Is there an elephant in the room re religious fervour?
jzee
Posts: 25,498 Forum Member
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...the elephant being that sometimes people who convert to a religion, or suddenly become extremely devout in the religion they are born into, may actually be suffering from mental illness? Could there be a reluctance of some mental health practitioners in seeing this because of the taboo of questioning people's religious beliefs? And yes I am thinking of it in the context of the two suspects in the Woolwich case, and at least one of the brothers, and possibly the mother in the Boston case.....
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It's complex having human brains, all the religion, culture, creativity, damage, experience, memory can get into a right big muddle.
It's definitely a touchy issue as of course, as anyone religious may presumably take offense in the connection of the two subjects, there are plenty of articles on the net that put forward the idea that religion, in of itself, is a mental illness, but that's not what I am saying exactly. Religion is a pretty complex thing that encompasses cultural identity, ritual, the familiar, contemplation, music, singing or chanting intended to encourage euphoric or trance like effects etc.
I suppose its when the change is often quite sudden i.e. in a sudden conversion or suddenly becoming overly devout, that you wonder (or you may know) whether that difficulty, or at least part of it includes some kind of mental illness or breakdown, which could have been triggered by a more mundane difficulty such as a bereavement or experiencing some other kind of physical or social trauma such as an attack or bullying or humiliation of some sort, or simply be a genetic predisposition or drug related.
When I look at the actions of these men yesterday, if they hadn't said anything about getting troops out of our lands or praising god, people would just see it as another incidence of people suffering from a severe mental illness carrying out a knife or sword attack that we have seen in the past, right down to them not wanting to flee, having random conversations with onlookers etc.
Could it not be that belief in an almighty being, believing in a 'great conflict', could not go hand in hand with mental illness? Sniffle's study at the top would seem to point to be people who become particularly fervent believers in the Abrahamic religions being more susceptible. The problem is I think mental health practitioners and GPs may be or have been, reluctant to allow themselves to consider a patient's religious beliefs as possibly part of the symptoms of mental illness, and as a consequence, people who may need treatment never end up being treated, with possibly serious results.
Another general rule of thumb - never trust anyone fixated on one subject.
Ah OK, I misread the OP.