ABSTRACT
Originally published in 1959, this book is primarily concerned with the question of psychiatric factors in religion, and, conversely, with that of religious factors in psychiatry. It rejects the Freudian theory that religion is a form of obsessional neurosis. Though this latter hypothesis may explain many of the phenomena of religious observance, it cannot explain the reality of religious experience. Dr Guirdham believes that orthodox Christianity is a perversion of the psychologically irrefutable teaching of Christ and that its conception of God as a supreme being endowed with supreme power, its teaching on the resurrection, and its contamination with a sense of guilt, are especially conducive to psychiatric disorder. He shows how theology may actually be inimical to religious experience and how faith differs from belief and is a response of the whole man. The book explains also the psychological origins of clericalism and demonstrates the role played by the latter in stifling religious experience.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |2 pages
Introduction
part |46 pages
Christ and Freud
chapter |4 pages
The Religious Aspect of Psychiatric Illness
chapter |9 pages
Some Psychiatric Mechanisms in Religious Observance
chapter |2 pages
Criticism of the Psycho-Analytical Interpretation of Religion
chapter |3 pages
Sexual Symbolism in Religion
chapter |2 pages
Further Criticisms of the Freudian Concept of Religion
chapter |2 pages
The Phenomena of Mysticism
chapter |1 pages
The Distinction between Mysticism and Psychiatric Disease
chapter |6 pages
Art and Psychiatric Disorder
chapter |3 pages
Freudian Theory and Other World Religions
chapter |3 pages
Neurosis and the Conception of a Personal God
chapter |2 pages
The Persistence of Judaism in Christianity
chapter |1 pages
Evaluation of Freud
chapter |5 pages
Religion Without Power
part |36 pages
Christianity and Neurosis
chapter I|1 pages
The Special Role of Christianity
chapter II|10 pages
The Doctrine of the Resurrection
chapter III|3 pages
Limitations of the Theological Approach
chapter IV|6 pages
Christianity and Time
chapter V|7 pages
Theology Versus Religion
chapter VI|9 pages
The Total or Partial Response
part |52 pages
Guilt and Clericalism
chapter I|12 pages
Origins of Guilt in Clericalism
chapter II|5 pages
Christ and Clericalism
chapter III|5 pages
Psychiatric Origins of Clericalism
chapter IV|4 pages
Obsessional Factors in Clericalism
chapter V|7 pages
Homosexuality in Clericalism
chapter VI|8 pages
The Obsessional Element in Christianity
chapter VII|4 pages
The New Faith
chapter VIII|6 pages
God and Power
part |44 pages
Freedom and Captivity