanding the relations between religion and conscience deserve closer study, for example effects in different cultures and religious groups, the influence of religious role models, and the development of different styles of religiosity and their relations to conscience.
Primary sources
Meadow, M.J. & Kahoe, R.D. (1984) Guilt, shame and conscience. Chapter 14 in Psychology of Religion: Religion in Individual Lives. New York: Harper and Row.
Secondary sources
Astley, J. & Francis, L.J. (1994) Critical Perspectives on Christian Education: A Reader on the Aims, Principles and Philosophy of Christian Education. Leominster, Herefordshire: Gracewing.
Baier, C.J. & Wright, B.R.E. (2001) "If You Love Me, Keep My Commandments": A meta-analysis of the effect of religion on crime. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 38, 3-21.
Batson, C.D. (1976) Religion as prosocial: agent or double agent. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 15, 29-45.
Belensky, M.F., Clinchy, B.M., Goldberger, N.C. & Tarule, J.M. (1986) Women’s Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice and Mind. New York: Basic Books.
Erikson, E.H. (1950) Childhood and Society. New York: Norton
Frankl, V. (1975) The Unconscious G-d: Psychotherapy and Theology. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Freud, S. (1924) The Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex. Vol 19 of The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud (J.Strachey, Editor). London: Hogarth Press.
Freud, S. (1926) Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety. Vol 20 of The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud (J.Strachey, Editor). London: Hogarth Press.
Freud, S. (1940) An Outline of psycho-Analysis. Vol 23 of The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud (J.Strachey, Editor). London: Hogarth Press.
Gilligan, C. (1982) In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Hood, R.W., Jr. (1992). Sin and guilt in faith traditions: Issues for self-esteem In J. Schumaker (ed) Religion and Mental Health. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Inaba, K. & Loewenthal, K.M. (2009) Religion and Altruism. In P.Clarke & P.Beyer (eds) Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kohlberg, L. (1976) Moral stages and moralization: The cognitive-developmental approach. In T.Lickona (ed) Moral Development and Behaviour. New York: Holt, Rhinehart, Winston.
Luyten, P., Corveleyn, J. & Fontaine, J.R.J. (1998). The relationship between religiosity and mental Health: Distinguishing between shame and guilt. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 1, 165-184.
Maltby, J. (2005) Protecting the sacred and expressions of rituality: Examining the relationship between extrinsic dimensions of religiosity and unhealthy guilt. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 78, 77-94.
Mattila, A., Apostolopoulos, Y., Sonmez, S., Yu, L. & Sasidharan, V. (2001) The impact of gender and religion on college students' spring break behavior. Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 40, No. 2, 193-200.
Rossano, M.J. (2008) The moral faculty: Does religion promote “moral expertise”? International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 18, 169-194.
Rostosky, S.S., Wilcox, B.L., Wright, M.L.C. & Randall, B.A. (2004) The impact of religiosity on adolescent sexual behavior: A review of the evidence. Journal of Adolescent Research, 19, 677-697.
Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1973), Likkutei Amarim – Tanya, Bilingual edition, N.Mindel, N.Mandel, Z.Posner & J.I.Shochet, Translators), London: Kehot. (Original work published 1796)
Wulff, D.M. (1997) Psychology of Religion: Classic and Contemporary (2nd. Edition) . New York: Wiley.
Depression
What is depression? How is it seen by psychological, psychiatric and religious authors? How is it related to religion and religious factors?
What is depression?
Depression is a term referring to a disabling and prevalent psychiatric illness, major depressive disorder (unipolar depression). But the term also refers to a number of other, related states. Unipolar depression must be distinguished from 1) depressed mood, which is a normal emotional response to adversity, especially involving loss, which if transient is not considered a clinical problem 2) bipolar disorder, a relatively uncommon psychiatric condition involving uncontrollable swings from elated manic phases, to low, depressive phases 3) Dysthymic disorder, a milder disorder involving the symptoms of clinical depression, but as few as two such symptoms (plus depressed mood) qualify the sufferer for the label dysthymic. There are a number of varieties of major depressive disorder and dysthymia, for example seasonal disorder. Further, in clinical research, the term depression is sometimes used to refer to a measured dimension, varying in the number and sometimes intensity of the symptoms of depression.
Returning the commonest meaning of the term depression: major depressive disorder is considered present (American Psychiatric Association, 2002) if at least five of the following have persisted for at least 2 weeks, of which at least one is depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure:
Depressed mood most of the day, every or nearly every day
Diminished interest or pleasure in all or nearly all activities
Significant weight loss or gain
Insomnia or hypersomnia
Psychomotor agitation or retardation
Fatigue or loss of energy
Feelings of worthlessness, or excessive or inappropriate guilt
Difficulty in thinking or concentration, or indecisiveness
Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide or suicide attempt.
Although there may be some biological predisposition, the most popular view of the causes of depression involves a diathesis model, in which a causal event or difficulty involving loss precipitates depressed mood, which can become a clinical condition in individuals who are vulnerable. Vulnerability factors may include early experience of loss (such as death of a parent), inadequate social support, low self-esteem, and heavy caring responsibilities, and there is some evidence of cultural variation in the factors that make people vulnerable to or protect them from depression (Brown & Harris, 1978; Loewenthal, 2007; Butcher, Mineka & Hooley, 2007). Widely-used treatments include medication and psychotherapy, for example cognitive-behavioural therapy. It is worth noting that of all psychiatric conditions, depression has perhaps excited the most controversy. It has been a prime example for the anti-psychiatry movement, led by Szasz (1974), arguing that it cannot be regarded as an illness, though it involves great suffering. Szasz argues that the illness model of mental illness leads to medication, custodial care and other treatments being wrongfully and coercively applied. In spite of Szasz, the view of (clinical) depression as illness remains dominant.
This essay will look at views of depression in religious sources, and some of the effects of these views. The essay will consider the widely-cited claim that religious people are less prone to suffer from depression, and will consider the factors which may be involved in this effect. Finally we will consider recent attempts to deploy religious and spiritual factors in the therapeutic process.
How has depression been viewed in religious sources? What are the effects of these views?
In religious writings, it has been suggested that melancholy may be a spiritually valued, possibly chosen state (see Frost, 1992), and even if not chosen, depression and melancholy may be viewed as opportunities for spiritual growth, increasing religious trust (Loewenthal, 1992). Much recent work in positive psychology has offered evidence in support of these pious hopes: post-traumatic spiritual growth has now been empirically affirmed as a possibility. Thus Shaw, Joseph & Linley (2005) concluded from their systematic review of published empirical work that religion and spirituality are usually, although not always, beneficial to people in dealing with the aftermath of trauma. Traumatic experiences can lead to a deepening of religion or spirituality, and positive religious coping, religious openness, readiness to face existential questions, religious participation, and intrinsic religiousness are typically associated with posttraumatic growth. Positive psychology in general has been advanced as effective in the treatment of depression and as harmonious with a number of core religious teachings and spiritual values, such as the practices of helping, and of forgiveness (Seligman, 2002; Joseph, Linley & Maltby, 2006). Such religiously-encouraged practices are now found to have beneficial mental health effects.
Although in religious writings, melancholy and depression have been generally viewed as normal responses to adversity and loss, and as foundations for a deeper faith, lay religious persons may regard depression as a failure of religious faith (Cinnirella & Loewenthal, 1999). For example: “Sometimes we assume that depression can always be overcome through prayer — that good Christians don't suffer from depression” (quoted in Shroedel, 2008). Greenberg & Witztum (2001) quote several rabbinic leaders who suggest that prayer, religious song and other religious coping methods may be sufficient. Indeed they may be in some cases, but where they are not, the cloud of depression thickens. In spite of the frequent helpfulness of religious ideas in coping with the miserable psychological consequences of adversity, religious coping may not always do the trick, and there is an ongoing concern that when religious coping fails, this may be seen as a personal failure, inadequacy of the individual, leading to deeper depression.
