Religion, Culture and Mental Health

Analyses the religious and cultural influences on common psychiatric disorders.

Kate Loewenthal (Author)

9780521107778, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 January 2009

180 pages, 3 b/w illus. 3 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1 cm, 0.27 kg

'… includes many case examples … Each chapter concludes with a review of the findings, providing a succinct overview of the research position … Religion, Culture and Mental Health definitely challenges some of the assumptions that people may have around the possible adverse impact of religious belief and practice on mental health.' Inclusion News

Are religious practices involving seeing visions and speaking in tongues beneficial or detrimental to mental health? Do some cultures express distress in bodily form because they lack the linguistic categories to express distress psychologically? Do some religions encourage clinical levels of obsessional behaviour? And are religious people happier than others? By merging the growing information on religion and mental health with that on culture and mental health, Kate Loewenthal enables fresh perspectives on these questions. This book deals with different psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, manic disorders, depression, anxiety, somatisation and dissociation as well as positive states of mind, and analyses the religious and cultural influences on each.

1. Introduction
2. Schizophrenia
3. Manic disorder
4. Depression
5. Anxiety
6. Somatization
7. Dissociation
8. Positive states
9. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Clinical psychology [MMJ], Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Psychology [JM], Religion: general [HRA]