Editorial RELIGION AND MEDICINE

There has long been a rift between practitioners of medicine and ministers of religion?so long in fact that it is something of a shock to recall that Hippocrates worked in a temple. Between his time and ours lies unfortunately the memory of many incidents of antagonism, culminating in actual persecution of medicine and science at the hand of religious fanatics in the Middle Ages. Not unnaturally, intolerance bred suspicion and this suspicion is still with us today, even though the power of religious leaders in the State is less and that of doctors perhaps rather more (though they are still heavily outnumbered in the House of Lords). Doctors are therefore encouraged neither by the history of their profession nor by their training to expect much sympathy or help from the churches?and until recently few of them did so. This is a pity, but not necessarily more than a pity, in general medicine and surgery; for it is still occasionally possible to treat the body successfully with but little concern for the mind or the soul. But such a situation is tragic in psychiatry, where functions of mind, body and soul may need to be discussed. It is true that some psychiatrists concentrate on physical causes, and there is at present a vogue for physical treatment. But many cases exist where physical treatment has failed because it has not been accompanied by psychotherapy. Similarly some patients are inaccessible to the latter until physical treatment has been given. But besides this, there are many patients who reveal to the psychiatrist, trying to treat their mind and body, a sickness of soul : though few psychiatrists would care to define the latter. Many patients have no sort of faith and are the less likely to recover. Here, then, the doctor may turn naturally enough to seek the help of the priest or the -minister of religion. But the problem remains: how are they best to collaborate ?

Many organisations have grown up to work this out, but the literature on the subject is still somewhat thin : and we can welcome the appearance of a book, published under the title "Christian Essays in Psychiatry", and edited by Philip Mairet (reviewed on page 77). Perhaps the most significant feature is that it has come about from the deliberations of a working party of a mixed group of psychiatrists and theologians (as well as one educationalist). There is still a long way to go before collaboration can be the rule and collision the exception in meetings between the two professions. But the existence of such groups, and the publication of their thoughts, will help us all to be more sympathetic and less narrow. 42

Religion and Medicine.

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