Psychological Reports, 1990, 67, 955-959.
O Psychological Reports 1990
RELIGIO-EGOCENTRICITY I N REACTIVE SCHIZOPHRENIA' MARVIN GOLDWERT
New York Institute o/ Technology Summary.-Contending that a religious impulse exists in the unconscious, chis paper emphasizes the role of the ego in shaping that impulse in Reactive Schizophrenia. After describing religiosity in the adolescent neurotic and schizoidal personalities, the core of the paper shows how the "fractured ego" in Reactive Schizophrenia can range far and wide in building religious systems which, though bizarre, are often impressive in their complexity. The paper concludes with a comparison between religiosity in the religious thinker and in the Reactive Schizophrenic.
As late as 1980, Bernard J. Gallagher I11 could still write (1980, p. 209), "At the present time the relationship between mental illness and religious experience has not been fully delineated although there is a growing opinion that the interrelationships between the two should be studied." This despite the general recognition that an heightened religiosity typifies many of the psychoses. In my opinion, this vacuum in psychology is largely attributable to one failure, that of acceptance of the fact that, as Jung would have it, a religious impulse is natural to human beings (Storr, 1983, p. 238) and the contention of Victor Frank1 that a "religious sense" is deeply ingrained in the "unconscious depths" of the human psyche. This religious impulse may, under certain conditions, break through in psychosis (Fuller, 1986, p. 248). It is my contention that, whether or not the religious impulse breaks through in neurosis and especially psychosis, depends on the status of the patient's ego, the !guardian of the gates to the unconscious. This is why religio-egocentricity is often found in the reactive schizophrenic, with his wide-ranging "fractured ego," rather than in the process schizophrenic whose regression features a crushed ego which has lost its synthesizing power. It is the purpose of this paper to show how religio-egocentricity may begin as a defense in neurosis, develop as a strategem in the schizoid personality, and may become a full-blown system in reactive schizophrenia. As Wolberg has pointed out (1966, p. 164), ". . . religion, with its Divinities, ceremonies, dogma and taboos offers the neurotic individual rich resources for the projection of strivings, demands and defenses that keep him in psychological homeostatis." For example, it offers some neurotics a sense of identity, of identification with saints, and, in Wolberg's words, the "comforts of group belongingness."
'Address correspondence to Professor Marvin Goldwert, School of Humanities, New York Institute of Technology, 1855 Broadway, New York, NY 10023.
956
M. GOLDWERT
According to Frank, it is the adolescent who is most prone to religious conversions (Frank, 1973). I n the turbulence of both their lives and world, adolescents are often drawn to the comforts that religion sometimes affords, "a world at peace, family security, and freedom . . ." (Rokeach, 1973, p. 82). Often, adolescents, in quest of security and certainty, are attracted to the religious world-view, for "religion . . . seeks not a detailed causal explanation of this or that aspect of life, but a reasonable account of the entire sum of things" (Mumford, 1951, p. 59). For the schizoid adolescent, Arieti contends, "this escape into the church is a protection that may delay the psychosis" (Arieti, 1974, p. 111). From a practical point of view, the schizoid adolescent's religious fervor may push him in two directions. H e may retain the religion of his parents, but may become much more involved with it than they were; or he may change his religion. By converting to a new religion, he fulfills several goals: (1) he rebels against his parents, (2) he attempts to find in the new religion a solution to h s pressing psychological problems, which he believes cannot be solved if conditions remain the same, and (3) he tries desperately to make some satisfactory interpersonal relationships, though they have to be in a very unusual vehicle (convent, missionary activity, mystical social circle, and so forth). I n most cases, the change in religion takes the form of the more mystical variety (Arieti, 1974, p. 111). But Arieti is quick to declare that often the schizoid-religious does not develop schizophrenia. Then what is there in human behavior that is sometimes marked by the evolution of religio-neurosis into schizoid religiosity and, finally, into religio-egocentric reactive schizophrenia? The answer, once again, is: the status of the ego in relation to the unconscious. I n religio-neurosis, the ego is