Religious Insanity: A Diagnosis at the Intersection of 19th Century American Religion and Psychiatry.

Abstract

Among the more common admission diagnoses of patients admitted to 19th century American asylums that have now disappeared completely from the psychiatric nosology is "religious insanity." This article presents a review of the historical and sociological research, which suggests the theory that religious belief and practice was a common cause of insanity, hence the diagnosis of "religious insanity." The way in which the diagnosis developed at the intersection of Protestant revival movements and the growth of modern asylum psychiatry in the United States, and thereby served several important functions in psychiatry and society, is discussed. The article concludes with reflections on how the rise and fall of the theory of religion as a primary cause or contributor to insanity in the 19th century mirrors the often conflicted relationship between religion and psychiatry in modern history and the difficulty in drawing scientifically reliable and morally justifiable lines between spiritual experience and mental illness in any cultural period.