Kate M Loewenthal
Biographic Data
| ID | 112766 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kate M Loewenthal |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kate M |
| FAMILY NAME | Loewenthal |
| SIGNATURE | LOEWENTHAL K M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Royal Holloway University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7667-7809 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 46 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 84 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 46 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1967 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Adversity, religious change and mental wellbeing
Religious change and post-traumatic growth following EMDR trauma therapy
This systematic review examined the question whether positive religious/spiritual (R/S) change is facilitated by EMDR trauma therapy. The question is asked whether any such R/S change is simply a feature of overall post-traumatic growth (PTG), or is it a form of change specific to EMDR? This systematic review found a number of articles showing that R/S change could follow EMDR, and also could be a feature of overall PTG. Further quantitative stud…
Covid-19, mental health and religion
We are currently facing a worldwide pandemic of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) for which there is yet no effective treatment or vaccination. This has resulted in the world being turned “upside
Religion and obsessionality
Freud’s writings focus on many areas of the human condition and permeate the history of both psychology and psychiatry. One area of particular focus is that of religion, as outlined in his writings
The OCD – religion package
This paper examines the obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)-religious ritual stereotype in the context of the growth in popularity of the concept of spirituality. Religious ritual and obsessionality were famously confabulated by Freud in 1907. The stereotype has persisted, and empirical evidence for this is examined. The development of research on spiritual experience is outlined. The growing popularity of the term “spirituality” in the psycholog…
Improving mental health knowledge of the Charedi Orthodox Jewish Community in North London
INTRODUCTION: This article describes a successful community-based partnership project between statutory and third-sector services targeting the strictly Orthodox Jewish community (OJC). METHODS: The City and Hackney Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Access Service (East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT)) collaborated with Bikur Cholim, a local third-sector organisation based in the heart of a north London Charedi OJC, to develop a brief culturally…
Homosexuality, marriage and society
The author of this short book is an orthodox rabbi, and he does not condone same-sex marriage. What is of interest is the philosophical position taken. Readers may ask whether this position is a va
Pastoral care of mental illness and the accommodation of African Christian beliefs and practices by UK clergy
Faith-based organisations, especially those related to specific ethnic or migrant groups, are increasingly viewed by secular Western government agencies as potential collaborators in community health and welfare programmes. Although clergy are often called upon to provide mental health pastoral care, their response to such problems remains relatively unexamined. This paper examines how clergy working in multiethnic settings do not always have the…
Religious Identity, Challenge, and Clothing
This qualitative research examined the issues of women’s head covering in Islam and Judaism. It focuses on the role played by head-covering decisions in the development of religious identity. Translated sources of Islamic and Jewish law on modest dress set the context of religious rulings in which women wrestle with decisions about head-covering. Ten practising Muslim and Jewish women were interviewed about their experiences of head/hair covering…
Locating the Social Origins of Mental Illness
Clergy have historically provided 'healing' through various spiritual and medical modalities and even in modern, developed welfare economies they may still be an important help-seeking resource. Partnerships between religion and psychiatry are regularly advocated, but there is scant research on clergy explanatory models of illness. This paper aimed to explore their relationship with psychiatry and to examine how clergy in various faith groups con…
Sadness, depression and the dark night of the soul
"Sadness, depression and the dark night of the soul: transcending the medicalisation of sadness." Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 19(10), pp. 1118–1119
Psychiatry and Religion
Psychological perspectives on religion and religiosity
Over the years Professor Beit-Hallahmi has given us his distinctive overviews of the state of the psychology of religion. His interest in the psychoanalytic approach has endured over the years, and
Young men in Israeli Haredi yeshiva education
Addiction
This article outlines a history of rulings and beliefs about addiction in Judaism, covering alcohol and substance use and addiction, in the context of a brief account of the development of the status of addiction. It examines the prevalence of alcohol and substance use and abuse among Jews, including a discussion of some of the difficulties in estimating prevalence and of factors involved in changing patterns of use and abuse. Community beliefs a…
The Mental Health Benefits and Costs of Sabbath Observance Among Orthodox Jews