It is also important to note that clergy are often trusted as resources for mental health care, generally more so (by their congregations) than the mental health professions. Thus religious teachings about depression and coping, as delivered by the clergyperson, may be an important resource. A minority of clergy may actively mistrust the mental health professions, and warn their congregants against the use of professional help (Leavey, Loewenthal & King, 2007).
This religious teachings on depression have been mixed, and have had mixed effects – depression itself may have some spiritual value as a springboard for spiritual growth, religious faith, religious practices and religious leadership may be helpful in coping with depression. However the failure of religious coping can have a damaging effect on a person who is already depressed, and the advice of the minority of religious leaders to avoid professional mental health practitioners may not always be in the best interests of those suffering from depression.
The association between religiosity and low levels of depression
It has been widely concluded that there is an overall, consistent relationship between indices of religiousness and lower levels of depression (Worthington, Kurusu, McCullough & Sandage, 1996;Koenig et al, 2001; Loewenthal, 2007). In spite of inconsistencies in the assessment of religiosity, and of depression, the relationship is fairly reliable, though not strong, and not always consistent. What are the factors involved? Three kinds of effects have been identified:
Social support: religious groups endorse and encourage helping in times of adversity. This includes in-group as well as out-group helping (Inaba & Loewenthal, 2008). Additionally, the existence of a social circle of friends and sympathetic listeners can be an important protective factor. Thus Shams and Jackson (1993) found that unemployed Muslim men in the North of England were less likely to become depressed if they were religiously active, meeting regularly in the mosque for friendship and support, as well as prayer and religious study.
Religious coping: religiously-active people are likely to engage in religious worship, study and prayer, and this will develop a repertoire of religiously-based coping beliefs which are drawn on in adversity, such as “this is all for the best”, “I feel that G-d is supporting me”, “there must be a reason for this even if I can’t see it now” (Loewenthal, MacLeod et al, 2000). The study of religious coping has been effectively established by Pargament (1997), who has reported a number of robust effects. Particularly important is the effect that good psychiatric outcomes (in adversity) are associated with positive religious coping beliefs, such as those listed above. Poor psychiatric outcomes are associated with negative coping beliefs, such as “G-d is punishing me (because I am bad)”, “There is no purpose in this”, “G-d has abandoned me”.
Lifestyle factors. Religions endorse and encourage aspects of lifestyle which can have an important impact on wellbeing. Thus for instance religious Jews and Christians have been shown to report fewer disruptive life-events – particularly, they report fewer family-related disruptions, less arguments, family violence and divorces. Disruptive life events are strongly associated with the onset of depression, and thus the lower prevalence of depression of depression in the religious groups studied may be (at least partly) traced back to the religiously-supported value placed on harmonious family life and marital stability (Prudo, Harris & Brown, 1964; Loewenthal, Goldblatt, Gorton et al, 1997).
The finding that religious coping can have an impact on clinical outcome – sometimes positive and sometimes negative – has led to the development of exciting attempts to bring spiritual and religious factors into stronger focus in the course of psychotherapy. After many years of excluding religion and spirituality from the psychological therapies, Pargament and his colleagues have introduced a wide range of suggestions about how religious and spiritual factors may be included (Pargament, 2007). Spirituality – defined as “the search for the sacred” - is central for many clients in psychotherapy, and therapists need the tools and the sensitivity to address the spiritual dimension in a systematic way. Spiritual coping may be used to conserve, protect and develop the sacred, it may lead to growth, it may lead to decline, it may be part of the solution, and it may be part of the problem. For example, one woman was in despair because she felt she had committed an unforgiveable sin. The therapist was able to liaise with the client’s priest, and the priest, therapist and client were able to develop a successful reconciliation. A strong merit of the work led by Pargament is the emphasis on an evidence base for findings, which may do much to enhance the scientific acceptability of clinical work involving spiritual and religious factors.
This essay has defined depression, considered how it has been viewed in religious writings, considered some of the ways in which it may be affected by religious factors, and finally, the ways in which religious and spiritual factors have been brought to bear in therapeutic work.
Primary sources
Koenig, H.B., McCullough, M.E. & Larson, D.B. (2001). Handbook of Religion and Health. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Loewenthal, K.M. (2007) Religion, Culture and Mental Health. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pargament, K.I (1997). The Psychology of Religion and Coping. New York: Guilford Press
Pargament, K.I. (2007) Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy. New York: Guilford Press.
Secondary sources
American Psychiatric Association (2000) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV-TR. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association
Butcher, J.N., Mineka, S. & Hooley, J.M. (2007) Abnormal Psychology, 13th Edition. Boston: Pearson.
Brown, G.W. & Harris, T.O. (1978). The Social Origins of Depression. London: Tavistock.
Cinnirella, M. & Loewenthal, K.M. (1999) Religious and ethnic group influences on beliefs about mental illness: A qualitative interview study. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 72, 505-524.
Frost, C. (1992) Melancholy as an alternative to the psychological label of depression. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2, 71-86.
Greenberg, D. & Witztum, E. (2001). Sanity and Sanctity: Mental Health Work among the Ultra-Orthodox in Jerusalem. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Inaba, K. & Loewenthal, K.M. (2008) Religion and Altruism, in Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion. Peter B. Clarke (editor) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Joseph, S., Linley, P.A. & Maltby, J. (Editors) (2006) Positive Psychology, Religion and Spirituality, Special Issue, Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 9.
Leavey,G., Loewenthal, K.M. & King, M. (2007) Challenges to sanctuary: the clergy as a resource for mental health care in the community. Social Science and Medicine, 65, 548-559.
Loewenthal, K.M. (1992) Melancholy, depression and Judaism. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2, 101-108.
Loewenthal, K.M., Goldblatt, V., Gorton, T. Lubitsh, G., Bicknell, H., Fellowes, D. & Sowden, A. (1997). The costs and benefits of boundary maintenance: Stress, religion and culture among Jews in Britain. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 32, 200-207.
Loewenthal, K.M., MacLeod, A.K, Goldblatt, V., Lubitsh, G. & Valentine, J.D. (2000). Comfort and joy: Religion, cognition and mood in individuals under stress. Cognition and Emotion, 14, 355-374.
Prudo, R., Harris, T.O. & Brown, G. (1984) Psychiatric disorder in an urban and a rural population. 3: Social integration and the morphology of affective disorder. Psychological Medicine, 14, 327-345.
Schroedel, J. (2008) A Fresh View of Blue: Thoughts on Depression. http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001231.cfm (accessed 15/03/2008)
Seligman, M. (2002). Authentic Happiness. New York: Free Press.
Shams, M. & Jackson, P.R. (1993). Religiosity as a predictor of well-being and moderator of the psychological impact of unemployment. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 66, 341-352.
Shaw, A., Joseph, S. & Linley, P.A. (2005)Religion, spirituality, and posttraumatic growth: a systematic review. \o "Mental Health, Religion & Culture" Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 8, 1-11.
Szasz, T. (1974) The Myth of Mental Illness. New York: Harper and Row.
Worthington, E.L., Kurusu, T.A., McCullough, M.E. & Sandage, S.J. (1996) Empirical research on religion and psychotherapeutic processes and outcomes: A 10-year review and research prospectus. Psychological Review, 119, 448-487.
Hasidism
What is hasidism? How has it been related to psychology and to the psychology of religion?
What is Hasidism?
