ABSTRACT
The issue of religion and mental health can be examined from two different aspects. The first is the general question of whether religion contributes to a person's mental and/or psychological well-being or whether it is an obstacle to intellectual and psychological growth. The second is the thorny issue of religious experience, and the mental health of those who claim to have had such an experience. Though the current psychiatric view is that a person who cultivates such states is probably mentally ill, many psychologists are reassessing the evidence. The tendency to look at religion as a obstacle to human psychological growth, and at deep religious experience and commitment as an expression of mental and psychological illness, is still rampant in the counseling disciplines. There seems to be some agreement that not all religious beliefs and actions lead to a psychologically balanced life, and that some individuals have expressed their religious commitment in a highly neurotic and/or psychotic manner.