shorn up by the religious impulse; in schizoidal religiosity, the ego is a fortress in the adolescent's quest for certainty; and in early adulthood, the ego, severely fractured by pertinent stress, weaves the religious impulse into an alternative world-view. His fractured ego, unable to screen out or select appropriate psychic sensation, the reactive schizophrenic uses the distorted synthesizing functions to place himself at the center of the universe, and often he comes to believe that he is a specially-ordained pillar of God's concern-this is what Theodore Lidz calls "centrality" (Lidz, 1973) and what Norman Cameron refers to as "over-inclusion" (Cameron, 1963, p. 613). Finally, the foregoing is the underlying dynamic which often drives the reactive schzophrenic toward, what I call, religio-egocentricity. Various other psychic trends undergird the previous pattern. Life has often dealt the reactive schizophrenic's fragile ego real or-imagined blows, and hospitalization is yet another blow-this is why he often enters the hospital with a feeling of terror. "Since one aspect of his terror is the fear of being destroyed, the schizophrenic's condition is a refuge. H e can hardly be -
RELIGIO-EGOCENTRICITY IN REACTIVE SCHIZOPHRENIA
95 7
destroyed if he is not 'here'; that is, not existing in present time and space. H e can not be punished if he is not himself, that is, if he is really Napoleon or Jesus Christ or some god in disguise. O n the other hand, if his terror stems from his fear that he will destroy someone else, then a paranoid mechanism removes his fear. H e has no reason to reproach himself, since by means of the paranoid delusion he is convinced that others are scheming to destroy him" (Lowen, 1967, p. 58). Indeed, if the reactive schizophrenic's religio-egocentricity is tinged by paranoia, he may envision himself as Christ being institutionally crucified. Religio-egocentricity may also be an outlet for homosexual conflict. As A. H. Maslow has written (Maslow, 1976, pp. 330-331), "We may hypothesize that man's bisexual or ambitendent urges to be masculine and feminine simultaneously (or, what amounts to the same thing, to master and to submit) are generally dangerous to him because he interprets femininity as submission, and submission as feminine, feels himself thereby castrated, lower in self-esteem, emasculated. H e generally has few outlets for, or legitimate expression of his feminine-submitting, or oblative impulses. But, it seems to be somewhat more possible for him to satisfy these tendencies without threat to his picture of himself as masculine if he can surrender to a God, to some omnipotent, omniscient figure, whose rivalry is out of the question. Kneeling before a God is less an unmanly act than kneeling before a rival or competitor or peer. I t is 'suitable' in the Gestalt psychological sense, appropriate, "fitting and proper-called for; it is not a defeat." O n a par with terror and sexual confusion, is the reactive schizophrenic's drive for superiority and power which may impel him toward religioegocentricity. As Maslow and Mittleman, echoing Adler, have written (Maslow & Mittleman, 1951), "This drive may also aim at relieving threats from the environment as well as catastrophic devaluation. The most extreme pathological result of this trend is a 'delusion of grandeur.' T h s type of patient considers himself a remarkable and exceptional person, he thinks that he can d o amazing things, or that he has achievements to his credit which are entirely out of keeping with his real status. H e may be convinced that he is one of the prophets or one of the apostles, Napoleon or Jesus Christ, or the Virgin Mary, or Joan of Arc" (p. 86). His distorted thinking notwithstanding, the bright reactive schizophrenic, armed with his broadly synthesizing fractured ego, can produce impressive theological constructs. Therefore, at this juncture one question must be confronted: what distinguishes the bright reactive schizophrenic from the religious prophet? This is a touchy question, but I shall attempt a few basic distinctions. First is the historical appropriateness of the reactive schizophrenic's religious vision. In this respect, Fabry has written (1968, p. 169), "A medieval
958
M. GOLDWERT
