Jehovah’s Witnesses and psychiatric diagnoses?

by Marvin Shilmer 46 Replies latest jw friends

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  Marvin Shilmer

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  Jehovah’s Witnesses and psychiatric diagnoses?

  Today I added a new article to my blog sharing information from a 1983 study published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion addressing religious affiliation and psychiatric diagnoses. This article pulls information from an excellent academic study that is often misunderstood and therefore underutilized for its value.

  The title of my article is Jehovah’s Witnesses and psychiatric diagnoses? and is available at: http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com/2013/02/jehovahs-witnesses-and-psychiatric.html

  Marvin Shilmer

  http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com
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  Lady Lee

  very interesting. Tyhe group comprising sects which is where the JWs were included have double the incidence of psychoses than any of the other group. That is significant
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  wannaexit

  Thanks Marvin. Interesting study. But we don't need a study to figure out the there are many psychos among the the ranks of the jw's. Just saying
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  00DAD

  Marking!
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  slimboyfat

  Jerry Bergman?

  http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/jehovahs-witnesses-mental-health.html
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  bats in the belfry

  Marvin Shilmer >>> It's a study done 30 years ago.

  Research data on the "Radioactive Solar Pad" eventually was superseded, too.

  Is there more recent research out there?

  What is the diagnosos nowadays? Has it gotten any better or worse?
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  Qcmbr

  In some ways this is good. I saw a lot of mentally abnormal people get a lot of love and acceptance in my own former religion and I often wondered what would have become of them without the church. Many of these people were fully functioning but socially reclusive and church gave them hope , purpose and structure. This is one area where I think religion can excel and I would expect to see a higher incidence of mental issues in the same way I would expect to find more sick people in a hospital.
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  Terry

  JW doctrines are the result of an intellectually suspect device which consists of asking awkward questions and pretending something is questionable.

  The rational mind cannot function when there is absent a presence of reality as a Norm.

  JW thinking steals reality and substitutes "evidently" for evidence.

  Without being able to adequately function in the real world due to an induced blindness to reality, the Jehovah's Witness grows sadder and less able to exist in the real world at all.

  This drives them deeper into their world of cartoon "meanings".

  Constantly removing data from view does not strengthen their argument so much as it weakens their perception.

  I think of the scene in 2001 A Space Odyssey when the computer HAL is having his hard drive shut down a little at a time and the HAL voice resorts to singing a childish song "Daisy".

  JW's are like HAL as they remain longer and longer at their Kingdom Hall singing childish nothings with their minds detached.
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  Julia Orwell

  Yep I've been in and out of the psychiatrist's office for years. More on that later - when I've had a chance to read all your information and map it onto my own experience as a JW. Incidentally, since throwing off WT mental shackles I'm on half the meds I was before.
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  Perry

  This is one area where I think religion can excel and I would expect to see a higher incidence of mental issues in the same way I would expect to find more sick people in a hospital.

  Qcmbr,

  When you consider the MANY studies that prove the health benefits of praying, it makes the JW propensity for mental illness all the more perverse because it bucks the trend.