The term "hasid" occurs quite widely in Jewish texts, particularly those concerned with ethics, generally referring to righteous individuals. Hasidism also refers specifically to the pietist movement which developed in eighteenth century Ukraine under the leadership of Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (literally "master of the good name," sometimes abbreviated to BeShT). Hasidism raised morale after the ills of the seventeenth century: the 1648 Chmielnitzki pogroms, which destroyed many communities, and the religious disorientation caused by the antinomian Shabbatian movement. Hasidism is often seen as an attempt to dismantle the elitism of Eastern-European Jewish life, in which prestige accrued to religious study and to wealth. Hasidism asserted the spiritual worth and potential of every individual. The movement spread rapidly, as the Baal Shem Tov and his disciples traveled with the purpose of freeing poverty-stricken Jews imprisoned for debt, disseminating Jewish teachings including the "inward" aspects, based on kabbalah (Schneersohn, 1980). Leadership passed to the Magid of Mezritch, and then branched out into a number of schools each headed by a hasidic Rebbe emphasizing a particular style of divine service. In the second and third generations the movement was opposed by the mitnaggedim (lit. "opponents") who obtained the support of the famous Rabbi Elijah Gaon of Vilna, himself a kabbalist and a recluse. He thought hasidism was yet another form of an antinomian movement. Around 1800 a distinction emerged between the Habad school, which emphasized the primacy of intellectual understanding in order to arouse spiritual feelings, and the so-called Hagat style, which emphasized the primacy of emotional fervor in worship. The term "Habad" is an acronym for the intellectual divine attributes: wisdom (Hokhmah), understanding (binah) and knowledge (daat). "Hagat" is an acronym referring to three first of the seven emotional attributes: kindness (hesed), severity (gevurah) and beauty (also understood as mercy) (tiferet). Hasidic teachings can be seen as the latest stage of the Jewish mystical tradition (Scholem, 1941).
By the late nineteenth century it was estimated that well over half of Eastern European Jewry were identified as followers of one or other hasidic Rebbe. Eastern European Jewry was particularly devastated by the holocaust, but post World War II has seen the revival of hasidic life particularly in Israel, the USA, and Europe, also in Australia and South Africa. Habad hasidim have been particularly active in deploying emissaries to hundreds of Jewish communities world-wide, forming nuclei of outreach activity. Other schools of hasidim live in enclave-style communities, and such communities have proliferated and enlarged in Israel, Europe, the USA and elsewhere. Hasidism is a salient force in so-called "haredi" (strictly-orthodox) Judaism, although mitnaggedic and other non-hasidic styles of strictly-orthodox Judaism are also important.
The twin themes of hasidism are love of G-d and love of fellow humankind. In practice this involves scrupulous and inspired maintenance of the divine commandments (mitzvoth), religious study, including the "inward" aspects of Jewish teaching (especially among Habad), and care for others. Dress is distinctive: black frock-coats or suits for men, hats and sidelocks; for women, modest dress including sleeves below elbows, skirts below knees, and hair covering.
Other strictly-orthodox Jews adhere to a similar dress code, and scrupulous observance of the commandments. What distinguishes hasidism is the close adherence to the charismatic and inspirational leader, the Rebbe, whose advice and blessing may often be sought, which entails a close-knit social community.
As mentioned, hasidism is informed by kabbalistically-based teachings, the so-called "inward" aspects of Jewish teaching. A classic text is Tanya (Shneur Zalman of Liadi,1796/1973), which is of considerable interest to psychologists of religion. Features of this work include a description of the human spiritual yearning to be united with the divine, the incessant spiritual struggle between the good impulse, based on the divine soul, and the animal impulse, towards selfish comfort. Hasidic teaching is not strictly-speaking ascetic: the material world is to be used appropriately, according to Jewish law, and in this way the divine sparks that are trapped in creation will be raised to G-dliness. The soul has a natural desire to be united with its divine source, and this can be achieved in prayer, and in right action. Particular emphasis is placed on charity and kindness to others. Hasidic psychology is thus underpinned by strong moral and spiritual themes. Human psychic structure is a microcosm of the macrocosm, which involves a progressive down-chaining of creation from its divine source, through the four "worlds" of emanation, creation, formation, and action, each comprising the ten divine attributes (wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and seven emotional attributes), until practical action is achieved. This scheme derives from Lurianic kabbalah, and expounds the cosmic significance of individual actions.
Hasidic teaching is not addressed solely to Jewish audiences. Rabbi Menachem Schneerson thought that the second section of Tanya, which presents a system of contemplation of the spirituality of existence, has universal relevance. He taught that "right living" involves the performance of those commandments obligatory on the particular individual, and for non-Jews this involves the seven commandments of the descendants of Noah (see Clorfene and Rogalsky, 1987; Cowen, 2003), including belief in the unity of G-d, the practice of sexual morality, honesty, and avoiding cruelty to animals.
There have been a number of attempts to apply hasidic insights into the practice and understanding of psychology, some written for lay audiences, others for academic and professional clinical audiences. The latter genre includes Rotenberg (1995), Weiss (2005) and Berke and Schneider (2008). These authors have used and examined hasidic and kabbalistic teachings and concepts in relation to psychological and psychoanalytic understanding of behavior and feeling. Rotenberg for example suggests that the kabbalistic paradigm of creation may lead to a less assertive-aggressive style of communication, sexuality and communication compared to the Western norm.
Another genre has been the psychological study of hasidism and its distinctive features of social organization and spirituality. Schachter-Shalomi (1991) has examined the dynamics of the relationship between the hasidic leader (Rebbe) and the follower (Hasid) in the one-to-one encounter (sometimes known as yechidut) in which the hasid seeks advice and blessing. Winston (2005) has studied young men and women who have chosen to leave the (Satmar) hasidic lifestyle; Satmar is often said to be particularly strict in its outlook. El Or (1994) has studied the beliefs and values of hasidic women from the Gur group, in Educated and Ignorant, in which women emphasize the value they place on their role as the center and foundation of the home. Other studies of hasidic women have often focused on the outreaching Lubavitch group, for instance Loewenthal's (1988) study of religious development and commitment in this group, and Levine and Gilligan's Mystics, Mavericks and Merrymakers (2003), a study of adolescent girls. Another important genre involves the attempt to examine the inspirational fervour of hasidic worship and to distinguish it from psychopathological states: Idel's (1995) work on ecstasy and magic, and Mark's (2009) work on mysticism and madness in Braslav hasidism, are noteworthy examples.
A striking feature of hasidic life is the high value placed on family size: bearing and rearing as many children as possible is a feature of strictly-religious Jewish life, with an average of six children per family. Children are seen as a blessing. Family size has an impact on the well-being of the women, men, and children concerned, and this impact is often positive, as has been the impact of the value placed on marital and family stability (e.g., Loewenthal and Goldblatt, 1993; Loewenthal et al., 1995; Frosh, Loewenthal, Lindsey and Spitzer, 2005).
In conclusion, it may be stated that hasidism, a pietist movement within Jewish orthodoxy, has inspired considerable interest, not only among those looking for New Age-style spirituality, but among academic and professional psychologists. Its intense spirituality and kabbalistically-based teachings have important psychological content, in which human psychology is depicted as driven by spiritual and moral striving. Aspects of hasidic life have been studied by social scientists and psychologists, and there is clearly scope for further work.
Acknowledgement: Grateful thanks are due to Dr. Naftali Loewenthal, University College London, for many helpful comments and suggestions on this article.
See also: Baal Shem Tov, Kabbalah
Bibliography
Berke, J., & Schneider, S. (2008). Centers of power: The convergence of psychoanalysis and Kabbalah. New York: Jason Aronson.
Clorfene, C., & Rogalsky, Y. (1987). The path of the righteous gentile: An introduction to the seven laws of the children of Noah. New York: Feldheim.
Cowen, S. D. (2003). Perspectives on the Noahide laws: Universal ethics. Melbourne, Australia: Institute for Judaism and Civilisation.