man, believing that the earth was flat and that he would literally burn eternally for his sins, was mentally healthy. He no longer would be considered healthy today. We define as sane a person whose ideas of reality are not too far out of step with current knowledge." Second, does the schizophrenic's theology isolate him further or does it strike a chord in other people? Whereas the religious prophet stirs something basic in his fellow human beings, the religious system of the psychotic confines him even more to his own private world. In this regard, Karl Menninger put it this way (1966, p. 186), "Whatever we think about certain religions, the fact that they are socially accepted even by a small group put them beyond our consideration as a form of psychosis, by definition, since a part of reality, is social reality, social customs, social attitudes." Third, ego functioning, even to some degree of effectiveness; is the ego of the religious thinker (be he psychotic or prophet) capable of coping with at least a part of life's necessities. As Endleman has written (1981, p. 281), ". . . even in the groups of a fanatic religious cult, the people of a society may still have a hold on those ego functions of reality-testing and reality-orientation that enable them to survive, subsist, manage everyday affairs in the world." Therefore, in most instances the religious prophet functions in the world, the reactive schizophrenic cannot ordinarily manage his everyday affairs. These distinctions must not be concretized into hard-and-fast guidelines. Long ago, the philosopher William James (1902, p. 25) pointed out that it is the mentally infirm, the "psychopathic temperament" as he misleadingly labelled them, who are the proper candidates for religious perception. Furthermore, Ben-Ami Scharfstein has recently declared (1980, p. 379), "Psychotics can resemble philosophers in exhibiting endless curiosity and endless desire to solve abstract problems. They can also resemble philosophers in their ability to fuse disparate lunds of knowledge and create consistent worlds of thought, and they can even, as we have seen, pay the scientist's and philosopher's tribute to the autonomy of the truth and of those who seek it. Sometimes, as I have suggested, they can even be philosophers; at least the line between them and philosophers can be very thin." The climax of religio-egocentricity in the reactive schizophrenic is the messianic claim. As Arieti has written (1974, p. 36), ". . . whereas religion as a whole has less influence in the lives of people today than in previous eras, I have seen recently an increase in delusions with religious content. The delusion of being Jesus Christ is common both in Christian patients and in Jewish patients living in predominantly Christian communities. The delusion of being Moses occurs in both male and female Jewish patients. The delusion of being Saint Paul, the Virgin Mary, Saint Peter, and so forth is also common."
RELIGIO-EGOCENTRICITY I N REACTIVE SCHIZOPHRENIA
959
Such claims of messianic or grandiose religious missions, a veteran psychiatrist has told me, often may define the rough parameters of "normalcy" and psychosis. If the patient wants to pray to an all-powerful deity, whom he believes governs all our destinies, so be it and all good and well. However, if the patient believes that he is God or god-like, it is usually taken as a sign of psychosis. REFERENCES
h n ,S. Interpretation of schizophrenia. New York: Basic Books. 1974. CAMERON,N. Personalify and psychopathology: a dynamic approach. Boston, MA: Houghton M i f h , 1963. ENDLEMAN, S. Psyche and socieo: explorations in psychoanalytic sociology. New York: Columbia Univer. Press, 1981. FABRY,J. B. The pursuit of meaning: logotherapy applied to life. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1968. FRANK,J. D. Persuasion and healing. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univer. Press, 1973. FULLER,A. R. Psychology and religion. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1986. GAUAGHER,B. J. 111. The sociology of mental illness. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1980. JAMES,W. The varieties of religious experience. New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1902. LIDZ,T. The origin and treatment ofschizophrenic disorders. New York: Basic Books, 1973. LOWEN,A. The betrayal of the body. New York: MacmiJJan, 1967. MASLOW,A. H. The farther reaches of human nature. New York: Penguin, 1976. MASLOW,A. H., & ~ ~ I T ~ L F MB. A NPrinciples , of abnormal psycho lo^ the dynamics of psychic illness. New York: Harper & Row, 1951. MENNINGER, K. Man against himself. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966. MUMFORD,L. The conduct of life. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1951. ROKEACH, M. The nature of human values. New York: The Free Press, 1973. SCHAJLFSTEIN, B-A. The philosophers. New York: Oxford Univer. Press, 1980. STORR,A. (Ed.) The essential lung. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univer. Press, 1983. WOLBERG, L. R. Psychotherapy and the behavioral sciences. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1966.
