Body: | Psychiatry calls Jesus a paranoid schizophrenic, Supraphrenic!
Sept. 2012: "Jesus' experiences can be potentially conceptualized within
the framework of Paranoid Schizophrenia or Psychosis NOS. Other reasonable
possibilities might include bipolar and schizoaffective disorders. ...
hyperreligiosity ... Suicide-by-proxy is described as "any incident in
which a suicidal individual causes his or her death to be carried out by
another person. ... a Supraphrenic" (The Role of Psychotic Disorders in
Religious History Considered, Evan D. Murray, M.D. Miles G. Cunningham,
M.D., Ph.D. Bruce H. Price, M.D., The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and
Clinical Neurosciences 2012; 24:410-426)
Psychiatry diagnoses Jesus, Abraham, Moses, Paul with schizophrenia!
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Psychiatry is a vicious enemy of Christianity and the Bible.
Psychiatry is Anti-Christian
Psychiatry is Atheistic
Psychiatry is Humanistic
Introduction:
Click to View See also: History of Psychiatry homepage
Psychiatry has a long history and roots as being atheistic,
anti-Christian and humanistic.
This hostility is increasing so that today, there is an open mockery
of Christianity.
Since Psychiatry rejects the spirit world, God and the Bible, it
openly teach that Jesus was a schizophrenia mental patient. Jesus claimed
to be God, come directly from heaven that the Devil was after him and
called himself the salvation of the world! They view this as delusional,
paranoia etc.
Not all psychiatrists were atheistic unbelievers. Benjamin Rush, a
founding father of the US constitution, and also known as the "Father of
modern psychiatry, was a fundamentalist Bible believer: "Dr. Burton
recommends, in the highest terms, the reading of the BIBLE to hypochondriac
patients. He compares it to an apothecary's shop, in which are contained
remedies for every disease of the body. I have frequently observed the
languor and depression of mind which occur in the evening of life, to be
much relieved by the variety of incidents, and the sublime and comfortable
passages, that are contained in that only true history of the origin,
nature, duties and future destiny of man. A captain Woodward, of Boston,
who lately suffered all the hardships of shipwreck on an inhospitable
island in the East Indies, found great comfort in revolving the history of
Joseph and his brethren in his mind. A captain Inglefield revived his
spirits, and those of his crew, in a similar situation, by telling them
pleasant stories." (Medical Inquiries and Observations Upon the Diseases of
the Mind, Benjamin Rush 1812 AD, p122)
However Rush viewed the Methodists, who were the forerunners of
modern Pentecostals, as a religion that caused people to go mad. This is
because they would claim God was talking to them and directing their lives,
when in fact, this has never been the case in modern history. "There are
certain tenets held by several protestant sects of Christians which
predispose the mind to derangement." (Medical Inquiries and Observations
Upon the Diseases of the Mind, Benjamin Rush 1812 AD, p122)
A. Today, Psychiatry diagnoses Jesus with schizophrenia:
"In short, the nature of the hallucinations of Jesus, as they are
described in the orthodox Gospels, permits us to conclude that the founder
of the Christian religion was afflicted with religious paranoia." (Charles
Binet-Sanglé, La Folie de Jésus, The Madness of Jesus, 1910, p 393)
"Everything that we know about him [Jesus] conforms so perfectly to
the clinical picture of paranoia that it is hardly conceivable that people
can even question the accuracy of the diagnosis."(American psychiatrist
William Hirsch, Conclusions of a Psychiatrist, 1912, p 99)
"Jesus Christ might simply have returned to his carpentry following
the use of modern [psychiatric] treatments." (William Sargant, "The
movement in psychiatry away from the philosophical," The Times (English),
22 August 1974, p 14)
"For example, as we will show, a materialist readily
believes-without any reliable evidence whatsoever-that great spiritual
leaders suffer from temporal-lobe epilepsy rather than that they have
spiritual experiences that inspire others as well as themselves." (The
Spiritual Brain, Mario Beauregard Ph.D., Neuroscientist, 2007, p xii)
B. Psychiatry diagnoses apostle Paul had temporal-lobe epilepsy (TLE)
"Mark Salzman, in his fictional book, "Lying Awake" about a
fictional nun named Sister St. John wants to show that all spiritual
experience is a kind of mental illness. Even apostle Paul suffered from
delusions because of temporal-lobe epilepsy (TLE). This is the basic view
of most psychologists today.
Mario Beauregard in his book, "The Spiritual Brain", p 57, says,
"Sister St. John had temporal-lobe epilepsy (TLE), caused by a tiny tumor
above her right ear. She was told that "temporal-lobe epilepsy sometimes
caused changes in behavior and thinking even when the patient was not
having seizures. These changes included hypergraphia (voluminous writing),
an intensification but also a narrowing of emotional response, and an
obsessive interest in religion and philosophy." (Mark Salzman, Lying Awake
2000 p. 120.) She was also informed that the apostle Paul and the foundress
of her own religious order, Teresa of Avila, were "likely candidates" for
temporal-lobe epilepsy. The tumor could easily be removed, at which point
the visions would cease. So were the visions never more than a disease?