El-Or, T. (1994). Educated and ignorant: Ultraorthodox Jewish women and their World. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Frosh, S., Loewenthal, K.M., Lindsey, C., & Spitzer, E. (2005). Prevalence of emotional and behavioural disorders among strictly orthodox Jewish children in London.Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 10, 351-368.
Idel, M. (1995) Hasidism: Between ecstasy and magic. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press.
Levine, S. W., & Gilligan, C. (2003). Mystics, mavericks and merrymakers: An intimate journey among hasidic girls. New York: New York University Press.
Mark, Z. (2009) Mysticism and madness: The religious thought of Rabbi Nachman of Braslav. London: Continuum.
Rotenberg, M. (1995). Cabalic sexuality and creativity. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 5, 225-244.
Roth, C., & Wigoder, G. (Ed.). (1971). Hasidism. In Encyclopedia Judaica. Jerusalem: Encyclopedia Judaica.
Schachter-Shalomi, Z. (1991). Spiritual intimacy: A study of counseling in Hasidism. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
Schneersohn, M. M. (Ed.). (1980). HaYom Yom (A compilation of Hasidic teachings). New York: Kehot.
Scholem, G. (1941). Major trends in Jewish mysticism. New York: Schocken.
Shneur Zalman of Liadi. (1973). Likkutei Amarim - Tanya (N. Mindel, N. Mandel, Z. Posner & J.I. Shochet, Trans.) (Bilingual ed.). London: Kehot. (Original work published 1796)
Weiss, A. (2005). Connecting to G-d: Ancient Kabbalah and modern psychology. New York: Bell Tower.
Winston, H. (2005). Unchosen: The hidden lives of Hasidic Rebels. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Psychology
What is psychology? There is little dispute about the broad definition of psychology as the study and understanding of human behaviour, cognitive processes, experience and emotion. However the history of psychology has been colourful, peppered with disputes about how such understanding and study should be done. The different views on the “how” of psychology have impacted on the psychological study of religion.
This essay will highlight some important features of the history of psychology, and suggest how these features may have impacted on the psychological understanding of religion.
In its early days, in the nineteenth and very early twentieth centuries, psychologists had no problems with asking people to introspect or report on their “inner” experiences. Two often-cited examples are (1) the Wurzburg school (Wundt, 1902), who asked for detailed introspective reports on what went through people’s minds when they saw or picture, for example, or solved a problem, (2) psychoanalysis (e.g. Freud, 1964) in which people were asked to free-associate, to talk about the first things that came to mind. In this climate, the work of William James, described in The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) was perfectly at home. James described pioneering uses of the psychological questionnaire method in which people were asked to describe their religious development.
But as the twentieth century grew older, scientific psychology was dominated by positivism, in which it was held that the objects of scientific investigation should be publicly observable and measurable. This entailed a shift from a focus on experience, to a focus on behaviour, epitomised in Watson’s Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist (1919). The psychological study of religion was seen to be incompatible with behaviourism – since the object of religious activity and feeling cannot be observed and measured, this was thought to make the study of religious activity and feeling unworthy of scientific attention. The psychological study of religious fell into a decline, and this decline was assisted by the influential and rather derogatory views of Freud on religion (e.g. Freud, The Future of an Illusion, 1927). Religion was seldom indexed in psychology textbooks, and where it was indexed, the explanations of religious behaviour and feeling were almost always pejorative (Loewenthal, 2000).
Within psychology, there remained considerable interest in personality, and in the psychometric assessment of personality and social attitudes, using psychological tests and measures. This was reflected in the psychological study of religion, particularly the seminal work of Gordon Allport on religious orientation and prejudice (1966), followed by pioneering works on the psychology of religion involving extensive use of psychological and social attitude measures (e.g. Argyle & Beit-Hallahmi, 1975; Francis et al, 1981).
Towards the end of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century, there were important shifts in psychological methodologies and perspectives, reflecting a general post-modern tolerance of different perspectives. This resulted in a growth of the range of methods used to study religious behaviour and experience. Religion was indexed more frequently in psychology textbooks, and explained and studied in non-pejorative ways. The most important shifts were (1) the development of qualitative research methodologies (Elliott et al, 1999). This went alongside the acceptance of experiential and phenomenological perspectives, and enabled the development of valuable work on the experiential aspects of the psychology of religion, and the emergence of interest in spirituality (Hay & Morisy, 1978; Tacey, 2004; Paloutzian & Park, 2005) (2) the development of experimental methodologies, in particular their applications to areas of psychology other than the cognitive domains to which experimental methodology had traditionally been applied. Experimental work on social cognition and attachment theory, for example, is being usefully extended to the understanding of religion in relation to social cognition, and religious feelings (e.g. Islam & Hewstone, 1993; Birgegard & Granqvist, 2004) (3) the development of cognitive science has included the study of cognitive universals in religion (e.g. Andreson, 2001) (4) the development of neuroimaging techniques in the study of psychological processes has included the use of neuroimaging in the study of religious thinking and experience (e.g. Azari et al, 2005).
In brief, then, the twentieth century saw the development of psychology into a positivist discipline. Then from the mid-twentieth century onwards, psychology developed into a discipline involving a broad range of approaches and methodologies, all impacting on the way the psychological processes involved in religion have been studied.
Primary sources
Argyle, M. (2000) Psychology and Relgion. London: Routledge.
Loewenthal, K.M. (2000) A Short Introduction to the Psychology of Religion. Oxford: Oneworld.
Paloutzian, R.F. & Park, C. (2005) Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.
Secondary sources
Allport, G.W. (1966) The religious context of prejudice. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 5, 448-451.
Andresen, J. (Editor) (2001) Religion in Mind: Cognitive Perspectives on Religious Ritual, Belief and Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Argyle, M. & Beit-Hallahmi, B. (1975) The Social Psychology of Religion. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Azari, N.P., Missimer, J. & Seitz, R.J. (2005) Religious experience and emotion: Evidence for distinctive cognitive neural patterns. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 15, 263-282.
Birgegard, A. & Granqvist, P. (2004) The Correspondence between Attachment to Parents and God: Three Experiments Using Subliminal Separation Cues. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1122-1135.
Elliott, R., Fischer, C. T. & Rennie, D. L. (1999) Evolving guidelines for publication of qualitative research studies in psychology and related fields. \o "British Journal of Clinical Psychology" British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 38, 215-229.
Francis, L., Pearson, O.R., Carter, M. & Kay, W.K. (1981) Are introverts more religious? British Journal of Social Psychology,20, 101-104.
Freud, S. (1927) The Future of an Illusion. London: Hogarth Press.
Freud, S. (1964) New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. London: Hogarth Press.
Hay, D. & Morisy, A. (1978) Reports of ecstatic, paranormal, or religious Experience in Great Britain and the United States: A comparison of trends. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 17, 255-268.
Islam, M.R. & Hewstone, M. (1993) Intergroup attributions and affective consequences in majority and minority groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 64, 936-950.