Accepted November 1, 1990
O Psychological Reports 1990
RELIGIO-EGOCENTRICITY I N REACTIVE SCHIZOPHRENIA' MARVIN GOLDWERT
New York Institute o/ Technology Summary.-Contending that a religious impulse exists in the unconscious, chis paper emphasizes the role of the ego in shaping that impulse in Reactive Schizophrenia. After describing religiosity in the adolescent neurotic and schizoidal personalities, the core of the paper shows how the "fractured ego" in Reactive Schizophrenia can range far and wide in building religious systems which, though bizarre, are often impressive in their complexity. The paper concludes with a comparison between religiosity in the religious thinker and in the Reactive Schizophrenic.
As late as 1980, Bernard J. Gallagher I11 could still write (1980, p. 209), "At the present time the relationship between mental illness and religious experience has not been fully delineated although there is a growing opinion that the interrelationships between the two should be studied." This despite the general recognition that an heightened religiosity typifies many of the psychoses. In my opinion, this vacuum in psychology is largely attributable to one failure, that of acceptance of the fact that, as Jung would have it, a religious impulse is natural to human beings (Storr, 1983, p. 238) and the contention of Victor Frank1 that a "religious sense" is deeply ingrained in the "unconscious depths" of the human psyche. This religious impulse may, under certain conditions, break through in psychosis (Fuller, 1986, p. 248). It is my contention that, whether or not the religious impulse breaks through in neurosis and especially psychosis, depends on the status of the patient's ego, the !guardian of the gates to the unconscious. This is why religio-egocentricity is often found in the reactive schizophrenic, with his wide-ranging "fractured ego," rather than in the process schizophrenic whose regression features a crushed ego which has lost its synthesizing power. It is the purpose of this paper to show how religio-egocentricity may begin as a defense in neurosis, develop as a strategem in the schizoid personality, and may become a full-blown system in reactive schizophrenia. As Wolberg has pointed out (1966, p. 164), ". . . religion, with its Divinities, ceremonies, dogma and taboos offers the neurotic individual rich resources for the projection of strivings, demands and defenses that keep him in psychological homeostatis." For example, it offers some neurotics a sense of identity, of identification with saints, and, in Wolberg's words, the "comforts of group belongingness."
'Address correspondence to Professor Marvin Goldwert, School of Humanities, New York Institute of Technology, 1855 Broadway, New York, NY 10023.
956
M. GOLDWERT
According to Frank, it is the adolescent who is most prone to religious conversions (Frank, 1973). I n the turbulence of both their lives and world, adolescents are often drawn to the comforts that religion sometimes affords, "a world at peace, family security, and freedom . . ." (Rokeach, 1973, p. 82). Often, adolescents, in quest of security and certainty, are attracted to the religious world-view, for "religion . . . seeks not a detailed causal explanation of this or that aspect of life, but a reasonable account of the entire sum of things" (Mumford, 1951, p. 59). For the schizoid adolescent, Arieti contends, "this escape into the church is a protection that may delay the psychosis" (Arieti, 1974, p. 111). From a practical point of view, the schizoid adolescent's religious fervor may push him in two directions. H e may retain the religion of his parents, but may become much more involved with it than they were; or he may change his religion. By converting to a new religion, he fulfills several goals: (1) he rebels against his parents, (2) he attempts to find in the new religion a solution to h s pressing psychological problems, which he believes cannot be solved if conditions remain the same, and (3) he tries desperately to make some satisfactory interpersonal relationships, though they have to be in a very unusual vehicle (convent, missionary activity, mystical social circle, and so forth). I n most cases, the change in religion takes the form of the more mystical variety (Arieti, 1974, p. 111). But Arieti is quick to declare that often the schizoid-religious does not develop schizophrenia. Then what is there in human behavior that is sometimes marked by the evolution of religio-neurosis into schizoid religiosity and, finally, into religio-egocentric reactive schizophrenia? The answer, once again, is: the status of the ego in relation to the unconscious. I n religio-neurosis, the ego is shorn up by