For many centuries, churches and other religious institutions played an important role in caring for those with mental illness. In fact, leaders of religious orders were arguably the first to recognize that those with mental illness should be treated with kindness and not simply locked away.
But about 150 years ago, a rift started to develop between religion and psychiatry. Many have since taught that religion can cause or worsen mental illness. Some have gone so far as to profess that religion itself was a manifestation of mental disturbance. Much of this can be traced back to Sigmund Freud, the eccentric Austrian psychiatrist who conceptualized religion as a “universal obsessional neurosis.” Freud believed religious impulses stemmed from unfulfilled childhood desires for a dominant father figure. As such, he believed that our collective mental health would be better off if we abandoned religion altogether.
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