James, W. (1902) The Varieties of Religious Experience. New York: Collier
Tacey (2004) The Spirituality Revolution: The Emergence of Contemporary Spirituality. Hove, Sussex: Brunner-Routledge
Watson, J.B. (1919) Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist. Philadelphia: Lippencott
Wundt, W. (1902) Outlines of Psychology. (Translated W.H. Judd) Leipzig: Engelman
Psychosis
Psychoses are psychiatric illnesses, normally distinguished from neuroses, the other main group of psychiatric disorders. In psychosis the degree of impairment and lack of insight are said to be more severe than in neurosis. Psychotic illnesses have been categorized into two broad groups, the schizophrenic disorders and the bipolar disorders. There are significant concerns about the use of these diagnostic categories, but they are likely to remain in use for the foreseeable future. In schizophrenia, the individual normally shows a marked deterioration in self-care, work functioning, and/or social relations, and moods may be inappropriate. There may be genetic susceptibility to stress, and cannabis use making the appearance of schizophrenia more likely. Symptoms normally include two or more of: delusions, hallucinations, incoherent speech, catatonic behavior (rigid, frozen posture), flat or very inappropriate mood (Butcher, Mineka and Hooley, 2010: 458-489). The DSM-IV-TR classification lists a large number of related disorders in the schizophrenia group, such as the paranoid or catatonic types, but here we will consider schizophrenia as an overall diagnostic category . The other general form of psychosis is considered to be bipolar (manic-depressive, cyclothymic) mood disorder, swinging from high to low moods, sometimes with intervening periods of "normal" mood. The most striking feature of bipolar disorders is mania, euphoric joy out of proportion to circumstances, plus at least some of the following irritability and anger especially if plans are frustrated, hyperactivity, going without sleep, poor judgment, following ones own grandiose ideas and plans and feeling others are too slow, self-esteem approaching grandiosity, flamboyance, delusions or hallucinations (Butcher, Mineka and Hooley, 2010: 247-255). About one person in a hundred may be affected by a psychotic disorder at some time in their lives. It may pass, or respond to medication or other treatment, or the person may continue significantly disturbed.
How do psychoses relate to religion? There are several important questions for discussion.
Do Religious Factors Correlate with or Cause Psychosis?
The short answer is that there are no clear associations between schizophrenia - or possibly predisposing personality traits - and religious factors. There is some tentative evidence that psychotic episodes may be precipitated in those already prone to disturbance, by some religious practices such as meditation, but this evidence is currently very thin.
The associations between religious factors and psychotic illness have been difficult to disentangle. This is partly because some religious behaviors and beliefs - especially if they stem from a tradition alien to clinicians - may be seen as symptoms of illness, and a misdiagnosis may be made. For example a devout woman who had been sexually abused began to pray and bible-study frequently and eat moderately in an attempt to purify herself. This was interpreted as symptomatic of schizophrenia (Loewenthal, 2007: 37). Beliefs that the evil eye, spells or spirits are causing somatic symptoms may be seen as delusory, even though in contemporary transcultural psychiatry, good clinical outcomes have been reported when clinicians treat these beliefs respectfully. A further set of factors complicating the picture is that stress may well induce mood disturbances and other psychiatric symptoms, and in an attempt to cope, individuals may resort to prayer and other religious practices (Bhugra, 2002; Siddle, Haddock, Tarrier, and Faragher, 2002). Indeed there is considerable evidence that prayer and other religious practices may relieve distress (Pargament, 1997; Maltby, Lewis, and Day, 1999; Loewenthal, 2007: 59-67). Thus there may be the appearance of an association between mental illness and religiosity, but religiosity is an effect, not a cause. Furthermore, if and when stress is reduced and symptoms alleviate, religious coping is reduced - again, giving the appearance of an association between better mental health and lower religiosity. Only longitudinal studies, in which individuals are followed-up over time, can tell us more about whether religion plays a causal role in psychosis and other mental illnesses. At the moment, this does not seem likely, for schizophrenia.
There are a number of personality traits which have been suggested to relate to the tendency to schizophrenia and psychotic illness. The most heavily-researched of these is the so-called Psychoticism (P) measure in the Eysenck Personality inventory. This is negatively associated with religiosity (Eysenck, 1998). A more complex set of traits fall under the head of schizotypy, which involves personality traits which might indicateprodromal schizophrenia, including discomfort in close relationships, and odd forms of thinking and perceiving. The different aspects of schizotypy relate in complex ways to different styles of religiosity (Joseph, Smith and Diduca, 2002), with no substantial evidence to support the idea that religious factors are related to schizophrenia or possible predisposing personality factors.
It has been suggested that meditation and possibly other religious practices and experiences may precede episodes of manic disorder in individuals who are susceptible (Wilson, 1998; Yorston, 2001; Kalian and Witztum, 2002). However this suggestion is based on clinical case histories, and there is insufficient quantitative evidence in further support of this suggestion.
Can We Distinguish Between Pathological and Benign Visions and Voices?
This has been a longstanding problem for well-intentioned and culturally-sensitive psychiatrists, given that visions and voices are supposed to be symptoms of schizophrenia. Littlewood and Lipsedge (1997), and Greenberg and Witztum (2001) offer fascinating and often tragic examples of diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties. It has now been well-documented that visions and voices are commonly-experienced by healthy individuals, and cannot be regarded in themselves, as symptoms of psychosis (see Loewenthal, 2007: 17-21). Some religious groups encourage or praise the experiencing of visions, or the hearing of voices, and these can be valued aspects of spirituality. Recent work examining the comparing the experiences of members of religious groups, and of others withoutpsychiatric illness, with experiences of psychotic individuals indicates that the visions and voices experienced by the psychotically ill are significantly more unpleasant and uncontrollable than those experienced by others (Peters, Day, McKenna, and Orbach,1999; Davies, Griffiths, and Vice, 2001). This work does give clues as to how psychotic visions and voices might be identified. Importantly, we can conclude that the experiencing of visions and voices should no longer in itself be treated as symptomatic of psychosis. Dein (2010) offers further discussion of these and related issues.
What Is the Significance of Belief in Demons, Evil Spirits and the Like, in Relation to Psychotic Illness?
Belief in evil spirits, demons, and other malignant spiritual forces is surprisingly widespread, including highly-developed, urbanized countries. A striking example involves sleep paralysis, which is as often reported in highly developed countries in which belief in evil spirits is not well-supported, as in less developed countries. The individual feels wakeful but unable to move, and is conscious of a shadowy presence (Hufford, 2005). The experience is usually unpleasant, interpreted as involving evil forces, and seldom mentioned for fear of being thought insane. In fact this condition is not a psychiatric problem at all, in spite of the fears and beliefs of those who have experienced it. This example highlights the existence of a widespread and popular idea that the experience of malign spiritual forces is closely related to insanity. Lipsedge (1996), and Kroll, Bachrach, and Carey, (2002) have shown that in medieval times demons and other malign spiritual forces were only occasionally seen as possible causes of psychiatric illness. Contemporary studies have examined beliefs that malign spiritual forces can be causes of insanity. Such beliefs have been reported in many countries, for example Egypt (Coker, 2004), Israel (Heilman and Witztum, 2000), South Africa (Ensink and Robertson, 1999) and Switzerland (Pfeifer, 1994), and there has been some success reported in deploying healing methods which are believed by patients to dispel evil spiritual forces. It has been suggested that the experience of demons and the like may be regarded as an "idiom of distress" (Heilman and Witztum, 2000). Contemporary clinical practitioners with experience in different cultural settings would advocateincorporating beliefs about spiritual forces as causes of disturbance into treatment plans, wherever possible.
What Is the Current Status of the Concept of Religious Mania?
Religious monomania is a now-discarded diagnostic category. At one time it was popular, and used to denote intense religious excitement and enthusiasm, to the extent that the individual had gone beyond the bounds of the acceptable and containable. For example Jonathan Martin, a fundamentalist preacher, who thought the clergy of his time (early nineteenth century) were too lax. He had some dreams which seemed to him significant, for example in one he saw a black cloud over York Minster. These dreams inspired him to set fire to York Minster (Lipsedge, 2003). At the time this act was a capital offence, but the diagnosis of monomania helped to get the death sentence commuted to imprisonment. With religious and other monomanias, there were difficulties in distinguishing between acceptable and pathological levels of behavior - one group's terrorist is another group's martyr, for example.
Conclusions
There is little to support the idea that religious factors play a role in causing psychotic illnesses. It is likely that religious coping may be helpful in relieving the distress associated with psychotic illness, and the appearance of "religious symptoms" may indicate attempts to cope with distress, rather than as symptoms as such. However, as with other psychiatric illnesses, the religious context may shape the occurrence of stress, often a factor in psychiatric breakdown. The religious context may also shape expressions of distress.
