The Mental Health of Jehovah's Witnesses
By JOHN SPENCER
Summary The function of religion in human society is complex. The part played
by religion in psychiatric disorders SE even more obscure. Previous literature
and theories are divided into two groups: one school believes that intense religiosity
is a symptom-complex indicative of psychiatric disorder, while the opposing
view is that religious belief in some way acts as a defence mechanism protecting
the individual and his psyche.
The present study of 50 Jehovah's Witnesses admitted to the Mental Health
Service facilities of Western ustralia suggests that members of this section
of the community are more likely to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital than
the general population. Furthermore, followers of the sect are three times more
likely to be diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia and nearly four times
more likely from paranoid schizophrenia than the rest of the population at risk.
P> These findings suggest that being a member of the Jehovah's itnesses faith
may be a risk factor predisposing to schizophrenic illness. Further studies
would be interesting n investigating whether pre-psychotic people are more ikely
to join the sect than normal people and what part (if any) membership has in
bringing about such breakdown.
Many of us have on occasions surprised ourselves at our rather impulsive,
discourteous behaviour when faced with the persistent insistence of members
of he Jehovah's Witnesses sect. The firm conviction with which they not only
adhere to their beliefs but also incriminate us, the unrequested listener, is
rather disquieting. Any attempt to dissuade them logically is frequently met
with a further monologue of their inflexible belief system.
Many sociologists have turned their attention to the phenomena associated
with religion and religious factors, but there have been remarkably few studies
correlating choice of religious belief with personality or mental disorder.
Sargant ( I 957-70) states that sudden dramatic conversions are most likely
to occur in simple stable extraverts, while Clark (I929) found that 55 per cent
of individuals experiencing a sudden conversion suffered a sense of guilt compared
to 8 per cent of his total sample under study.
Roberts (I965) in a further study found that those whose conversion was sudden
and towards the faith of their parents had high scores on the EPI neuroticism
scale.
Graff and Ladd (I970), administering the Personal Orientation Inventory and
Dimensions of Religious Commitment forms to I63 male students, found an inverse
relationship between 'self-actualization' and religiosity.
Freud (I913) saw religion as an attempt to gain control over the sensory
world by means of the wish world and as an attempt to place upon God that dependance
which had originally been upon the father. Thus he saw it as a symptom of neurosis.
Other analysts, however, have extended this approach to include psychotic disorders.
Fenichel (I946) states that religious delusions as a rule are rooted in longings
for salvation together with attempts to master overwhelming, indestructible,
schizophrenic sensations by verbalizing them. Fromm (1960) supports this theory
and postulates that religious ideas fulfil at least four economic functions:
1. A symbolic means of communication;
2. Self-preservation;
3. To silence the individual's anxiety;
4. As a positive creative function.
As a result of his searching studies, Jung (1933) felt that man possessed
a natural religious function and that his psychic health and stability depended
on the proper expression of this, just as much as on the expression of the instincts.
It was an essential feature of religion to give conscious expression of the
archetypes. Consequently the nature of the religious expression indicated the
disturbance the individual was experiencing with the unconscious. Jung thus
differed from the classifical analysts in pointing out that one could not generalize
about religiosity, as this in itself was a very varied phenomenon. ; Doubt has
been cast on analytical theory by several workers. Thus Lane (I968), in a study
of go patients, attempted to measure the 'Degree of Concern for Religion', and
correlated this with the results on the Edwards Personal Preference schedule.
He concluded: 'It now appears that it is more promising conceptually to regard
religious concern as being related to various functional psychological needs
than it is to cast it aside as being a symptom of psychopathology or as being
a negative prognostic sign of recovery.' : Boison (I952) puts forward a convincing
argument that religion is a highly personalized affair, and he provides clinical
evidence that even bizarre types of religiosity can be converted into constructive
channels when such an intense religious experience is successfully related to
unmet psychological needs.
Lloyd (I973) states categorically that religion as a coping device and can
be regarded as normal or symptomatic. In the latter situation the individual's
normal devices fail or their integration is threatened and the change is usually
towards the more enthusiastic, irrational, fundamental and emotive sects where
the psychotic patient may well be supported, protected and hidden from society.
However, he fails to explain how he has reached this conclusion
The principal problem seems to be to decide whether extreme religiosity such
as is seen in the so-called 'neurotic sects' (Northridge, I968) is a symptom
of an overt psychiatric disorder, or whether it is a complex defence mechanism
against an underlying disorder. 'The Jehovah's Witnesses sect was started by
Charles Taze Russell in I872. He proved to be a man of doubtful integrity, but
the movement has spread around the world. It is not necessary for the purpose
of this paper to describe the organization's structure, but its members ardently
believe that the world as we know it is shortly to cease and that only those
few who have rigorously obeyed their creed will gain eternal salvation with
Jehovah. Each Witness believes it is his personal duty and responsibility .to
bring these facts to the notice of everyone he comes in contact with, and to
make an attempt to save them from eternal earthly existence.
Their principles and ideas are inferred from what conventional Christians
would regard as an arbitrary selection of texts from the Bible. Some of these
selections are so oblique and tangential that they seem best understood as misinterpretations
or even false ideas of reference.
The sect does not appear to place much emphasis on sex or guilt, and it denies
the existence of Hell. If this belief system has a psychiatric parallel, Northcott's
adjective 'neurotic' is inaccurate and the terms 'psychotic' or 'paranoid' would
appear to be more appropriate. It seemed of interest to investigate and attempt
to clarify some of these hypotheses by a study of psychiatric disorder among
members of thisor of any other extreme religious sect.
During the period of 36 months from January I971 to December I973 there were
7,546 in- patient admissions to the West Australian Mental Health Service Psychiatric
Hospitals. Of these 50 were reported to be active members of the Jehovah's Witnesses
movement. It was not known what proportion of these were respectively converts
or second generation members.
The number of Jehovah's Witnesses in Western Australia was stated by their
official agency, Kingdom Hall, to be approximately 4,000. The total population
of Western Australia on I January I973 was I,068, 469, the majority (750,000)
living in the greater Metropolitan area of Perth City. As in most Australian
cities, the population consists principally of native- born Australians and
of a large group of immigrants, mainly from Europe, but with minorities from
other areas also. Western Australia also has approximately 20,000 Aborigines
Of the 50 admitted 22 were diagnosed as schizophrenic, 17 as paranoid schizophrenic,
1O as neurotic and one as alcoholic.
Table 1 |
Admissions for scizophrenia 1973
|
|
Total admissions
|
Annual rate per 1,000 population
|
Jehavah's Witnesses admissions
|
Annual rate per 1,000 population
|
All diagnoses |
7.546 |
2,54 |
50 |
4,17 |
Schizophrenia (295) . . |
1.826 |
0,61 |
22 |
1,83 |
Pranoid Schizophrenia (195-3) |
1.154 |
0,38 |
17 |
1,4 |
Neurosis (300) |
1.182 |
0,39 |
10 |
0,76 |
DISCUSSION
From the figures gathered in the Table it is clear that members of the Jehovah's
Witnesses movement are over-represented in admissions to the Mental Health Services
of this State. Furthermore, it is clear from the Table that the incidence of
schizophrenia amongst them is about three times as high as for the rest of the
general population, while the figure for paranoid schizophrenia is nearly four
times that of the general population. (These figures are all statistically significant
at the *OOI level by X2test.)
A further finding that has come to light is that the admission rate for paranoid
schizophrenia appears to be higher in Western Australia than in a comparable
English area (Plymouth, I972). This finding has been noted before in areas where
there has been immigration from different cultures Kraus (I969). the mechanisms
underlying this finding are presumably of a complex psychosocial nature and
need not be discussed here. However, they are of some interest as in the English
area there is also a lower reported following of the Jehovah's Witnesses movement.
If it is argued correctly that the function of religion is preservation of
the ego and the silencing of anxiety, and that conventional religiosity is an
expression of a healthy psyche, then extreme religious views may represent a
form of expression of a psychotic disorder.
As mentioned earlier, the experience of guilt in religious behaviour other
than in sudden conversion has not been studied to the know ledge of the writer
and could also be a subject for further investigation.
-:
Also illuminating would be a comparison of the data for converted Jehovah's
Witness with those for subjects who have derived their faith from their parents.
The study does not shed light on the question of symptom or defence mechanism,
but suggests that either the Jehovah's Witnesses sect tends to attract an excess
of pre-psychotic individuals who may then break down, or else being a Jehovah's
Witness is itself a stress which may precipitate a psychosis. Possibly both
of these factors may operate together.
Karl Marx once remarked that religion w the opiate of the people. Is it possible
that the schizophrenic, with his thoughts in a turmail and plagued with doubts
about his identity and ideas of reference, is able to gain the support af a
non-pharmacological tranquillizer from membership of a sect such as the Jehovah's
Witnesses ? If so, mental health workers and religious leaders should perhaps
take a fresh look at the structure and function of these and other related groups.
Table II
Comparative admissions for schizophrenia
1973 |
|
Admissions for schizophrenia and paranoid scizophrenia
as a percentage of all admissions for 1973 |
|
Western Australis (n=2,635) |
Plymouth (England) (n=1,246) |
Schizophrenia
Paranoid Schizophrenia |
675 (25%)
448 (17%) |
249 (20%)
84 (6,7%) |
|