Sister John saw that her whole life could be viewed, from a materialist
perspective, as a mere pathology, a sort of mental disease: The ideal of
continual prayer: hyperreligiosity. The choice to live as a celibate:
hyposexuality. Control of the will through control of the body, achieved
through regular fasting: anorexia. Keeping a detailed spiritual journal:
hypergraphia." (The Spiritual Brain, Mario Beauregard Ph.D.,
Neuroscientist, 2007, p57)
C. Satanic 2012 article from the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical
Neurosciences: 24:410-426
1. In the September 2012 issue (24:410-426) of The Journal of
Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, Evan D. Murray, M.D. Miles G.
Cunningham, M.D., Ph.D. Bruce H. Price, M.D., published an article called,
"The Role of Psychotic Disorders in Religious History Considered" which
diagnosed Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Paul with paranoid schizophrenia.
2. "The following is a retrospective diagnostic examination of
Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and St Paul. It is hoped that this investigation
will help translate the veneration, love, and devotion felt by many for
these religious figures into in-creased compassion and understanding for
persons with mental illness." (The Role of Psychotic Disorders in Religious
History Considered, Evan D. Murray, M.D. Miles G. Cunningham, M.D., Ph.D.
Bruce H. Price, M.D., The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical
Neurosciences 2012; 24:410-426)
a. This article is more insulting and offensive to Christians
than the famous "piss Christ" art exhibit ever was.
b. If Christians really were as psychotic as they diagnose them
all to be, it is strange they do not fear being murdered in a wild rage.
But the fact that Christians are self-controlled, balanced and forgiving is
why these rabid humanists can write such vicious anti-Christian articles
without fear of reprisals. Try writing such an article about Muhammad!
c. If these four authors want to know how psychotic the
followers of a historical religion can be, we suggest they run Muhammad
through their little diagnostic system and label him as a paranoid
schizophrenic and see how their life changes when they must hire armed
bodyguards to drive to the corner store.
d. The cowardice of these supra-anti-Christian haters in their
article intended to free the ignorant masses from following their insane
founding religious leaders is only exceeded by their jihadaphobia in
labeling four Bible leaders as schizophrenic but making not a single
reference to Muhammad.
3. This article misnamed because it is not about historic world
leaders like Buddha, Muhammad, and Christ etc. It should really be called:
"The Role of Psychotic Disorders of all Bible leaders and their followers,
but we were too chicken to diagnose Muhammad".
a. They label all Christians with a psychotic disorder and
describe them as a "paranoid pseudocommunity."
b. Wow, thanks. All us Christians who step in and selflessly risk
our lives to save you and your family from some natural disaster are glad
you think we are psychotic!
c. "THE MASS OF CHRISTIAN ADHERENTS: "A shared psychotic
disorder is another means by which the earliest followers may have received
their beliefs, with each of our subjects being a primary case. Although
occurring primarily in the form of a dyadic relationship, paranoid
delusions have been reported to occasionally occur in larger sect-like
groups whose members become infused with the paranoid ideation of a
dominant member. Norman Cameron termed this a "paranoid
pseudocommunity." This term is used to denote an imagined persecutorial
conspiracy directed at the group member."" (The Role of Psychotic Disorders
in Religious History Considered, Evan D. Murray, M.D. Miles G. Cunningham,
M.D., Ph.D. Bruce H. Price, M.D., The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and
Clinical Neurosciences 2012; 24:410-426)
4. Here is how they diagnosed Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Paul:
a. "ABRAHAM: He is described as having had interactive mystical
experiences of an auditory and visual nature (see Figure 1), that
influenced his behaviors throughout most of his life (see Table 1). This
phenomenology closely resembles that described in the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR). Applying the DSM-IV-TR
paradigm, Abraham's auditory and visual perceptual experiences and
behaviors could be understood as auditory hallucinations (AH), visual
hallucinations (VH), delusions with religious content, and paranoid-type
(schizophrenia subtype) thought content (see Table 1 for examples). ...
Abraham's clinical profile would appear to best resemble that of Paranoid
Schizophrenic or Psychotic Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified, and perhaps,
less likely, an affective disorder-related psychosis. Abraham stands as the
earliest case of a possible psychotic disorder in literature." (The Role of
Psychotic Disorders in Religious History Considered, Evan D. Murray, M.D.
Miles G. Cunningham, M.D., Ph.D. Bruce H. Price, M.D., The Journal of
Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 2012; 24:410-426)
b. "MOSES: Moses had perceptual experiences and behaviors that
find closest parallel today with the DSM-IV-TR-defined phenomena of
command Auditory Hallucinations, Visual Hallucinations, hyperreligiosity,
grandiosity, delusions, paranoia, referential thinking, and phobia (about
people viewing his face). (See Table 3 for examples.) Many of these
features may occur together in schizophrenia, affective disorders, and
schizoaffective disorder. Moses also did not appear to have any
disorganization, catatonia, or negative psychiatric symptoms, or
difficulties with concentration, attention, and memory (see Table 2).
