Hello everyone,
Welcome back and I hope your summers went well. I am hoping that this blog will be more active both from the posting and commenting end. I'd like to reiterate that anyone who is interested in posting on it should simply email me at seamus.macsuibhne@ucd.ie . If you have a gmail account, signing up takes seconds (if you don't, it only takes a few more seconds)
As the exam approaches, I will be posting more on this myself to get you all thinking. One event that is coming up which may be of interest (if you weren't cramming yourselves full of paediatric, obstetric and gynaecological knowledge I guess) is a talk by Professor Andrew Sims to the Psychiatry Section of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland on September 25th at 7 pm. Prof Sims is the retired Professor of Psychiatry at Leeds University and is the author of "Symptoms in the Mind" which is the key text in phenomenology (and comes very highly recommended). The talk will take place in the Royal College of Physicians on Kildare Street. A paper he has previously presented on the topic can be readhere
Obviously the topic "Is Faith Delusion?" is influenced by the title at least of Richard Dawkins' book "The God Delusion." As you all know, by definition a delusion can't be a cultural or subcultural belief, so by the basic definition of dleusion a religious belief can't be a delusion. However this rather circular argument begs the question, why shouldn't we class religious beliefs as delusional? They are after all held in the absence of evidence, can be unshakeable, and as there is a diversity of religious beliefs some at least must be false. Andrew Sims' paper perhaps is a good argument why we don't.
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Whether one is deluded or not is a judgement usually passed by others in position of power or authority about the deluded person. Andrew Sims is a christian and of course a man of faith (strong convictions without a shred of evidence). I'm afraid, he has to humbly accept that his interests are glaringly and grossly conflicted here. He cannot be a good judge in a case in which he is an interested party. It will be an exciting spectacle to have him in a televised interview about his faith with Prof Dawkins (author of 'God Delusion'). I am inclined to think that at the end of the encounter, it will be extremely difficult to differentiate him from some of our patients with persistent delusional disorders or more aptly folie a plusieurs. 'Sole judge of truth in endless error hurled...deduct what is but vanity or dress' Please teacher (Prof Sims) don't teach me nonsense!
Following Prof Sim's argument it means that once you have your unshakeable false beliefs validated by your people or subculture it ceases to be a delusion. The survivors of psychiatry movement/recovery movement reject his labelling of the 'unshakeable false beliefs' of their members as delusion, because in their peer support mantra, they find those so called 'false beliefs' understandable and meaningful. Their members are experts of those belief system by personal experience which Prof Sims is not. It is either that delusion as an invented entity does not exist or lets clearly state that the emperor is actually naked and faith is delusion for which subscribers to it lack insight.
"DSM IV states that a delusion 'is not an article of religious faith" - this quote particularly annoys me. It's as if the DSM diagnostic criteria are unshakeable and concrete. Has anyone questioned the possibility that one should remove the 'cultural and social background' reference in the definition of a delusion? If this reference is removed, to me, faith fits perfectly into the definition of a delusion. It is a belief based on no evidence, defying all logic and is unshakeable(in the vast majority) - does this not sound strikingly similar to say, a man who presents saying the IRA are hiding in his wardrobe?
Prof Sims argues that 'Religious beliefs are held with insight - it is understood that others may not share their beliefs' - i'm sorry Prof Sims, but this is just wrong. MANY religious people would have difficulty understanding how others dont have faith.
Religion is an induced delusional disorder, just like a modern day cult. The only reason it is not classified as a delusion is that it is now so widespread, that to exclude it frpm definiton would diagnose most of the world as delusional....and i dont think we have enough clozapine for all those people.
Hi Is faith delusion? Is religion bad for your health? How, in a scientifically and technologically advanced age, can people still believe in God/spirit/'other'? Clearly not all believers are primitive and ill-educated; an alternative explanation is that they must be mad, or at least severely neurotic (as suggested by Freud).
This book starts by looking at, and giving reasons for, the connection and the division between Christian faith and psychiatry. It asks whether science challenges Christians involved with psychiatry, as patients or professionals, and whether the spiritual needs of patients are recognised. The author examines the scope and use of the neuro-sciences and considers cause and effect, natural selection and determinism. He explores the overlap (and the difference) between psychiatric symptoms and religious belief, Online Canadian Pharmacy get all the medications u need. the possible association between demon possession and mental illness, and the idea that some people are intrinsically religious and some are not. The variations of personality are examined, with their implications for belief.
I think faith is not precisely a delusion. It is just an inner hope that everything is going to be better, and we are going to get our goals. I realize faith is true sice I buy viagra
In relative terms where truth is manufactured by a group, faith is not delusional. In absolute terms where truth must stand on its own, faith (at least in things such as gods, angels, and spirits) is unlikely to be true given the dearth of evidence and contradictory faith systems that abound. Faith that the world was flat was not delusional when people knew no better. Today, such faith would be considered delusional. Saying that god-based faith is delusional is tantamount to saying that the lack of god evidence and contradictory religions indicates we should know better. It is reasonable to state that among the educated, faith in god systems is delusional whereas among people deprived of critical thinking on this matter that such faith, while most likely false, is not delusional.
so by Sims logic, the Earth really was flat, as least for as long as most people truly believed it was...
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