How do Jewish teachings relate to beliefs about depression in the strictly orthodox Jewish community
The aim of this study was to explore whether and, if so, how Jewish teachings influence strictly orthodox Jewish beliefs about depression. The rabbinic literature was searched for Jewish teachings relevant to depression. Ten consenting strictly orthodox Jews were purposively selected and interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule focussing on their beliefs about causes of and treatments for depression. Thematic analysis was used to an…
Religion and Altruism
This article explores the relationship between religion and altruism, a research concern identified and pursued by classical sociologists including Max Weber, and one of interest and concern today, especially in societies where the building of social capital encounters serious obstacles. It points out that while early research was rather muddled about the correlation between religion and altruism, research since the 1980s has been less ambiguous …
Psychiatric and behavioural disorders in Israel
Religion and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) among young Muslim women in Saudi Arabia
Fifteen young women suffering from OCD in Saudi Arabia were interviewed about their experience of the illness and the roles played by religion. Religion was not perceived as a cause of the illness, but the illness can show itself in religious symptoms – notably with respect to prayer, and in a phase in which the young women were very strict and literal-minded with themselves and their families, with respect to religious observance. Religious symp…
Religiosity, coping, and suicidality within the religious Zionist community of Israela thematic qualitative analysis
The relationship between religion and mental health has been the subject of extensive research, particularly in recent years. The issues of coping and suicidality have also been widely studied. Significantly, however, how religious people cope with harsh life situations is an area which has been overlooked. The present study based on 18 semi-structured interviews, analyses have members of the Religious Zionist community in Israel cope with harsh …
Psychiatrists views on the place of religion in psychiatry
It is only in the past 15 years or so that psychiatrists and psychologists have taken religion seriously as an area of academic discourse. This is evidenced by the growing number of publication on
The case for narrative
This commentary highlights some of the key features of Belzen's book, notably his suggestions about the nature of the cultural psychology of religion, and the implications of this for methodology. Although there are a number of interesting and sometimes controversial views in the book, this commentary will focus particularly on Belzen's emphasis on the importance of the study of narrative
Religion and Altruism
Surviving the early loss of a mother
Foreign Accents
This study examined predictors of transfer of accent from the first language (L1) to a second language (L2), in a group of people whose acquisition of English as an L2 had begun at ages ranging from 6 to 15+. The effect of age of L2 acquisition is very marked. If L2 acquisition had begun by 6, there is no transfer of accent. If L2 acquisition began after 12—13, there is invariably accent transfer, usually very marked. When accent transfer occurs …
Religious and ethnic group influences on beliefs about mental illness
An in‐depth qualitative interview study is reported, with respondents (N = 52; all female) from the following urban‐dwelling religious groups: White Christian, Pakistani Muslim, Indian Hindu, Orthodox Jewish and Afro‐Caribbean Christian. Qualitative thematicanalysis of open‐ended interview responses revealed that the degree to which religious coping strategies were perceived to be effective in the face of depressive and schizophrenic symptoms, va…
Challenges to sanctuary
Conversion Motifs Among British Converts to Islam
Lofland and Skonovd's (1981) conversion motifs were assessed in the conversion biographies of 70 British-born converts to Islam. Intellectual, experimental, and affectional motifs were reported by about 67% of those interviewed, the mystical motif appeared in about 14%, and the coercive and revivalist motifs almost never. The normative convert to Islam was male, non-Sufi, and not married to a Muslim at the time of conversion and reported intellec…
Age Changes in the Ability To Replicate Foreign Pronunciation and Intonation
This study looked at the abilities of 5 - 15 year old monolingual English schoolchildren to replicate foreign pronunciation and intonation. Performance was judged after only one exposure and repetition. Ability to replicate pronunciation declined fairly steadily over the whole age-range studied. By contrast, ability to replicate intonation remained steadily good until 8, then dropped rapidly until 11. There was a slight, not wholly reliable impro…
Features associated with speaking in tongues (glossolalia)
Reports of the frequency, context, associated behaviours, feelings and meaning associated with glossolalia were collected from three groups of informants: speakers ( N = 14, who practised glossolalia), witnesses ( N = 15, who had witnessed but had never practised glossolalia), and controls ( N = 16, who had neither witnessed nor practised glossolalia). All informants were practising Christians. Speakers reported glossolalia as a regular, daily, p…
Religiosity and Perceived Control of Life Events
