Description
Changes in Membership
Due to intermarriage, mobility and the breakdown
of geographic limitations to church membership, many
people convert to new religions or change their denominational
membership. In some cases the change may be experienced
as forced rather than voluntary. When a person moves
to a community which does not have a branch of the
original religious group, he or she may experience
a sense of loss associated with separation from a previously
valued religious community. Conversion experiences
in particular can lead to adoption of a new religion
or change in denominational membership.
Intensification of Belief
Another type of religious problem can occur when
a person intensifies their adherence to religious practices
and orthodoxy. Voluntary intensification of religious
practice may be the result of a religious experience.
This can lead to problems when the person either does
not feel free, or does not know how, to talk about
the religious aspects of the change. But such intensification
may also occur as an attempt to deal with feelings
of guilt. Intensification may also be one of the coping
mechanisms used to deal with trauma, and is associated
with the need to find meaning in the distressing event
in order to avoid a breakdown of identity [1].
Conversion Experiences
According to William James, a conversion
experience involves
 sense
of a higher control or power behind reality
feeling of oneness
with the world and nature
sensing profound "truths" about
reality
everything looking
new, alive, and beautiful
being overwhelmed
with happiness and ecstasy
inability to
express this experience in words
absolute certainty
about the importance of this experience
Cultural and social factors play an important role
in the conversion process, and different religions
and disciplines view conversion differently, from welcoming
to questioning such direct experiences.
Associated
Clinical Problems
Changes in beliefs and practices
quite often do in fact disrupt peoples' lives. It does disrupt families. Even
though we may give a theology of conversion that can soft pedal all those
issues, the truth is, the issue is controversial because it is disruptive...a
disorientation, and something that has caused a lot of complications in many
peoples' lives.
The Psychology of Religious Conversion, Lewis Rambo
Intensification of religious practice can also be misdiagnosed
as mental disorders. Greenberg
and Witzum[2] are Israeli psychiatrists
who work with orthodox Jewish patients. They have proposed
diagnostic criteria for distinguishing normative strict
orthodox religious beliefs from psychopathological experiences
that present with religious content.
Symptoms of Mental Disorder:
1) are more intense than normative religious experiences in their religious
community
2) are often terrifying
3) are often preoccupying
4) are associated with deterioration of social skills and personal hygiene
5) often involve special messages from religious figures
At times devout religious practices can be viewed as
extreme and result in conflict with the law as with mutilation,
a practice associated with several religions.
 Abu-Sahlieh
SA, To mutilate in the name of Jehovah or Allah: Legitimization
of male and female circumcision. Med Law
1994;13(7-8):575-622
Treatment
If the patient is newly religious, the therapist needs to help identify and
work on conflicts between the patient's former and current lifestyle, beliefs,
and attitudes. Spero (1987)[3]
described the case of a 16-year-old adolescent from a reform Jewish family
who underwent a sudden religious transformation to orthodoxy. The dramatic
changes in her life, including long hours studying Jewish texts, avoidance
of friends, and sulleness at meals, led to her referral to a psychoanalyst.
A mental status examination determined that neither schizophrenia nor any
other Axis I or II disorders were present. The analysis then dealt with the
impact of religious transformation on her identity and object relations.
The process of religious change challenges important areas of stability,
and
to some degree the sense of historical
dislocation represents a crisis for all nouveau-religionists.
( p 69)
As in the case example below, religious experiences
can impact treatment, both of medical and mental problems.
Case Examples
Case
Report: Decision-Making Capacity and Religious Conversion-- A Case
of Dialysis Refusal
Dinesh Mittal, MD, Samuel F. Sears Jr., PhD, Phillip R. Godding,
PhD, and Marti D. Reynolds, MDiv (1999) Annals of Long-Term Care, 7(8),320-322
Woman's
first person account of conversion to Catholicism
WWW LIBRARY of Religion
and Spirituality
The WWW LIBRARY
of Religion and Spirituality contains articles on the psychology of religious
conversion.
 REQUIRED
QUIZ ITEM: 6
Types of Changes
Religious problems can be related to a) changes
in membership b) intensification of beliefs
c) conversion d) all of the above
Record your answer for later insertion into
the Quiz. |
References
1 Van der Lons, J.
(1991). What is psychology of religion about? Psychology
of religion. H. Malony. Grand Rapids, MI, Baker. 
2 Greenberg, D., & Witztum,
E. (1991). Problems in the treatment of religious patients.
American Journal of Psychotherapy, 45(4), 554-565.
3 Spero, MH (1987).
Identity and individuality in the nouveau-religiouis
patient: Theoretical and clinical aspects. Psychiatry.
50, 55-71.
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