St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology (May 2023)
Theology and Psychiatry
Abstract
Theology and psychiatry have a common concern with the human mind or soul, but very different histories of how they have understood and investigated their respective interests. Christian theology, which we might refer to here as the ‘science of God’, has developed over a period of two thousand years or more and draws on resources found in scripture, tradition, and philosophy. Psychiatry, both as a science and body of clinical practice, is little more than two hundred years old and is concerned with the aetiology, phenomenology, and treatment of mental disorders. It draws on the medical and social sciences as its primary resources, although it has also been influenced by philosophy. Whilst mental illness has been recognized in some form or another since ancient times, the last two centuries have seen increasing medicalization of conditions that would previously have been described in primarily theological terms. Thus, for example, ‘chronic inebriety’ has come to be seen primarily as addiction or alcohol misuse. Antagonisms between theology and psychiatry, as representing different worldviews and ways of thinking about the human condition, date back at least to the late nineteenth century and were particularly heightened as a result of the negative views of both Freud and behavioural psychology towards religion. Serious interdisciplinary engagement between theology and psychiatry has thus been limited until recently. Whilst this engagement might be seen as a part of the broader field of science and theology, it has received much less attention than issues such as cosmology, quantum physics, or evolution. In contrast, the place of spirituality within clinical care has been hotly debated, driven particularly by the concerns of patients who have found that their spiritual and religious concerns have been treated in a prejudicial fashion as a part of their illness, rather than as a resource to aid in their recovery.