the religious impulse; in schizoidal religiosity, the ego is a fortress in the adolescent's quest for certainty; and in early adulthood, the ego, severely fractured by pertinent stress, weaves the religious impulse into an alternative world-view. His fractured ego, unable to screen out or select appropriate psychic sensation, the reactive schizophrenic uses the distorted synthesizing functions to place himself at the center of the universe, and often he comes to believe that he is a specially-ordained pillar of God's concern-this is what Theodore Lidz calls "centrality" (Lidz, 1973) and what Norman Cameron refers to as "over-inclusion" (Cameron, 1963, p. 613). Finally, the foregoing is the underlying dynamic which often drives the reactive schzophrenic toward, what I call, religio-egocentricity. Various other psychic trends undergird the previous pattern. Life has often dealt the reactive schizophrenic's fragile ego real or-imagined blows, and hospitalization is yet another blow-this is why he often enters the hospital with a feeling of terror. "Since one aspect of his terror is the fear of being destroyed, the schizophrenic's condition is a refuge. H e can hardly be -
RELIGIO-EGOCENTRICITY IN REACTIVE SCHIZOPHRENIA
95 7
destroyed if he is not 'here'; that is, not existing in present time and space. H e can not be punished if he is not himself, that is, if he is really Napoleon or Jesus Christ or some god in disguise. O n the other hand, if his terror stems from his fear that he will destroy someone else, then a paranoid mechanism removes his fear. H e has no reason to reproach himself, since by means of the paranoid delusion he is convinced that others are scheming to destroy him" (Lowen, 1967, p. 58). Indeed, if the reactive schizophrenic's religio-egocentricity is tinged by paranoia, he may envision himself as Christ being institutionally crucified. Religio-egocentricity may also be an outlet for homosexual conflict. As A. H. Maslow has written (Maslow, 1976, pp. 330-331), "We may hypothesize that man's bisexual or ambitendent urges to be masculine and feminine simultaneously (or, what amounts to the same thing, to master and to submit) are generally dangerous to him because he interprets femininity as submission, and submission as feminine, feels himself thereby castrated, lower in self-esteem, emasculated. H e generally has few outlets for, or legitimate expression of his feminine-submitting, or oblative impulses. But, it seems to be somewhat more possible for him to satisfy these tendencies without threat to his picture of himself as masculine if he can surrender to a God, to some omnipotent, omniscient figure, whose rivalry is out of the question. Kneeling before a God is less an unmanly act than kneeling before a rival or competitor or peer. I t is 'suitable' in the Gestalt psychological sense, appropriate, "fitting and proper-called for; it is not a defeat." O n a par with terror and sexual confusion, is the reactive schizophrenic's drive for superiority and power which may impel him toward religioegocentricity. As Maslow and Mittleman, echoing Adler, have written (Maslow & Mittleman, 1951), "This drive may also aim at relieving threats from the environment as well as catastrophic devaluation. The most extreme pathological result of this trend is a 'delusion of grandeur.' T h s type of patient considers himself a remarkable and exceptional person, he thinks that he can d o amazing things, or that he has achievements to his credit which are entirely out of keeping with his real status. H e may be convinced that he is one of the prophets or one of the apostles, Napoleon or Jesus Christ, or the Virgin Mary, or Joan of Arc" (p. 86). His distorted thinking notwithstanding, the bright reactive schizophrenic, armed with his broadly synthesizing fractured ego, can produce impressive theological constructs. Therefore, at this juncture one question must be confronted: what distinguishes the bright reactive schizophrenic from the religious prophet? This is a touchy question, but I shall attempt a few basic distinctions. First is the historical appropriateness of the reactive schizophrenic's religious vision. In this respect, Fabry has written (1968, p. 169), "A medieval
958
M. GOLDWERT