Seventy-four British adults, 37 religious and 37 nonreligious, assigned causes to each of 38 hypothetical events. The possible causes were G-d, powerful others, luck, and self. Subjects were free to ascribe as many causes to each event as they felt appropriate. Religious subjects did perceive G-d as a causal agent much more frequently than did the nonreligious subjects, but this effect was basically due to religious subjects' perception of G-d as…
Beliefs about the Efficacy of Religious, Medical and Psychotherapeutic Interventions for Depression and Schizophrenia among Women from Different Cultural-Religious Groups in Great Britain
In a semi-structured interview study we examined the views of 59 adult women from five cultural-religious groups in Britain (black Christian, white Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim) on the efficacy of different forms of help for depression and schizophrenia. We compared the perceived effectiveness of religious help with psychopharmacological and psychotherapeutic interventions. Religious factors were viewed as more important for depression tha…
Pastoral care of mental illness and the accommodation of African Christian beliefs and practices by UK clergy
Faith-based organisations, especially those related to specific ethnic or migrant groups, are increasingly viewed by secular Western government agencies as potential collaborators in community health and welfare programmes. Although clergy are often called upon to provide mental health pastoral care, their response to such problems remains relatively unexamined. This paper examines how clergy working in multiethnic settings do not always have the…
Addiction
This article outlines a history of rulings and beliefs about addiction in Judaism, covering alcohol and substance use and addiction, in the context of a brief account of the development of the status of addiction. It examines the prevalence of alcohol and substance use and abuse among Jews, including a discussion of some of the difficulties in estimating prevalence and of factors involved in changing patterns of use and abuse. Community beliefs a…
Guarding the Tongue
This paper describes the views and experiences of Strictly-Orthodox Jewish women with respect to the metapragmatic ethos of Shmiras HaLoshon (monitoring one's talk, literally 'guarding the tongue'). Eight extended interviews were conducted with Strictly-Orthodox women and teenagers in London, and salient themes were identified, namely: (1) Loshon Hora ('evil talk') is the prime exemplar of bad talk. (2) Loshon Hora is the hardest (one of the hard…
Faith conquers all? Beliefs about the role of religious factors in coping with depression among different cultural‐religious groups in the UK
How effective is religious activity believed to be in coping with depression? This study assessed the perceived effectiveness of different religious activities — previously identified as important in coping — among 282 people in the UK. The mean age was 25 years, and participants were either Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, other religion, or no religion. Relative to other kinds of help for depression, religious activity was not seen as particul…
A Study of Imperfectly Acquired Vocabulary
Three experiments examined behaviour with words which could be used and defined by the subjects, words which were simply 'familiar', and unknown words. Known and familiar words were recognized equally readily after brief tachistoscopic presentations; known words elicit semantically related responses, while familiar and unknown words usually elicit phonologically related or phonologically mediated responses. In a word-selection task, the subjects …
Imitation of Foreign Sounds
This study showed an improvement with age in children's replications of sounds in a novel foreign language. The finding holds even when confounded age-related factors are controlled for. Some other studies have shown a similar, older-better effect, while others have shown the opposite: a younger-better effect. The conflict is suggested to be due to the social-psychological conditions of the testing situations
How are “First Impressions” Formed
The primacy effect in personality impression formation is observed only when Ss write a description of the person before giving opinions (rating and selection of appropriate characteristics). This suggests the importance of certain types of verbal activity in the formation of opinions
A Study of Imperfectly Acquired Vocabulary
Three experiments examined behaviour with words which could be used and defined by the subjects, words which were simply 'familiar', and unknown words. Known and familiar words were recognized equally readily after brief tachistoscopic presentations; known words elicit semantically related responses, while familiar and unknown words usually elicit phonologically related or phonologically mediated responses. In a word-selection task, the subjects …
The Effects of Training in Written Communication on Verbal Skills
S ummary . This was a pilot study to test the effectiveness of a training procedure which it was hoped would increase students' awareness of the reader's requirements when writing descriptions of technological equipment. Pairs of students took turns at commenting on each other's descriptions. Some improvement occurred in performance on verbal items on the AH5 and in quality of written descriptions made by trained experimental subjects (N=26) comp…
Age Changes in the Ability To Replicate Foreign Pronunciation and Intonation
This study looked at the abilities of 5 - 15 year old monolingual English schoolchildren to replicate foreign pronunciation and intonation. Performance was judged after only one exposure and repetition. Ability to replicate pronunciation declined fairly steadily over the whole age-range studied. By contrast, ability to replicate intonation remained steadily good until 8, then dropped rapidly until 11. There was a slight, not wholly reliable impro…