See also: Demons, Psychiatry, Religious Coping, Visions
Bibliography
Bhugra, D. (Ed.). (1996). Psychiatry and religion: Context, consensus, and controversies. London: Routledge.
Bhugra, D. (2002). Self-concept: Psychosis and attraction of new religious movements. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 5, 239-252.
Coker, E. M. (2004). The construction of religious and cultural meaning in Egyptian psychiatric patient charts. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 7, 323-348.
Butcher, J.N., Mineka, S. & Hooley, J.M. Abnormal psychology (2010), 14th edition. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2007.
Davies, M. F., Griffiths, M., & Vice, S. (2001). Affective reactions to auditory hallucinations in psychotic, evangelical and control groups. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 40, 361-370.
Dein, S. (2010) Judeo-Christian religious experience and psychopathology: The legacy of William James. Transcultural Psychiatry, 47, 523-547.
Ensink, K., & Robertson, B. (1999). Patient and family experiences of psychiatric services and African indigenous healers. Transcultural Psychiatry, 36, 23-44.
Eysenck, M. W. (1998). Personality and the psychology of religion. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 1, 11-19.
Greenberg, D., & Witztum, E. (2001). Sanity and sanctity: Mental health work among the ultra-orthodox in Jerusalem. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Heilman, S. C., & Witztum, E. (2000). All in faith: Religion as the idiom and means of coping with distress. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 3, 115-124.
Hufford, D. J. (2005). Sleep paralysis as spiritual experience. Transcultural Psychiatry,42, 11-45.
Joseph, S., Smith, D. & Diduca, D. (2002). Religious orientation and its association with personality, schizotypal traits and manic-depressive experiences. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 5, 73-81.
Kalian, M., & Witztum, E. (2002). Jerusalem syndrome as reflected in the pilgrimage and biographies of four extraordinary women from the 14th century to the end of the second millennium. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 5, 1-16.
Koenig, H. (Ed.). (1998). Religion and mental health. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Kroll, J., Bachrach, B., & Carey, K. (2002). A reappraisal of medieval mysticism and hysteria. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 5, 83-98.
Lipsedge, M. (1996). Religion and madness in history. In D. Bhugra (Ed.), Psychiatry and religion: Context, consensus, controversies. London: Routledge.
Lipsedge, M. (2003). Jonathan Martin: Prophet and incendiary. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 6, 59-78.
Littlewood, R., & Lipsedge, M. (1997). Aliens and alienists: Ethnic minorities and psychiatry (3rd ed.). London: Oxford University Press.
Loewenthal, K. M. (2007). Religion, culture and mental health. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Maltby, J., Lewis, C. A., & Day, L. (1999). Religious orientation and psychological well-being: The role of the frequency of personal prayer. British Journal of Health Psychology, 4, 363-378.
Pargament, K. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping. New York: Guilford Press.
Peters, E., Day, S., McKenna, J., & Orbach, G. (1999). Delusional ideas in religious and psychiatric populations. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 38, 83-96.
Pfeifer, S. (1994). Belief in demons and exorcism in psychiatric patients in Switzerland. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 67, 247-258.
Siddle, R., Haddock, G., Tarrier, N., & Faragher, E. B. (2002). Religious delusions in patients admitted to hospital with schizophrenia. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 37, 130-138.
Wilson, W. P. (1998). Religion and psychoses. In H. Koenig (Ed.), Religion and mental health (pp. 161-172). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Yorston, G. (2001). Mania precipitated by meditation: a case report and literature review. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 4, 209-214.
Psychotherapy and Religion
This essay briefly outlines some of the varieties of psychotherapy practiced today, and looks at the development of the relationship between psychotherapy and religion under two broad headings: independence, and integration.
The Varieties of Psychotherapy
Freud (e.g., 1933) is usually credited with the discovery of the "talking cure" forpsychiatric illness: psychoanalysis. Although in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, psychiatric illness was dealt with by medical practitioners, the chief disturbances are those of behavior, thinking and feeling, often with no clear organic cause. The era of humane treatments had dawned, and pioneers such as Tuke, Pinel and Dix had established humane institutions for the care of the insane, in England, France and the USA respectively. But effective medical treatments were lacking. Psychoanalysis, the talking cure developed by Freud, was not always totally effective in producing improvements, but it was sufficiently effective to survive, expand and develop enormously during the twentieth century. Its development still continues and its clinical efficacy has been placed on a firm footing (e.g., Sandell, Blomberg, Lazar, Carlsson, Broberg, & Schubert, 2000). The theories, aims and methods of psychoanalysis can only be summarized briefly here. Psychoanalysis aims to enable to client to develop a conscious awareness of the feelings and ideas that underlie his or her habitual style of living and relating to others. These feelings and ideas have ruled his/her life in a powerful way. The origins of these feelings and ideas are unconscious. Awareness allows the possibility of assuming a level of control. One view of psychoanalysis, therefore, is that it helps make the unconscious, conscious. One route by which this is often achieved is via the "transference relationship," in which the client displays powerful feelings towards the analyst - anger, dependency, idealization - feelings which are not realistically related to the current context. The analysis oftransference - the examination of these feelings and their earlier occurrences and origins - is an important route towards therapeutic improvement.
From its earliest days, psychoanalysis has engendered new theories and methods. Some are regarded as recognizably psychoanalytic - for example the neo- and post-Freudians (e.g., Horney, 1963), and Klein (1955) and her followers. Others, for example Rogers (1961), have developed schools of counseling in which a primary vehicle of improvement has been the therapist's support and regard for the client. Cognitive Behavior Therapy(CBT) (e.g., Beck, 2005) has begun to exert a very important influence in clinical practice, since it has been able to demonstrate effective outcomes in relatively few sessions. CBT functions by enabling the client to examine and evaluate his/her habitual thoughts, behaviors and feelings in a manner which is focused on the client's immediate problems and agreed-upon areas of improvement, and is therefore less wide-ranging than psychoanalytic therapy. There are many other varieties of psychological therapies, but this brief account has hinted at the range and approach of some of the dominant influences in this very active field.
Independence
A starting-point is to note Freud's apparent distaste for religion, for instance his view of religion as a universal obsessional neurosis (e.g., Freud, 1907). Spilka (1986), Loewenthal (1995) and others have described as the enormous range of ways in psychotherapists have seen and described the role of religion: religion may be a socializing and suppressing force, a source of guilt, a haven, a source of abuse, a therapy, and a hazard. Many of the views of religion expressed in the early days of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy were detrimental: religion was seen as damaging to mental health. One response to these views is to attempt to leave religion out of the picture in any attempt to work with mental health issues.
During the twentieth century, the mental health and religious leadership professions were often seen as parallel and largely independent, each offering solutions to human misery that were alternative rather than complementary. There was some antagonism. Some psychotherapeutic writers perceived only damaging effects of religion. Some religious leaders saw psychotherapy as a spiritually damaging venture (Loewenthal, 1995).
One reasonable justification for the independence of the psychotherapy and religious professions was advanced by Neeleman and Persaud (1995). While decrying the fact that mental health professionals overlook the often important religious concerns of their patients, they observe that mental health and religion are two largely independent areas of professional expertise. The mental health professional may feel - wisely - that s/he does not have the expertise to tackle religious issues. These, it might be felt, should be left to the chaplaincy. Similarly the religious leader may feel that s/he does not have the expertise to tackle mental health problems.
These concerns gave rise to the development of pastoral counseling among the ministry, and to transcultural psychiatry and spiritual counseling among mental health professionals. Both developments aim to give professionals awareness of and training in issues in mental health and religion, including sufficient knowledge of when to cross-refer. Many mental health practitioners and religious leaders/chaplains work now harmoniously with each other, and earlier mistrust and antagonism have generally been laid to rest.
Integration
The history of peace between psychotherapy and religion is almost as old as the history of war. Carl Gustav Jung was the prominent early exponent of harmony, with his view of spirituality as intrinsic to human nature, suggesting that spiritual growth and psychological growth involved the same processes - an inner journey involving the healing of fragmented aspects of the self, and the development of individuation (e.g., Jung, 1958). The Jungian influence was almost certainly the strongest in the early development of pastoral psychology.
Other prominent exponents of harmony include Rizzutto (1974) and Spero (1992). Both these authors use objects-relations theory (a development of Kleinian thinking), which deals with how from infancy onwards, the individual internalizes, splits, and harmonizes "objects" from his/her social world. G-d is an internal "object" and the relationship with G-d may be examined, developed and healed in the course of psychotherapy.
There has been a strong growth of interest in psychotherapy and religion, as seen for instance in the psychoanalytic explorations in Stein's (1999) Beyond Belief: Psychotherapy and Religion. David Black (2000: 25) explores recent thinking involving a neuro-scientific model. In Black's view some of the values of psychotherapy and religion are remarkably similar, for example love, mourning and reparation. Nevertheless their goals are different - psychoanalytic therapy proceeds by the analysis of transference to allow the ego to achieve optimal functioning in the individual's social world. The goal of religion is to achieve "a true view of the universe and our relations to it." Black believes that mature religions aim to give access to positions which differ from what can be established and worked through in psychoanalysis. "A religious vision opens up the possibility of other sorts of development which go beyond the world of human object relations" (p. 22). Thus, interestingly, Black appears to suggest that in object-relations terms, the potential for spiritual and personal development may differ in the religious life, from what can be achieved in psychoanalysis.
In a different vein, Viktor Frankl (1986) has explored the importance of the will to meaning, and the role of purpose in life in psychological health. His introduction of these concepts into the practice of psychotherapy has enabled a positive approach in working with troubled individuals.
Attending to the client's spiritual problems has become a strong focus of attention in the twenty-first century (Pargament and Tarakeshwar, 2005; Pargament, 2007; Cook, Powell and Sims, 2009). One noteworthy point is that the term spirituality has become increasingly popular as an alternative and substitute for the term religion - the implications of this shift are reviewed by Pargament, also Loewenthal (2007) and others. In Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy, Pargament defines spirituality as the search for the sacred. He argues that spiritual concerns are often salient for many clients and therapists need to be equipped to deal with them. Therapists need to be able to recognize spirituality which can lead to growth, and spirituality which can lead to a decline, also spirituality which is part of the problem, and spirituality which is part of the solution. The forthcoming American Psychological Asociation's APA Handbook of the Psychology, Religion and Spirituality (Pargament, 2013) promises in-depth study of further aspects of the integration of spirituality into psychotherapeutic practice.
Another development has been the question of examining different cultural-religious traditions. In what ways do different traditions differ in the extent and manner of their integration into psychotherapeutic practice? Such issues are explored in Richards and Bergin (2000), in their Handbook of Psychotherapy and Religious Diversity, and Dowd and Nielsen (2006), in their Exploration of the Psychologies in Religion.
Conclusions
The early development of psychotherapy featured some mistrust as the proponents of psychotherapy and religion viewed each others' ideas. Nevertheless from the early stages there were noteworthy attempts to integrate the practice of psychotherapy with the religious and spiritual concerns of clients, and such attempts are now flourishing. On the whole, it is the psychoanalytic and counseling schools of psychotherapy, rather than the cognitive-behavioral school, that have been responsible for these developments.
See also: Depth Psychology and Spirituality, Freud, Sigmund, Jung, Carl Gustav,Psychoanalysis, Psychology as Religion, Psychology of Religion, Psychotherapy
Bibliography
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Black, D. M. (2000). The functioning of religions from a modern psychoanalytic perspective. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 3, 13-26.
Cook, C., Powell, A. & Sims, A. (2009) Spirituality and psychiatry. London: Royal College of Psychiatrists, RCPsych Publications.
Dowd, T., & Nielsen, S. (Eds.). (2006). Exploration of the psychologies in religion. New York: Springer.
Frankl, V. E. (1986). The doctor and the soul. New York: Basic Books.
Freud, S. (1907). Obsessive acts and religious practices. In Collected Papers1907/1924 (pp. 25-35). London: Hogarth Press.
Freud, S. (1933). New introductory lectures on psychoanalysis. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Horney, K. (1963). The collected works. New York: W. W. Norton.
Jung, C. G. (1958). Psychology and religion: East and west. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Klein, M. (1955). On envy and gratitude and other works. New York: Delacourte Press.
Loewenthal, K. M. (1995). Mental health and religion. London: Chapman & Hall.
Loewenthal, K. M. (2007). Religion culture and mental health. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Neeleman, J., & Persaud, R. (1995). Why do psychiatrists neglect religion?British Journal of Medical Psychology, 68, 169-178.
Pargament, K. I. (2007). Spiritually integrated psychotherapy. New York: Guilford Press.
Pargament, K.I. (Editor-in-Chief) (2013) APA Handbook of the Psychology, Religion and Spirituality. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
Pargament, K. I., & Tarakeshwar N. (Eds.). (2005). Spiritually integrated psychotherapy [Special Issue]. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 8(3), 155-238.
Richards, P. S., & Bergin, A. E. (Eds.). (2000). Handbook of psychotherapy and religious diversity. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
Rizzutto, A. M. (1974). Object relations and the formation of the image of God.British Journal of Medical Psychology, 47, 83-89.
Rogers, C. R. (1961). On becoming a person. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Sandell, R., Blomberg, J., Lazar, A., Carlsson, J., Broberg, J., & Schubert, J. (2000). Varieties of long-term outcome among patients in psychoanalysis and long-term psychotherapy: A review of findings in the stockholm outcome of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy project. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 81, 921-942.
Spero, M. H. (1992). Religious objects as psychological structures: A critical integration of object relations theory, psychotherapy and judaism. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Spilka, B. (1986). Spiritual issues: Do they belong in psychological practice?Philadephia, PA: Haworth Press.
Stein, S. (Ed.). (1999). Beyond belief: Psychotherapy and religion. London: Karnac.
Zionism
What is Zionism? Does psychology of religion have anything to offer to the understanding of Zionism?
What is Zionism?
The term Zion has traditionally been viewed as synonymous with Jerusalem (Roth and Wigoder, 1971). The most commonly understood use of the term Zionism is the belief that the land of Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people, and every effort is to be made to return Jewish people to the land. There is a detailed biblical definition of the territory in Numbers 34, 1-15, and the territory was then expanded in the time of David and Solomon.
The historical precursors of Zionist ideology are to be found in Jewish history from biblical times, including promises that the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel) will inherit the land of Canaan, the process of Jewish settlement of the land, and various persecutions and forced movements of population. Despite the destruction of the second Temple in 70 ce and the creation of diaspora Jewish communities in the former Roman Empire there continued to be Jewish communities in Israel (called Palestine by the Romans) until the present. This included the retention of important Jewish intellectual centres.
Thousands of Jews in Jerusalem were killed by the Crusaders in 1099, who accused them of helping the Arabs. During the later Middle Ages the holy sites in the land and particularly Jerusalem were the focus of pilgrimages and the Jews who lived in Palestine were supported by charitable donations from diaspora communities. References to Israel, Jerusalem and Zion, and the hoped-for return, occur prolifically throughout Jewish liturgy and sacred texts, and the direction of prayer has been towards Jerusalem following a verse in Daniel (6: 11).
