Book Review: Can Christianity Cure Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? A Psychiatrist Explores the Role of Faith in Treatment

Abstract

There are four main ideas in this book, the fruits of my search for evidence of a Christian cure for obsessions and compulsions. They speak to a complicated relationship between obsessive-compulsive disorder and Christianity, a reciprocal relationship of sorts. Christian teachings can, it appears, both trigger OCD and cure it. The disorder itself, on the other hand, through its effect on certain believers, has played a hidden role in the shaping of Christian doctrine. The most important idea is this: that three of the greatest luminaries in the history of the Christian religion--Martin Luther, John Bunyan, and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux--all appear to have suffered from severe cases of what is now called obsessive-compulsive disorder, and all found the same way to overcome it through centering their lives on a single magnificent Christian truth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved). (introduction)