Criterion A for schizophrenia could theoretically be fulfilled by his
experiences that resemble delusions and hallucinations. In fulfillment of
Criterion B, Moses' social and occupational functioning could be said to
have declined from that of a presumably educated member of the Egyptian
royal family to having fled Egyptian society to become a shepherd working
on the periphery of the desert in a foreign land (Exodus 2: 15-22). His
flight from Egypt occurred before the onset of Auditory Hallucinations and
Visual Hallucinations, thereby suggesting a prodromal decline in
functioning before the onset of psychosis. A prodrome refers to the early
symptoms and signs of an illness that precede the characteristic
manifestations of the acute, fully developed illness. A prodromal period
may precede the onset of schizophrenia by months to up to 10 years in 70%
of patients33 and up to 20 years in some cases. The period over which Moses
had these experiences was in excess of 40 years, fulfilling Criterion ...
It should be noted that the religious writings attributed to Moses'
authorship, the Pentateuch, could suggest the presence of an exaggerated
urge to write. Such hypergraphia is a nonspecific finding more commonly
associated with mania, hypomania, or mixed states; however, it is also a
feature of schizophrenia and temporal lobe epilepsy. ... Therefore, mood
disorder-associated psychoses remain quite viable in the case of Moses.
... The criteria for diagnosis of Paranoid Schizophrenia would be fulfilled
by the pre-dominance of delusions and hallucinations in the absence of
disorganization, negative psychiatric symptoms, or cognitive impairment. An
increased propensity for violence has been observed in some individuals
with Paranoid Schizophrenia Moses' increased propensity for violence
could be viewed as corroborative for a diagnosis of Paranoid Schizophrenia.
Reasonable diagnostic alternatives might include Psychotic Disorder, Not
Otherwise Specified, bipolar disorder, and schizoaffective disorder. If the
first five books of the bible are credited to Moses' authorship, then a
bipolar disorder or perhaps schizoaffective disorder would be more
compatible with his writing abilities." (The Role of Psychotic Disorders in
Religious History Considered, Evan D. Murray, M.D. Miles G. Cunningham,
M.D., Ph.D. Bruce H. Price, M.D., The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and
Clinical Neurosciences 2012; 24:410-426)
c. "JESUS: The New Testament (NT) recalls Jesus as having
experienced and shown behavior closely resembling the DSM-IV-TR-defined
phenomena of Auditory Hallucinations, Visual Hallucinations, delusions,
referential thinking (see Figure 3), paranoid-type (Paranoid Schizophrenic
subtype) thought content, and hyperreligiosity ... In terms of potential
causes of perceptual and behavioral changes, it might be asked whether
starvation and metabolic derangements were present. The hallucinatory-like
experiences that Jesus had in the desert while he fasted for 40 days (Luke
4:1-13) may have been induced by starvation and metabolic derangements.
... The absence of physical maladies or apparent epilepsy leaves primary
psychiatric etiologies as more plausible. As seen with the previous cases,
Jesus' experiences can be potentially conceptualized within the framework
of Paranoid Schizophrenia or Psychosis Not Otherwise Specified. Other
reasonable possibilities might include bipolar and schizoaffective
disorders. There is a 5%-10% lifetime risk of suicide in persons with
schizophrenia. Suicide is defined as a self-inflicted death with evidence
of an intention to end one's life. The New Testament recounts Jesus'
awareness that people intended to kill him and his taking steps to avoid
peril until the time at which he permitted his apprehension. In advance, he
explained to his followers the necessity of his death as prelude for his
return (Matthew 16:21-28; Mark 8:31; John 16:16-28). If this occurred
in the manner described, then Jesus appears to have deliberately placed
himself in circumstances wherein he anticipated his execution. Although
schizophrenia is associated with an increased risk of suicide, this would
not be a typical case. The more common mood-disorder accompaniments of
suicide, such as depression, hopelessness, and social isolation, were not
present, but other risk factors, such as age and male gender, were present.
Suicide-by-proxy is described as "any incident in which a suicidal
individual causes his or her death to be carried out by another person."
There is a potential parallel of Jesus' beliefs and behavior leading up
to his death to that of one who premeditates a form of suicide-by-proxy."
(The Role of Psychotic Disorders in Religious History Considered, Evan D.
Murray, M.D. Miles G. Cunningham, M.D., Ph.D. Bruce H. Price, M.D., The
Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 2012; 24:410-426)
d. "ST. PAUL: It has been speculated that his religious
experiences resulted from temporal lobe epilepsy. We would argue that it is
not necessary to invoke epilepsy as an explanation for these experiences.
St Paul's mood in his letters ranged from ecstatic to tears of sorrow,
suggesting marked mood swings. He endorsed an abundance of sublime auditory
and visual perceptual experiences (2 Corinthians 12:2-9) that resemble
grandiose hallucinations with delusional thought content. He manifested
increased religiosity and fears of evil spirits, which resembles paranoia.
