Good afternoon!
The deep dive into psychology continues to get fascinating week after week. During my readings this week, I came across an interesting article. The title was “Psychiatry Needs to Get Right with God.” It was written by a psychology professor at Harvard Medical School named David H. Rosmarin.
In the article, he shared his thoughts and research on the relationship between spirituality and mental health. I’ll put the link to the article at the end of this email.
Today, we’ll look at my 3 main takeaways from the article.
“By not making more of an effort to incorporate spirituality in treatment, we are doing a disservice to patients.”
– David H. Rosmarin
#1: Sigmund Freud’s statement about religion being a “delusion” had a domino effect in the therapy world.
I’ve been learning that Sigmund Freud was a revolutionary in the psychology space. He invented the psychoanalysis technique, a practice that many therapists still use today. However, Freud’s opinion on religion had a powerful impact on future generations of psychologists. It makes me think about how men in power have such a strong influence on the world. They can shift entire industries, whether good or bad – and most times, the actual effect of someone’s words won’t be felt entirely until years later.
#2: Google searches for the word “prayer” reached an all-time high during the pandemic.
People need hope. It’s no surprise, but it was more accurate during the pandemic than ever. The article mentioned research that showed “prayer” being searched in Google more times than ever before. Still, it also mentioned how the rise in searches was directly proportional to the increase in positive COVID cases. It makes me think about the quote I used to hear as a kid. I’m paraphrasing, but it went something like this, “When you’ve done all you can do, try God.”
#3: A belief in God is associated with significantly better treatment outcomes for acute psychiatric patients.
This fact doesn’t surprise me at all. I’ve learned that the root of psychology means “study of the soul.” We all came from somewhere. No matter your spiritual beliefs, you are probably aware that there’s an energy living inside of every person. Some call it a soul, some call it a spirit, and some call it intuition. Whatever word you want to use, something is there. A belief in God provides hope for a lot of people. It’s not just my belief; it’s scientifically proven. In the article, the author mentioned, “the only group to see improvements in mental health during the past year were those who attended religious services at least weekly (virtually or in-person).”
Overall, I was really intrigued by the article. You can read it here: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/psychiatry-needs-to-get-right-with-god/
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