Delusions of Guilt: The Attitude of Christian and Muslim Schizophrenic Patients Toward Good and Evil and the Responsibility of Men

Abstract

This article explores a cultural comparative study on schizophrenia which included 1006 subjects from Austria, Poland, Lithuania, Pakistan, Nigeria and Ghana. The data analyzed is based on the religious roots of social unconsciousness as it relates to the pathogenesis of delusions of guilt. In contrast to 15.5% of the Roman Catholic patients who participated in this study, only 3.8% of Muslim patients reported on this delusional theme. Following the lines of religious and philosophical ideas of “Good and Evil” and the responsibility of men in Christianity and Islam we developed a model which may help to explain the lack of certain psychotic phenomena like negative delusional identities and ontological guilt in Muslim patients.