These features may occur together, in association with primary and mood
disorder-associated psychotic conditions. In 2 Corinthians 12:7, St Paul
relates "a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger from Satan, to
harass me, to keep me from being too elated." This thorn has been
speculated to be a reference to epilepsy. Other theories have proposed that
the thorn was a physical infirmity, the opposition of his fellow Jews, or a
harassing demon. ... We propose that he perceived an apparition or voice
that he understood to be a harassing, demonic messenger from Satan. This
perception might have afflicted him with some amount of negative commentary
of the type characteristic for psychotic conditions, resulting in
psychological distress. ... Paul does, however, manifest a number of
personality characteristics similar to the interictal personality traits
described by Geshwind, such as deepened emotions; possibly circumstantial
thought; increased concern with philosophical, moral and religious issues;
increased writing, often on religious or philosophical themes; and,
possibly, hyposexuality (1 Corinthians 7:8-9). These characteristics are
controversial as to their specificity for epilepsy, with a preponderance of
larger studies not confirming a specific personality type associated with
seizure disorders. Similar features may also be present in bipolar disorder
and schizophrenia. As previously mentioned, productive writing tends to be
more strongly associated with mood disorders than psychosis or epilepsy.
This is persuasive toward Paul having a mood disorder, rather than
schizophrenia or epilepsy. ... His perceptual experiences, mood
variability, grandiose-like symptoms, increased concerns about religious
purity, and paranoia-like symptoms could be viewed as resembling psychotic
spectrum illness (see Table 1). Psychiatric diagnoses that might encompass
his constellation of experiences and manifestations could include paranoid
schizophrenia, psychosis NOS, mood disorder-associated psychosis, or
schizoaffective disorder. Paul's preserved ability to write and organize
his thoughts would favor a mood disorder-associated explanation for his
religious experiences." (The Role of Psychotic Disorders in Religious
History Considered, Evan D. Murray, M.D. Miles G. Cunningham, M.D., Ph.D.
Bruce H. Price, M.D., The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical
Neurosciences 2012; 24:410-426)
5. The article then summarizes all the leaders in the Bible as
possibly having a split personality and notes that Jesus and Paul were
actually thought to be insane! Well there you have it! What more proof
would a psychiatrist need? If Jesus' entire hometown and his family through
he was insane that settles it!
a. "COMMENTARY ABOUT DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS: These may manifest
by way of conversion disorder or a dissociative condition such as a
trance-like state or dissociative identity disorder (DID, ie split
personality like Sybil). ... The depictions of our subjects indicate that
they may have either found their own experiences not entirely believable to
themselves, understood that their experiences would be hard for others to
believe, or that they were perceived by their contemporaries as being mad.
... Mark 3: 21 confirms an occasion where Jesus' friends and family
viewed him as mad or "beside himself." It is intrinsic to his narrative
that the people of his hometown (Mark 6:1- 6) and the religious
authorities of the day also did not accept his message. St Paul's
contemporary Festus, the local Roman governor of Judea, in Acts 26:24
exclaimed that Paul appeared "mad" or not sane. These events are
closest in time to our subjects and might suggest psychotic type thought
processes. ... Those who deviate excessively from the societal norms do not
relate to the populace, are not understood, become socially isolated and
stigmatized, and may be identified as not sane." (The Role of Psychotic
Disorders in Religious History Considered, Evan D. Murray, M.D. Miles G.
Cunningham, M.D., Ph.D. Bruce H. Price, M.D., The Journal of
Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 2012; 24:410-426)
6. The "brat pack" of four "experts" then propose adding ANOTHER
mental disease classification to be considered to be included in the DSM-5,
called "Supraphrenic". Now they can have a unique diagnostic label and can
call Jesus Christ a Supraphrenic, in addition to his other mental disorders
caused by a chemical imbalance in his brain.
a. "FUTURE DIRECTIONS : Research into this postulated form of
psychiatric presentation might be facilitated by development of a new DSM
diagnostic subcategory of schizophrenia or psychosis and an improved
recognition that a continuum of psychotic symptomatology likely exists.
This subcategory might be referred to as a grandiose or supraphrenic (supra
[above or beyond] phrenic [mind]) variant. It would encompass those who are
symptomatic for 6 months or more, with an organized and relatively
nonbizarre delusional system, grandiosity, often delusional narcissism,
possible hallucinations, and an extremely intense feeling of being
supernaturally selected for a mission." (The Role of Psychotic Disorders in
Religious History Considered, Evan D. Murray, M.D. Miles G. Cunningham,
M.D., Ph.D. Bruce H. Price, M.D., The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and
Clinical Neurosciences 2012; 24:410-426)
7. The article concludes with a note that the general public
needs to learn that their adherence and practice of Christianity must stop
because Jesus had no real spiritual insight, but was a bi-polar,
self-deluded, paranoid schizophrenic who staged his own suicide. The
message is clear: the blood of a mad-man who committed suicide won't help
you.
a. "CONCLUSION: We suggest that some of civilization's most
significant religious figures may have had psychotic symptoms that
contributed inspiration for their revelations. It is hoped that this
analysis will engender scholarly dialogue about the rational limits of
human experience and serve to educate the general public, persons living
with mental illness, and healthcare providers about the possibility that
persons with primary and mood disorder-associated psychotic-spectrum
disorders have had a monumental influence on civilization." (The Role of
Psychotic Disorders in Religious History Considered, Evan D. Murray, M.D.
Miles G. Cunningham, M.D., Ph.D. Bruce H. Price, M.D., The Journal of
Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 2012; 24:410-426)
D. The Mad Doctors power thirst" Banish the preachers!
This is where it all began: The 1700's. The mess we currently find
ourselves in 2010 AD, started in the 1700's with the creation and
centralization of mad houses.