Foreign Accents
This study examined predictors of transfer of accent from the first language (L1) to a second language (L2), in a group of people whose acquisition of English as an L2 had begun at ages ranging from 6 to 15+. The effect of age of L2 acquisition is very marked. If L2 acquisition had begun by 6, there is no transfer of accent. If L2 acquisition began after 12—13, there is invariably accent transfer, usually very marked. When accent transfer occurs …
Imitation of Foreign Sounds
This study showed an improvement with age in children's replications of sounds in a novel foreign language. The finding holds even when confounded age-related factors are controlled for. Some other studies have shown a similar, older-better effect, while others have shown the opposite: a younger-better effect. The conflict is suggested to be due to the social-psychological conditions of the testing situations
Melancholy, Depression, and Judaism
Frost claims that melancholy, in Judaism, can be an actively chosen, positive state and supports this with Wiesel's presentations of some Hasidic masters. I argue that is a misleading picture of normative rabbinic and Hasidic views and contemporary practice. Much as Frost suggests, however, depression-and suffering in general--is seen as an important opportunity for spiritual development
Religiosity and Perceived Control of Life Events
Seventy-four British adults, 37 religious and 37 nonreligious, assigned causes to each of 38 hypothetical events. The possible causes were G-d, powerful others, luck, and self. Subjects were free to ascribe as many causes to each event as they felt appropriate. Religious subjects did perceive G-d as a causal agent much more frequently than did the nonreligious subjects, but this effect was basically due to religious subjects' perception of G-d as…
Religious Beliefs About Illness
This article discusses the questions whether religion in our culture promotes the belief that illness is deserved and whether religion might promote complacency or indifference to suffering. This discussion first raises Lemer's (1991) point that some beliefs about suffering-although culturally carried-may not originate with religion. Next, questions are raised about the empirical effects of religion on beliefs and behavior relating to illness and…
Features associated with speaking in tongues (glossolalia)
Reports of the frequency, context, associated behaviours, feelings and meaning associated with glossolalia were collected from three groups of informants: speakers ( N = 14, who practised glossolalia), witnesses ( N = 15, who had witnessed but had never practised glossolalia), and controls ( N = 16, who had neither witnessed nor practised glossolalia). All informants were practising Christians. Speakers reported glossolalia as a regular, daily, p…
Religion and the judgement of obsessionality
Ninety-six lay participiants read case vignettes of two OCD sufferers, one high on religious activity and one low on religious activity. Possible confounding factors were balanced. Obsessionality and psychological symptoms were seen as significantly more likely in the OCD sufferer with a high level of religious activity, compared to the OCD sufferer with a low level of religious activity, though sadness and tension were not. Limitations of the st…
Religious and ethnic group influences on beliefs about mental illness
An in‐depth qualitative interview study is reported, with respondents (N = 52; all female) from the following urban‐dwelling religious groups: White Christian, Pakistani Muslim, Indian Hindu, Orthodox Jewish and Afro‐Caribbean Christian. Qualitative thematicanalysis of open‐ended interview responses revealed that the degree to which religious coping strategies were perceived to be effective in the face of depressive and schizophrenic symptoms, va…
Beliefs about the Efficacy of Religious, Medical and Psychotherapeutic Interventions for Depression and Schizophrenia among Women from Different Cultural-Religious Groups in Great Britain
In a semi-structured interview study we examined the views of 59 adult women from five cultural-religious groups in Britain (black Christian, white Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim) on the efficacy of different forms of help for depression and schizophrenia. We compared the perceived effectiveness of religious help with psychopharmacological and psychotherapeutic interventions. Religious factors were viewed as more important for depression tha…
Conversion Motifs Among British Converts to Islam
Lofland and Skonovd's (1981) conversion motifs were assessed in the conversion biographies of 70 British-born converts to Islam. Intellectual, experimental, and affectional motifs were reported by about 67% of those interviewed, the mystical motif appeared in about 14%, and the coercive and revivalist motifs almost never. The normative convert to Islam was male, non-Sufi, and not married to a Muslim at the time of conversion and reported intellec…
Faith conquers all? Beliefs about the role of religious factors in coping with depression among different cultural‐religious groups in the UK
How effective is religious activity believed to be in coping with depression? This study assessed the perceived effectiveness of different religious activities — previously identified as important in coping — among 282 people in the UK. The mean age was 25 years, and participants were either Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, other religion, or no religion. