ABSTRACT
The development of psychiatry as a branch of medicine has given it a ‘scientific’ context. One may argue that psychiatry took over from religion and created its own high church and in extraordinary developments, unlike religion, locked people away in a physical space. Different cultures and different religions manage to support their memberships–both healthy and sick groups. One may perceive the dialogue and dealings between psychiatry and religion as a cross-cultural dialogue and this may need taking further in a similar fashion. Religion and psychiatry have a lot to say to each other and need to continue the dialogue to understand each other’s weaknesses and strengths and work together or separately for the betterment of the individual who is suffering. Psychiatrists and religious personnel may wish to work together to develop sophisticated measures of religion, functioning and activity rather than simple religiosity and the understanding of one’s faith in determining and dealing with distress.