They were viewed as quacks by almost everyone and quacks they were,
but worked hard at gaining respect with an increasingly well organized
campaign.
In the 1800's mad doctors succeeded in gained trust with elected
officials, the courts and the general public who blindly viewed them as
"experts".
In the 1600's it is clear that preachers of churches (clergyman)
played a central role in treating and helping the mentally ill. This new
breed of generally atheistic mad doctors needed to replace the traditional
and God given role of preachers with themselves!
In order to carve out their own territory, one of the first things
they did was keep preachers of local churches out of every aspect of the
mentally ill and mad houses. Indeed, they made the outrageous claim that
preachers and Christians actually caused people to be mentally ill. In fact
they openly stated that anyone claiming to have divine guidance were
automatically mentally ill.
By the end of the 1700's preachers were formally barred from not
only having input in determining if a person is insane, they were actually
banned from even entering the mental hospitals!
This process continues today where insurance companies and lawyers
actually advise local churches and preachers NOT to even counsel anyone,
even if they are sane! This represents a complete take over of a territory
once owned by preachers and churches! It is driven by power, money and
atheism! Welcome to the world of modern psychiatry!
Read more details: History of Psychiatry homepage
"The rise of psychiatry as an organized profession, with which we
shall be concerned in the following chapters, is thus but a particular
instance of a much broader phenomenon, what Harold Perkin has termed "the
rise of professional society." During the nineteenth century,
knowledge-particularly but not exclusively scientific
knowledge-increasingly became a resource from which a variety of newly
consolidating and self-conscious groups sought to extract a living.
Mad-doctors, or as they increasingly preferred to call themselves,
alienists or medical psychologists, were merely one of a whole array of
groups seeking recognition and social status on this basis. Unlike their
entrepreneurial counterparts in the manufacturing sector, the new
professionals were in the business of selling something intangible: skill
and expertise rather than material goods." (The Transformation Of The
Mad-Doctoring Trade, Andrew Scull, 1994 AD, p 5)
"Like others engaged in this project of collective social mobility,
mad-doctors had to seek public approval and trust, and as they struggled to
establish control over a particular territory and to define and protect the
boundaries of their jurisdiction, they necessarily found themselves engaged
in a never-ending campaign of persuasion and propaganda. Trust is vital to
the professional because he or she needs to secure assent to claims to
possess, not just skills and knowledge that the laity lacks, but skills and
knowledge the professional argues the public is not even in a position to
assess with any degree of precision. Likewise, the laity must come to trust
that members of the profession will exercise their skills in a
disinterested fashion and in large degree must be persuaded to rely upon
the professionals' own valuation of their knowledge. Yet trust was a
particularly difficult commodity for mad-doctors to acquire, not least
because their involvement in the trade in lunacy prompted endemic suspicion
about their motives, and because their claims to possess expertise in the
identification and treatment of madness provoked persistent scepticism even
among those laymen most heavily involved in the campaign for lunacy reform.
The prominent role played by medical men in the whole series of scandals
about treatment in asylums and madhouses that erupted in the first half of
the nineteenth century only intensified the difficulty of the task they
confronted. Yet, in the face of these and other obstacles, a recognized
specialism did emerge over the course of the nineteenth century and secured
some signifificant respect. The mad-doctors known to the authorities grew
from two or three thousand in 1800 to almost one hundred thousand [100,000]
a century later, their guardians successfully constituted themselves as the
public arbiters of mental disorder, the experts in its diagnosis and
disposal. They created a professional organization to defend and advance
their interests and edited journals and wrote monographs to provide a forum
for transmitting (and giving visible evidence of) the body of expert
knowledge to which they laid claim. During Victoria's long reign, they
increasingly dominated public discourse about insanity, and in the process,
they elaborated and refined a set of career structures and opportunities
for themselves. Fragile as their public standing might be, marginal and
somewhat embarrassing as their medical brethren might find them,
psychiatrists nonetheless had secured some accoutrements of professional
status, if only as the custodians of a chronically incapacitated and
generally economically deprived clientele and as advisers on mental hygiene
to a broader population concerned to avoid such a dismal destiny." (The
Transformation Of The Mad-Doctoring Trade, Andrew Scull, 1994 AD, p 6)
E. Mad-doctors in 1750 AD to present viewed Christians as mentally ill:
William Battie actually accused the top religious leaders of his day
as highly prone to madness: "To the second [idleness, sloth, laziness],
perhaps more than to a spirit of lying, may be ascribed the temptations of
St. Anthony and the lazy Monks his followers, the ecstasies of sedentary
[slow paced life] and chlorotic [iron-deficiency anemia, primarily of young
women, characterized by a greenish-yellow discoloration of the skin. Also
called greensickness] Nuns, and their frequent conversations with Angelic
ministers of grace. Not to mention what now and then happens to the senior
Recluses in our Protestant Monasteries at Oxford and Cambridge. " (A
Treatise on Madness, William Battie, 1758 AD, p 59)
"For James [Monro], the profession of such [Christian] beliefs was
itself a clear sign of mental disturbance, and he promptly informed Robert
Wightman, the Edinburgh merchant who was responsible for Cruden's
confinement, "that the Prisoner was a Man of Sense and Learning, and of a
good Education, but that he was a great Enthusiast; and he believed that he
thought that God would send an Angel from Heaven, or would work some
Miracle for his Deliverance."" (Undertaker of the mind: John Monro,
Jonathan Andrews, Andrew Scull, 2001 AD, p 98