In the sixteenth century the northern city of Safed became an important intellectual center, with leading scholars of all traditionalist aspects of Jewish thought among its inhabitants, and this became a significant model for later Cultural Zionism. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the pace of Jewish return to Israel speeded up with the expansion of the settlements of pious Jews (Hasidim, and also followers of the Vilna Gaon), particularly in Safed, Tiberias and Jerusalem. The Hibbat Zion (Love of Zion) movement was prominent in supporting such settlements philanthropically. Later in the nineteenth century, in the face of persistent pogroms and other persecution in the European diaspora Zionist passion assumed a new, politicised form, sometimes known as "synthetic" Zionism, with active attempts to achieve a political solution, and to develop and support Jewish agricultural settlements. "Cultural" Zionism developed Jewish national awareness and support for the Jewish homeland among diaspora Jews. Landmarks in the history of modern Zionism include the first Zionist congress in 1897 in Switzerland, the Balfour Declaration (1917), asserting the support of the British government for a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, the founding of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1925, the UN vote to partition the land between Arabs and Jews (1947), followed by war since the Arabs did not accept the partition, and the declaration of the state of Israel (1948). This beleaguered state remains the focus of Jewish immigration from all parts of the diaspora, and also of hostility and repeated attacks from surrounding Arab neighbours. Zionist philosophy has continued to develop pragmatically in response to these developments (Seliktar, 1983).
Secular forms of Zionism, sometimes with a socialist flavor, sometimes purely nationalist, proposed that Jewish religious observance was needed to preserve Jewish identity and longing for Zion only while in the diaspora. But once in the Jewish state, Jews were said to no longer need religious observance in order to maintain their identity as Jews. Some observers of the contemporary Israeli scene believe that secular Zionism is no longer the force that it once was, and love of the land is tempered by the complex political difficulties with Arab neighbours, particularly the urgent need to keep peace and survive. Thus modern secular Zionism may entail a willingness to make territorial concessions for the sake of peace. Religious Zionism is based on the philosophy of Rabbi Kook (e.g., 2005), and involves settlements in territories that fall within the biblically-defined boundaries of Israel. Religious Zionism is associated with the view that national security is best served by preserving the biblical boundaries.
Zionist Attitudes
Anti-Zionist attitudes have been noted among Jews. Some strictly orthodox Jews, mainly associated with the Satmar group of Hasidim, believe that the time for the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel is premature, and can only happen after the coming of the Messiah. At another point on the religious spectrum, early Reform Judaism eliminated references to Jerusalem, Israel and Zionism from its liturgy in an attempt to produce truly acculturated citizens of Germany. However, the founding of the State induced a contrary trend. Attitudes which are generally consistent with Zionism have been reported among the majority of Jews. In Seliktar's (1980) study, 75-81% of the 700 young Israelis surveyed were committed to each of the five aspects of Zionist ideology (enumerated below). The majority of American Jews in Cohen and Kelman's (2007) survey considered that "attachment to Israel is an important part of being Jewish," though the percentages agreeing with this statement varied with age, being higher among older Jews: 80% of the over-65s agreed, 60% of the under-35s.
The themes and concepts of Zionism have had a strong impact outside Judaism. In the United States, Zionism is an important feature of fundamentalist Christianity, in which it is held that the settlement of Jews in Israel is foretold by biblical prophecy and is a precursor to the coming of the Messiah. This in turn has impacted on foreign policy attitudes (Cummergen, 2000). In sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Swaziland, Zionism is widely practiced as a religion. African Zionism was based originally on Christianity but incorporates many indigenous practices and beliefs including animism (Guth, Fraser, Green, Kellstedt, Smidt, 2000).
There has been much debate about whether anti-Zionism is a form of anti-semitism: Wistrich (2004) for example has argued that the delegitimisation and defamation of Israel in the Muslim world, and among sections of both the political Left and radical Right, has promoted a revival of anti-semitism worldwide, leading to a rise in anti-semitic attacks.
Zionism and Psychology
What light can the psychology of religion throw on Zionism? There has been negligible study of Zionism as such by psychologists of religion. Nevertheless there are psychological perspectives which may be brought to bear on Zionism among Jews.
Territorial claims are often strongly bound up with national and religious identity: social identity theory offers important discussions on this theme (e.g., Hewstone and Stroebe,2001).
Band (2005) has discussed the dilemmas faced by religious Zionists in relation to their identities, amid the political complexities of twenty-first century Israel. For example, their pragmatic and religiously-founded wish for peace conflicts with their pragmatic and religiously-founded need to maintain the boundaries of Israel.
The frequent Jewish liturgical and textual references to Israel and Zion reinforce the package of Jewish identity, spirituality and love of the land. In Jewish sacred texts, the land of Israel is given to the Jews and said to be imbued with a special level of holiness (e.g., Genesis 15:18; 2 Chronicles 6, 5-6; Shneur Zalman of Liadi, 1973) and given by G-d to the Jewish people. There are many specific religious commandments associated with the land, for example relating to its agricultural produce, such as observance of the sabbatical year, specific blessings to be pronounced on fruits for which Israel is renowned, and the priestly blessing, recited daily in Israel, and only on festivals in the diaspora. The quantity and spiritual force of biblical and other references to the sacredness of Israel deserve closer study, perhaps using discourse or other linguistic analysis, particularly with the view to the question of the uniqueness of Zionism as a form of nationalist philosophy.
The possible impact of liturgical and religious textual references was supported in a careful study in political psychology examining the socialisation of Zionist ideology among young Israelis: Seliktar (1980) studied the cognitive and affective aspects of five features of Zionist ideology: loyalty to the state of Israel, continuity (of Israel) across time; unity of the Jewish people; Israel as a Jewish national center; the integrative role of the State of Israel (in absorbing new immigrants). Respondents indicated extent of agreement and of emotional commitment to statements relating to these five features (e.g., "We should always think of Israel as a continuation of the ancient kingdom of Judea"). There were significant effects of family religious observance, and of religiosity of the school attended, on strength of commitment to Zionist ideology.
Conclusions
In conclusion, it can be seen that Zionism in all its forms contains powerful ideas about the sacred status of the land of Israel. Although the psychological and spiritual impact of Zionism have not been studied by psychologists of religion, there are conceptual frameworks - for example in social identity theory, attitude theory, and forms of linguistic analysis - which may facilitate closer study.
Acknowledgement: Grateful thanks are due to Dr. Naftali Loewenthal, University College London, for many helpful comments and suggestions on this article.
See also: Judaism and Psychology, Psychology of Religion
Bibliography
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Cummergen, P. (2000). Zionism and Politics in Swaziland. Journal of Religion in Africa,30, 370-385.
Guth, J. L., Fraser, C. R., Green, J. C., Kellstedt, L. A., & Smidt, C. E.(2000). Religion and foreign policy attitudes: The case of Christian Zionism. In J. Clifford (Ed.), Religion and the culture wars. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Hewstone, M., & Stroebe, W. (2001). Introduction to Social Psychology. Oxford, England: Blackwell.
Jewish Publication Society. (1955). The holy scriptures. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society of America.
Kook, R. A. I. (2005). When G-d Becomes History: Historical Essays of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakoen Kook (B. Naor, Trans.). Spring Valley, NY: Orot.
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Seliktar, O. (1980). Socialisation of national ideology: The case of Zionists attitudes among young Israelis. Political Psychology, 2, 66-94.
Seliktar, O. (1983). The new Zionism. Foreign Policy, 51, 118-138.
Shneur Zalman of Liadi. (1973). Likkutei Amarim - Tanya, (Bilingual edition) (N. Mindel, N. Mandel, Z. Posner, & J. I. Shochet, Trans.). London: Kehot. (Original work published 1796)
Wistrich, R. (2004) Anti-zionism and anti-semitism. Jewish Political Studies Review, 16, 3-4.