Why psychiatry might cooperate with religion: The Michigan Society of Pastoral Care, 1945–1968

Abstract

The early decades of the pastoral care movement were characterized by a remarkable collaboration with psychiatry. While historians of the religious aspects of this movement have noted the reliance of pastoral care on psychiatry and psychology, it has been less clear how and why mental health professionals elected to work with clergy. This paper uses the Michigan Society of Pastoral Care (MSPC), one of the early training programs for hospital chaplains on the model of the Boston-based Institute for Pastoral Care, as a window to explore the interactions between psychiatry and religion at mid century. Raymond Waggoner, the nationally recognized and well-connected chair of the psychiatry department at the University of Michigan, was instrumental in expanding the influential pastoral care program at his hospital and in his state as part of his bigger mission of emphasizing the fundamental role of psychiatry in American life. Waggoner played a key role within the MSPC, in conjunction with leaders within the medical departments of the major hospitals in the state. All of the members of the MSPC viewed psychiatry's insights as essential for pastoral care, with the caveat that chaplains should remain pupils, not practitioners of psychotherapy.

The Moderating Influence of Religiousness/Spirituality on COVID-19 Impact and Change in Psychotherapy

“…Last, interdisciplinary research in this area could usefully bring together methods from the social sciences and the humanities (e.g., religious studies, philosophy, theology, history). For example, interesting historical comparisons might be explored in religion and psychiatry movements that intensified around other social crises, such as the Great Depression (e.g., Capps 2009;Hirshbein 2021). There also seem to be possibilities for the interdisciplinary integration of religion and mental health in response to the systemic challenges of the COVID-19 crisis.…”