Crisis in Psychiatry and Religion (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Crisis in Psychiatry and Religion One day, while this book was still in preparation, I was chatting with a student who, amiably but not very discerningly, asked if it would be the first to appear in the psychiatry-religion area. In reply I pointed to two piles of books, each nearly two feet high, on a nearby table and suggested that he run his eye down over the titles. Here, I told him, was only a part of my personal collection of such books and added that there are many more which I do not possess. The more pertinent question, therefore, is why should I, why should anyone, write yet another book in the area? The answer, to which the prospective reader is immediately entitled, is that this book is different - in a way which, at least crudely, can be quickly stated. The typical psychiatry-religion book, subtly or boldly, promises peace of mind to the reader on the premise that psychiatry is wonderful, religion is wonderful, put them together and you get something better still! More accurately, the situation might be likened to that of two aging lovers who have married, each with the illusion that the other has "resources" which have been implied but, thus far, not concretely exhibited. The thesis of this collection of articles and lectures is that the honeymoon's now coming to an end and that crisis, not connubial bliss, is the term we need to describe the resulting situation. This book contains, therefore, no "prescription for anxiety," according to the familiar formula. Here we shall proceed on the assumption that our problems in this area are not purely "personal" but have instead broadly social, historical, scientific, and professional dimensions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.