man, believing that the earth was flat and that he would literally burn eternally for his sins, was mentally healthy. He no longer would be considered healthy today. We define as sane a person whose ideas of reality are not too far out of step with current knowledge." Second, does the schizophrenic's theology isolate him further or does it strike a chord in other people? Whereas the religious prophet stirs something basic in his fellow human beings, the religious system of the psychotic confines him even more to his own private world. In this regard, Karl Menninger put it this way (1966, p. 186), "Whatever we think about certain religions, the fact that they are socially accepted even by a small group put them beyond our consideration as a form of psychosis, by definition, since a part of reality, is social reality, social customs, social attitudes." Third, ego functioning, even to some degree of effectiveness; is the ego of the religious thinker (be he psychotic or prophet) capable of coping with at least a part of life's necessities. As Endleman has written (1981, p. 281), ". . . even in the groups of a fanatic religious cult, the people of a society may still have a hold on those ego functions of reality-testing and reality-orientation that enable them to survive, subsist, manage everyday affairs in the world." Therefore, in most instances the religious prophet functions in the world, the reactive schizophrenic cannot ordinarily manage his everyday affairs. These distinctions must not be concretized into hard-and-fast guidelines. Long ago, the philosopher William James (1902, p. 25) pointed out that it is the mentally infirm, the "psychopathic temperament" as he misleadingly labelled them, who are the proper candidates for religious perception. Furthermore, Ben-Ami Scharfstein has recently declared (1980, p. 379), "Psychotics can resemble philosophers in exhibiting endless curiosity and endless desire to solve abstract problems. They can also resemble philosophers in their ability to fuse disparate lunds of knowledge and create consistent worlds of thought, and they can even, as we have seen, pay the scientist's and philosopher's tribute to the autonomy of the truth and of those who seek it. Sometimes, as I have suggested, they can even be philosophers; at least the line between them and philosophers can be very thin." The climax of religio-egocentricity in the reactive schizophrenic is the messianic claim. As Arieti has written (1974, p. 36), ". . . whereas religion as a whole has less influence in the lives of people today than in previous eras, I have seen recently an increase in delusions with religious content. The delusion of being Jesus Christ is common both in Christian patients and in Jewish patients living in predominantly Christian communities. The delusion of being Moses occurs in both male and female Jewish patients. The delusion of being Saint Paul, the Virgin Mary, Saint Peter, and so forth is also common."
RELIGIO-EGOCENTRICITY I N REACTIVE SCHIZOPHRENIA
959
Such claims of messianic or grandiose religious missions, a veteran psychiatrist has told me, often may define the rough parameters of "normalcy" and psychosis. If the patient wants to pray to an all-powerful deity, whom he believes governs all our destinies, so be it and all good and well. However, if the patient believes that he is God or god-like, it is usually taken as a sign of psychosis. REFERENCES
h n ,S. Interpretation of schizophrenia. New York: Basic Books. 1974. CAMERON,N. Personalify and psychopathology: a dynamic approach. Boston, MA: Houghton M i f h , 1963. ENDLEMAN, S. Psyche and socieo: explorations in psychoanalytic sociology. New York: Columbia Univer. Press, 1981. FABRY,J. B. The pursuit of meaning: logotherapy applied to life. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1968. FRANK,J. D. Persuasion and healing. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univer. Press, 1973. FULLER,A. R. Psychology and religion. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1986. GAUAGHER,B. J. 111. The sociology of mental illness. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1980. JAMES,W. The varieties of religious experience. New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1902. LIDZ,T. The origin and treatment ofschizophrenic disorders. New York: Basic Books, 1973. LOWEN,A. The betrayal of the body. New York: MacmiJJan, 1967. MASLOW,A. H. The farther reaches of human nature. New York: Penguin, 1976. MASLOW,A. H., & ~ ~ I T ~ L F MB. A NPrinciples , of abnormal psycho lo^ the dynamics of psychic illness. New York: Harper & Row, 1951. MENNINGER, K. Man against himself. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966. MUMFORD,L. The conduct of life. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1951. ROKEACH, M. The nature of human values. New York: The Free Press, 1973. SCHAJLFSTEIN, B-A. The philosophers. New York: Oxford Univer. Press, 1980. STORR,A. (Ed.) The essential lung. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univer. Press, 1983. WOLBERG, L. R. Psychotherapy and the behavioral sciences. New York: Grune & Stratton, 1966.
Accepted November 1, 1990
