A Psychiatrist “Rediscovers” The Importance of Religion 100 Years Too Late

In its January 2, 2022, edition, Scientific American published a surprising article “Psychiatry Needs to Get Right With God,” by Harvard psychologist David Rosmarin, an associate professor at McLean Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry. 

Rosmarin encouraged psychiatrists and other members of the mental health industry to recognize the importance of religion and spirituality as key components of individual mental health.

Psychiatry has opposed the concept of religion for nearly a century. In 1927, Sigmund Freud argued religious belief was a meaningless illusion that should be ignored in favor of “reason” and “science.” The concept of man as an animal was born and soon became the mantra of the profession.

As the refrain went: Man comes from mud and is no more than an animated collection of chemicals—a stimulus-response mechanism totally irresponsible for his actions. There is no God. There is no such thing as faith. Man is an animal to be controlled.

That has been a recipe for cultural destruction since it was first put forward. According to recent surveys, however, more people than ever in the last two years are turning to religion and spirituality to cope with difficult problems in life and the stressful times everyone now lives in.

In the early days of the pandemic, economist Jeanet Bentzen of the University of Copenhagen studied Google searches for the word “prayer” in 95 countries. The number of people searching for “prayer” reached a global high in March 2020, just as the number of Covid-19 cases internationally continued to increase.

In the United States, Pew Research Center found that in March 2020, 55 percent of Americans prayed to end the spread of the coronavirus. Nearly 25 percent surveyed reported that their faith had increased despite having limited or no access to houses of worship.

During the same time period, reported incidents of mental disorders increased by 50 percent. Alcohol and other substance abuse surged and young adults were more than twice as likely to seriously consider suicide as they were in 2018. The only group to show any improvements? Those who attended religious services at least once a week, either virtually or in person. Some 46 percent reported “excellent” mental health as opposed to 42 percent the previous year.

From its earliest days, psychiatry and psychology have viewed religion as a bitter enemy and worked to remove all religions from the field of mental healing. That stance has made all those who believe in the spiritual nature of Man the targets of psychiatric front groups dedicated to their destruction.

Since the early 1950s, Scientologists and other human rights advocates have continued to expose the harmful and barbaric practices of the “mental health” industry—electric shock treatment, deadly brain operations, and indiscriminate prescription of drugs known to cause an individual to become violent and homicidal.

Scientologists and others who oppose psychiatric violations of human rights will continue to work ceaselessly to expose the crimes and abuses of psychiatrists. The only ones duped have been politicians and governments that, for whatever irrational reasons, have continued to support psychiatrists with undeserved millions for programs that at best do not work and worst often cause irreparable harm.

During difficult times, those who need real help instinctively turn to religion—their pastors, scripture, and fellow believers. Religion has been a proven source of solace for centuries. The certainty that Man is an immortal spiritual being has been held true for centuries – far, far longer than the view of Man as a soulless, stimulus-response animal.

The brutalities spawned by the view that “man is an animal” have included electroshock, lobotomy, forcible restraint and indiscriminate prescription of dangerous, mind-altering psychiatric drugs.

Psychiatry remains at its core anti-religious and its practices are a fundamental violation of human rights. Reforms will come about only when governments stop funding these barbaric practices and ban them for good.