Reviews
Reviews
Peter J. Verhagen
Psychiatry and Religion
Controversies and Consensus: A Matter of Attitude
Review
For decades Peter Verhagen, psychiatrist, group psychotherapist, theologian, and co-founder of the World Psychiatric Association Section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry, has dedicated himself to investigate the role of religion and spirituality in psychiatry. In this book he presents his writings as an instrument for reaching consensus in the ongoing controversies about this subject. Given the history of psychiatry it is understandable that in the past dominant psychiatric schools distanced themselves from beliefs in divine or demonic beings as the cause of mental well-being or illness. In this time and age, however, there is much and convincing empirical evidence that religion and spirituality are relevant factors in mental health problems and should not be excluded in clinical practice. Nevertheless there is still an ongoing controversy between clinical and scientific psychiatry about the inclusion of exclusion of the religion/spirituality of clients in psychiatry and mental health care. The purpose of this in-depth book is not to add more arguments pro or contra inclusion, but to explore – and help others explore – the possibilities for reaching consensus. By analysing the backgrounds from which the various elements in the discussions are constructed, Verhagen develops an extremely important model for discussions that hopefully leads to consensus – and certainly to insight into how many of these differences in fact complement each other.
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