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Religious Fundamentalism and Mental Illness: A Group Analytic Exploration

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, St Thomas' Hospital, London, info{at}ruach-therapy.net

This article applies group analytic thinking to the relationship between religious fundamentalism and mental illness. Religion is explored as a means of social cohesion, and religious fundamentalism as a regressive response to globalization. Extrinsic and intrinsic religious attitudes are compared, with evidence of mental health within the latter. Clinical examples are offered to explore the potential heightening of mental distress for those presenting with culturally liminal attitudes within fundamentalist communities. Within contemporary society, it is proposed that the inclusion of psychoanalytic thinking within religious practice and the secular acceptance of the religious function could enable the emergence of a self-reflexive, and therefore more humane, spirituality.

Key Words: religious fundamentalism • mental illness • globalization • social cohesion • boundary pressures • religious function

Group Analysis, Vol. 42, No. 1, 47-61 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0533316408100932


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