"Most contemporary philosophers of the mind dabble in (what they
view as) neuroscience and present themselves as biologically sophisticated,
scientific thinkers. To contrast them with moral philosophers, I call them
"neurophilosophers" and "biological philosophers." However, their
professional identification obscures their true agenda, which is social
betterment, as they see "betterment." For Dennett, it is destroying
religion and responsibility: He calls religions "infections" and asserts
that "Safety demands that religions be put in cages". [Daniel C. Dennett is
professor of philosophy at Tufts University]" (The Meaning of the Mind,
Thomas Szasz, 1996 AD, p 77)
Samuel Tuke, a Quaker preacher who ran an insane asylum, rejected
the idea that Methodism was a cause of insanity and demanded proof of those
who made this false charge by quoting a surgeon at Bedlam: "The surgeon to
Bethlem Hospital says: " As for the opinion which some entertain, of the
prevalent effect of Methodism, in producing insanity, proof, in place of
bold and bare assertion, is required to settle this point." We may,
however, conclude, from the statements of the apothecary, that religious
impressions have been the apparent cause of disorder in a great number of
the patients admitted into Bethlem Hospital; which certainly has not been
the case at the Retreat." (Description Of The Retreat For Insane, Samuel
Tuke, 1813 AD)
Tuke believed religion was a cure: "To encourage the influence of
religious principles over the mind of the insane, is considered of great
consequence, as a means of cure. For this purpose, as well as for others
still more important, it is certainly right to promote in the patient, an
attention to his accustomed modes of paying homage to his Maker."
(Description Of The Retreat For Insane, Samuel Tuke, 1813 AD)
"Though men are not dogs, they should humbly try to remember how
much they resemble dogs in their brain functions, and not boast themselves
as demigods. They are gifted with religious and social apprehensions, and
they are gifted with the power of reason; but all these faculties are
physiologically entailed to the brain. Therefore the brain should not be
abused by having forced upon it any religious or political mystique that
stunts the reason, or any form of crude rationalism that stunts the
religious sense." (Battle for the Mind; A physiology of conversion and
brain-washing, William Sargant, 1997 AD, p 274)
See more: History of psychiatry
Men like Alexander Cruden (falsely imprisoned in Bedlem, Cruden's
concordance), George Whitefield, John Wesley and Christians in general were
viewed as being mentally ill.
Religious leaders were bared from entering mental hospitals in the
1750's because they would make the patients even more insane, than they
already were. This of course was false.
"His journal entry for 17 September 1740 pictures a psychiatric
consultation by the leading 'mad-doctor' of the day, James Monro, physician
to Bethlem Hospital. ... At this time the religious fervour induced by some
prominent non-conformist preachers as the Reverend George Whitefield was
widely believed to cause mental derangement and the exhibition or religious
ardour - 'proof of . . . a right Mind' to the faithful - became a sign
of 'madness' to doctors" (300 years of Psychiatry, Richard Hunter, 1963,
p420) (Primitive Physic: or An Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most
Diseases, John Wesley, 1747 AD)
"Through its [Christianity] emphasis on sin and the spirit world, on
hellfire and damnation, it was said [in the 18th century] to be actually
driving its adherents into madness." (Undertaker of the mind: John Monro,
Jonathan Andrews, Andrew Scull, 2001 AD, p 80)
"In all probability, John Monro shared the traditional hostility of
Bridewell and Bethlem's largely Anglican board of governors to sectarian
religions, the Methodists in particular. It must be said, however, that
most of the available evidence on this point appears to derive from the
period of James's physicianship rather than John's. For example, attempting
to visit Joseph Periam and other Methodist patients in Bethlem during the
second quarter of the century, George Whitefield (1714-70) and John Wesley
(1703-91) both complained that they were refused entry. According to
Wesley, recalling an interrupted visit of a year or so before John's
election as joint physician, it had been decreed that "none of these
preachers were to come there" (although there is no trace of such an order
in Bethlem's records). Wesley was repeatedly to censure Bethlem's medical
regime in print-for this and other reasons-and here he laid on the
sardonic irony with a trowel, alleging that the prohibition on allowing him
in was "for fear of making them [the patients] mad."" (Undertaker of the
mind: John Monro, Jonathan Andrews, Andrew Scull, 2001 AD, p 32)
"Methodism was pilloried by its critics throughout this period for
its alleged encouragement of "unseemly" forms of worship, spiritual
transports, and morbidly pious, agonizing behavior that was often dismissed
as "methodical madness," tending toward the incitement of civil and mental
unrest."' While Wesley and Whitefield loudly proclaimed that Periam was
sane, and had merely been suffering from a spiritual crisis, they
castigated James Monro and his colleagues for giving him purges and vomits
when what he needed was counsel and guidance." (Undertaker of the mind:
John Monro, Jonathan Andrews, Andrew Scull, 2001 AD, p 81)
"Two years later (1774), the Act for Regulating Madhouses (14 George
III c. 49) was finally passed. Perhaps, as Porter has suggested, the
prolonged delay in enacting legislation should be seen as a function of the
opposition of the College of Physicians, some of whose members "had a large
financial stake in metropolitan madhouses." 59 If so, it is somewhat ironic
that parliament handed over the power to license and inspect madhouses in
the metropolis to the College. (In the provinces, similar authority was
granted to local magistrates.) There were other signs, too, that medical
men had successfully lobbied behind the scenes to protect their interests:
the 1772 appeal notwithstanding, commitment under the new act required only
a single medical certificate, and local clergymen were firmly excluded from
any officially sanctioned role in the process." (Undertaker of the mind:
John Monro, Jonathan Andrews, Andrew Scull, 2001 AD, p 159)
"Iliadic man did not have subjectivity as we do; he had no awareness
of his awareness of the world, no internal mind-space to introspect upon.
