The religious delusion and the “multiple realities” perspective (original) (raw)

Delusions in the phenomenological perspective

AVANT. The Journal of the Philosophical-Interdisciplinary Vanguard, 2014

The aim of the article is to present the contemporary concepts of delusions from the phenomenological perspective. The difficulties to define delusions and the examples of delusional disorders, such as delusional mood, Cotard's syndrome, or Capgras delusions, serve as the point of departure for this analysis. The questions of the phenomenological understanding of delusions are presented in the context of Karl Jaspers' theory of the incomprehensibility of psychotic thinking (primary delusions, delusional mood). The subsequent analysis presents the constraints of contemporary cognitive theories of delusions. The criticism of said theories highlights the need for creating a broader concept of experience and cognition and results in the proposition to use the terms "background" and "embodiment" as theoretical tools for a more complete understanding of the peculiarities of delusional experience.

Delusions in the phenomenological

2014

Delusions: The phenomenological approach

Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Psychiatry, 2013

In this chapter, we discuss a treatment of delusions from a phenomenological perspective, which focuses on the variety of ways in which one might experience delusions and the delusional world. In contrast to standard psychiatric definitions of delusion as a false belief due to poor reality-testing, we suggest that delusions may be more fully understood as a transformation in the horizons or possibilities for experience. The early phenomenological psychiatrist Karl Jaspers suggested that the defining feature of schizophrenic or “true” delusions is their un-understandability, referring to the lack of apparent explanation for the degree of conviction or the experiential alterations attached to these bizarre delusions. In spite of this difficulty, however, we attempt to render the delusional experience comprehensible by exploring the origins and varieties of delusional transformations of self and world. In so doing, we examine the changes in inner and outer experience that occur in the delusional mood preceding the formation of a delusion, and how a delusion might develop out of these experiences; the transformations of reality that can create a kind of double-bookkeeping or double exposure, where both delusions and standard reality are felt to be simultaneously real and unreal; and the qualities of delusions that arise in paranoid, affective, and monothematic organic conditions. Thus, we attempt to move beyond standard conceptions of delusions as un-understandable or due to disturbed reality-testing, to show how an appreciation for the varieties of delusional experience permits a greater degree of empathic understanding.

Anton Boisen - delusion as religious experience Cor Arends

If Billy Sunday coms to town - delusion as a religious experience? , 2014

How to analyze delusional thinking? Foundational theology can give a contribution to understanding religious delusions as a search for meaning. This book explores how a religious delusion can be acknowledged as a religious experience. In addition, the book presents a detailed case-study of the life of Presbyterian minister Anton T. Boisen (1876-1965), his crises and the religious delusion that brought him to the brink of the abyss after the trauma he experienced during World War I. Delusion is seen as a way of experiencing and speaking in which rationality seems to be lost and, at the same time, as a construction to prevent further defragmentation of the personality. this book was accepted in 2013 at the faculty of theology of the Radboud University in Nijmegen Netherlands for my phd. it is a theological search for understanding the way God and faith find its expression in crises like a psychosis. it is a casestudy of the biography of Anton T. Boisen.

Delusion, possession and religion†

2018

Background: Religion and psychiatry may be both considered to be two different ways of explaining the unknown, of responding to questions about the meaning of life, and of bringing healing. Aims: To discuss the border between religion and psychiatry. Method: This lecture explores the interface between religion and psychiatry and discusses the border between soul and mind. Results: Religious beliefs may affect behaviours and may been seen on a psychopathological continuum with overvalued ideas and delusions. There is an overlap between psychiatric and religious categories, in possession states described in research literature and by many cultural groups. Several studies suggest possible factors for differentiating schizophrenia from demonic influence and report on the efficacy of exorcism among possessed/psychotic subjects. Diagnostic criteria have been proposed for dissociative trance disorder or possession disorder. Conclusions: Both mental health professionals and religious believ...

A Thematic Analysis of Delusion With Religious Contents in Schizophrenia

Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 2013

The aim of the present study was to elicit how patients with delusions with religious contents conceptualized or experienced their spirituality and religiousness. Sixty-two patients with present or past religious delusions went through semistructured interviews, which were analyzed using the three coding steps described in the grounded theory. Three major themes were found in religious delusions: ''spiritual identity,'' ''meaning of illness,'' and ''spiritual figures.'' One higher-order concept was found: ''structure of beliefs.'' We identified dynamics that put these personal beliefs into a constant reconstruction through interaction with the world and others (i.e., open dynamics) and conversely structural dynamics that created a complete rupture with the surrounding world and others (i.e., closed structural dynamics); those dynamics may coexist. These analyses may help to identify psychological functions of delusions with religious content and, therefore, to better conceptualize interventions when dealing with it in psychotherapy.

Phenomenological-hermeneutical analysis of religious experience in myth and madness

It is well known how often psychiatric patients report religious experiences. These are especially frequent in schizophrenic and epileptic patients as the subject of their delusions. The question we pose is: are there differences between this kind of religious experiences and those we find in religious texts or in the mythological tradition?

The religious delusion and the “multiple realities” perspective (original) (raw)

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