Religious Delusions: Finding Meanings in Psychosis

Abstract

Background: Religious delusions have been reported with varying prevalence from cultures around the world. Their contents, context and significance vary according to cultural and economic mores. In this review we discuss the potential relationship between religious delusions and aspects of culture, in particular religious symbols. We suggest that religious rituals and expectations of the family play a major role in the genesis and maintenance of delusions. We consider the roles of religious signifiers in the formation and maintenance of these important phenomena. Sampling and Methods: Evidence relating to the clinical significance of religious delusions is reviewed. The real clinical significance of religious delusions varies from violence to others to self-harm. The implications of these issues are discussed in relation to their management. Results and Conclusions: It is argued that there should be a reassessment of the importance of religious delusions in the light of new ethnographic and clinical evidence.

Psychological characteristics of religious delusions

“…People with religious delusions also reported more internal evidence for their delusions (anomalous experiences or mood changes), and were very likely to have an accompanying grandiose delusion. In contrast to findings in the literature [1, 3, 4, 13–19], they had lower levels of negative symptoms, with no differences in their degree of delusional conviction or in the likelihood of them engaging in treatment. Levels of affective disturbance were similar in RD compared to other delusions, and reasoning biases were, if anything, less pronounced in the religious delusions group, as people with religious delusions were more likely to be able to identify an alternative to their delusion.…”

“…Levels of disability, distress and conviction have all been reported to be higher in people with religious delusions compared to other types of delusions [1, 3, 4, 13–15]. Religious delusions are also associated with poor engagement, low satisfaction with services and with treatment, and longer duration of untreated psychosis [12, 16–19].…”

Nature of Persecutors and Their Behaviors in the Delusions of Schizophrenia: Changes between the 1990s and the 2000s

“…Our study provided support to the theory that the culture and expectations in a society influence the nature of the delusions that are formed and maintained in it 29. Understanding the psychosocial meaning of specific delusions in patients with psychosis is an interesting topic for cultural psychiatrists, as well as being clinically significant for clinicians working with this population.…”

Culturally competent adaptation of cognitive-behavioural therapy for psychosis: cases of Orthodox Jewish patients with messianic delusions

“…Greenberg (2009) reports a case of an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman, born in Israel, with parents from north Africa, who, using similar kabalistic ideas which are also prevalent among Sephardic Jews, reported that she is the Shekhinah (the Divine Presence), and her real husband is God. Religious delusions have been viewed in terms of the relief of communal anxieties, fulfilment of social roles and the development of new religious movements (Bhavsar & Bhugra, 2008). Those delusions of being the Shekhinah and/or the Queen Messiah could be the manifestation of a desire by some women across the strictly Orthodox Jewish communities for more direct integration into the mystical redemptive process.…”