... Volition, planning, initiative is organized with no consciousness
whatever and then "told" to the individual in his familiar language,
sometimes with the visual aura of a familiar friend or authority figure or
"god," or sometimes as a voice alone. The individual obeyed these
hallucinated voices because he could not "see" what to do by himself. . . .
we could say that before the second millennium B.C., everyone was
schizophrenic." (The Origin of Consciousness, Julian Jaynes, front and back
dust covers)
John Hill, typical of the anti-Christian attitudes of John Monro and
the institutional psychiatry of the day at Bedlam, takes a pot shot at the
clergy: "Among particular persons the most inquiring and contemplative are
those who suffer oftenest by this disease; and of all degrees of men I
think the clergy. I do not mean the hunting, shooting, drinking clergy, who
bear the tables of the great; but the retired and conscientious; such as
attend in midnight silence to their duty". The general view of the day was
that preachers were lazy and sedentary, and that few were physically
active. (Hypochondriasis: A Practical Treatise, John Hill, 1766 AD)
F. Freud, the father of psychiatry, was an atheist:
If the root is rotten, so it the entire tree!
"Sigmund Freud argued that child-hood memories of a father figure
led religious people to believe in God. Freud's explanation failed because
Christianity is the only major religion that emphasizes the fatherhood of
God." (The Spiritual Brain, Mario Beauregard Ph.D., Neuroscientist, 2007, p
xiii)
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Atheist Sigmund Freud.
G. DSM-IV-TR Guidebook mocks Christianity under the guise of "Descartes":
The DSM-IV-TR Guidebook is the "Bible" of psychiatry today that is
used in clinical practice in North America. It describes the Christian view
that man is a non-material spirit inside a physical temporary body:
"foolish, misleading and obsolete".
The DSM hides behind "Descartes" which is actually a direct attack
against Christianity. The dichotomous view of man with body and spirit that
Descartes taught, was exactly what is taught in the Christian Bible. It
doesn't raise as many red flags attacking Descartes, rather than Jesus
Christ!
"At least since Descartes there has been an unfortunate
philosophical position that dichotomizes the mind and the body. The effects
of Cartesian dualism of mind and body continue to plague psychiatric
classification and are evident in the survival of other misleading
derivative dichotomies (e.g., terms such as organic versus non-organic and
mental disorders versus physical disorders). Fortunately, Descartes'
dialectic is yielding to a modern synthesis forged by the converging trends
of philosophy (Ryle's exorcism of the "ghost in the machine") and science
(the emerging understanding of the specific ways in which the brain works
to produce behaviors). The use of the term mental disorder in the title of
DSM-IV-TR (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is an
anachronistic preservation of the Cartesian view. This term appears
increasingly silly as we learn more and more about the physical correlates
of thought, emotion, and psychopathology. The term most frequently
suggested as an alternative to replace mental disorders has been brain
disorders, but this is equally unfortunate and reductionist in the opposite
extreme. Preferable terms for the universe of conditions defined in DSM-IV
would be psychiatric disorders or psychological disorders, but neither of
these is feasible because of the possible professional turf conflicts they
might incite among psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health
professionals. Unfortunately, we could not come up with a better term than
mental disorders and thus it survives in DSM-IV-TR." (DSM-IV-TR Guidebook,
2004 AD, p 14)
"The Retirement of the Term Organic: The accumulating knowledge
about the biological factors that contribute to the traditionally
nonorganic mental disorders has made this "organic" versus "nonorganic"
dichotomy foolish and obsolete. For example, no one would seriously argue
that Schizophrenia or Bipolar Disorder are unrelated to brain dysfunction."
(DSM-IV-TR Guidebook, 2004 AD, p 85)
H. Curing Christians of their mental illness:
Evolutionist psychiatrists may one day take steps to treat
Christians of their delusion that Jesus is the God who created the world in
6 literal 24 hour days.
Schizophrenia is diagnosed on the basis of delusion. Psychiatrists
are atheists who do not believe in God and view those who do as delusional.
To them, Christians are as delusional as someone who believes in unicorns.
C.S. Lewis foresaw the future "treatment" of Christians to cure them
of their faith delusions: "The practical problem of Christian politics is
not that of drawing up schemes for a Christian society, but that of living
as innocently as we can with unbelieving fellow-subjects under unbelieving
rulers who will never be perfectly wise and good and who will sometimes be
very wicked and very foolish. And when they are wicked the Humanitarian
theory of punishment will put in their hands a finer instrument of tyranny
than wickedness ever had before. For if crime and disease are to be
regarded as the same thing, it follows that any state of mind which our
masters choose to call 'disease' can be treated as a crime; and
compulsorily cured. It will be vain to plead that states of mind which
displease government need not always involve moral turpitude and do not
therefore always deserve forfeiture of liberty. For our masters will not be
using the concepts of Desert and Punishment but those of disease and cure.
We know that one school of psychology already regards religion as a
neurosis. When this particular neurosis becomes inconvenient to government,
what is to hinder government from proceeding to 'cure' it? Such 'cure'
will, of course, be compulsory; but under the Humanitarian theory it will
not be called by the shocking name of Persecution. No one will blame us for
being Christians, no one will hate us, no one will revile us. The new Nero
will approach us with the silky manners of a doctor, and though all will be
in fact as compulsory as the tunica molesta or Smithfield or Tyburn, all
will go on within the unemotional therapeutic sphere where words like
'right' and 'wrong' or 'freedom' and 'slavery' are never heard. And thus
when the command is given, every prominent Christian in the land may vanish
overnight into Institutions for the Treatment of the Ideologically Unsound,
and it will rest with the expert gaolers to say when (if ever) they are to
re-emerge. But it will not be persecution. Even if the treatment is
painful, even if it is life-long, even if it is fatal, that will be only a
regrettable accident; the intention was purely therapeutic. In ordinary
medicine there were painful operations and fatal operations; so in this.
But because they are 'treatment', not punishment, they can be criticized
only by fellow-experts and on technical grounds, never by men as men and on
grounds of justice." (The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment, C.S. Lewis,
1953 AD)
I. Biopsychiatric view of God, Christians and faith:
"It may seem sacrilegious and presumptuous to reduce God to a few
ornery synapses, but modern neuroscience isn't shy about defining our most
sacred notions-love, joy, altruism, pity-as nothing more than static from
our impressively large cerebrums. Persinger goes one step further. His work
practically constitutes a Grand Unified Theory of the Otherworldly: He
believes cerebral fritzing is responsible for almost anything one might
describe as paranormal-aliens, heavenly apparitions, past-life sensations,
near-death experiences, awareness of the soul, you name it." (Jack Hitt,
"This Is Your Brain on God," Wired, November 1999)
2. "The reasons for religion's tenacity have become much easier
to identify over the past five years, thanks to advances in several modern
fields of study, including a new branch of science known as neurotheology.
It seems that our brain structure predisposes us to spiritual belief."
(Patchen Barss, Me of Little Faith," Saturday Night, October 2005)
3. "I don't think there's anything unique about human
intelligence. All the neurons in the brain that make up perceptions and
emotions operate in a binary fashion." (Bill Gates, Microsoft CEO)
4. "The human mind is a computer made out of meat." (Marvin
Minsky, Artificial intelligence promoter)
5. "I think we follow the basic law of nature, which is that
we're a bunch of chemical reactions running around in a bag." (Dean Hamer,
chief of gene structure at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, "Is God in
Our Genes?" Time, October 25, 2004)
6. The idea of the God Spot "refers to the fact that humans
inherit a predisposition to be spiritual-to reach out and look for a higher
being." (Laura SheAuditory Hallucinationsen, The Brain Chemistry of the
Buddha, an interview with Dean Hamer about the God gene, Beliefnet, 2007)
7. "Even though it's common knowledge these days, it never ceases
to amaze me that all the richness of our mental life-our religious
sentiments and even what each of us regards as his own intimate private
self-is simply the activity of these little specks of jelly in your head,
in your brain. There is nothing else. (V. S. Ramachandran, Neuroscientist,
Reith Lectures, Lecture 1, 2003)
8. Our comment: Artificial intelligence machines and computers in
general, appear to have intelligence because man programmed it to look that
way. The Artificial intelligence computers that TV commentators predict
will be in every house by 2030 AD, and what Hollywood movies visualize
today, have failed to note that artificial intelligence cannot be achieved
with even an infinite number of calculations per second. The computers of
the future will have enormous processing power, but still be unable to feel
the pride of beating a human at chess or pity for humans when they never
win again.
Conclusion:
It is insulting and offensive that psychiatry diagnoses Jesus with
schizophrenia and the apostle Paul had temporal-lobe epilepsy (TLE).
They view Christians in similar negative ways.
Christians need to be aware of their intense hatred of Christianity
whenever they come into contact with any mental health related personnel.
Freud was an atheist, and this anti-Christian attack continues
today.
It is time for Christians, preachers and church to rise up and take
back their historic God-given role as those best suited to counsel,
diagnose and treat the mentally ill!
By Steve Rudd: Contact the author for comments, input or corrections.
Send us your story about your experience with modern Psychiatry
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