Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

Description: This chapter of the volume Psychiatry and Religion: The Convergence of Mind and Spirit presents a cross-cultural examination on the contemporary relation between psychiatry and the religious traditions of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. The author looks at the history of how these religious traditions have sought to treat the mentally ill and more generally how religious beliefs affect the treatment of mental health by the cultural and ethical values they promote. Religions still tend to look for supernatural rather than natural causes for mental illnesses with the effect that individuals with a mental illness are treated, in certain contexts, using inhumane practices. (Zach Rowinski 2005-01-10)