Introduction

Fundamental controversies between science and religion laid the groundwork for the modern origin of the antagonism between psychiatry and religion. Concerning psychiatry, a number of prejudices have stood in the way of a closer relationship with religion: the view that religions attract the mentally unstable, that religions may have their origins in madness, that religious experience is phenomenologically similar to psychopathology, that paranormal experiences are a product of definable patterns of brain functioning, that religions are harmful - inducing guilt - or that religious belief is ineffective. Research has proven these prejudices false (Fulford, 1996).

Deeper reasons for the separation between psychiatry and religion have to do with the identification of psychiatry with the "medical" model. As a science, psychiatry is assumed to be based on observation and experiment and in principle open to objective testing. Religion, on the other hand, is said to be "revealed." Psychiatry employs an essentially deterministic model, whereas religion assumes freedom of action. Yet the separation between science and religion is perhaps a peculiarly Western phenomenon (Fulford, 1996). During the early years of the twentieth century, psychiatry in the United States and Europe underwent a number of changes, most notable an increasing focus on social progress and general societal welfare. In addition to an evolving body of literature on psychoanalysis, other forces that shaped the field included new religious movements such as New Thought, Christian Science, theosophy, and spiritualism, as well as the growing social marginalization of fundamentalism. Moreover, in terms of diagnosis psychiatry began moving away from classifications based on course and prognosis of disease. Specifically, "religious insanity" or "religious mania" - diagnoses based on the content of a delusion - became irrelevant to classification and treatment (Thielman, 1998).

Although the notion of religious insanity faded with the coming of twentieth-century psychiatry, it lived on in some form in the ideas of Sigmund Freud. Freud challenged the notion that truth can be found in religion, viewing religious faith as based in the illusion that an idealized Father God can replace the lost earthly father to provide needed comfort and security. Freud viewed religion as a "universal obsessional neurosis." A goal of psychoanalysis was to trust in the scientific method as a source of truth concerning the nature of one's being and the world.

Since Freud, modern psychiatry and psychology make claims to have supplanted a number of religious concepts central to understanding human nature. Among these are notions of a soul, of sin, and of morality. Soul and sin have been replaced by notions of human consciousness and psychological and social pathologies. Deficiencies in morality are understood as products of inadequate socialization processes, thus obviating the need for confession and redemption. Religious teachings traditionally promoted the view that unhappiness, despair and other physical and mental suffering are meaningful events. While Western religious conceptions of illness recognize it to have a purpose within a grander design and emphasize the spiritual meaning of suffering, conservative psychiatry maintains a materialistic and mechanistic orientation. Thus, the two disciplines