The relationship between psychiatry and religion in the works of Russian psychiatrists

Abstract

This review analyzes the works of Russian psychiatrists on the relationship between religion and clinical psychiatry. Beginning from the first half of the 19th century a lot of Russian psychiatrists in their writings dealt with the issues of religiosity and mental health as well as with psychopathology and clinical studies of mental states with a religious delusion. They studied psychopathological features of the phenomenon of ≪hysterics≫, the syndromes of religious metaphysical intoxication and demon possession. One of the founders of social psychiatry D.E. Melekhov considered religious faith as the most important personal resource for rehabilitation activities. Differentiation of non-pathological religious experience from mental illnesses with a religious plot remains understudied in the literature. The analysis of the literature on the relationship between religion and psychiatry makes clear that psychiatrist’s aсcurate understanding about the peculiarities of the religious life of patients is necessary for a successful therapeutic alliance.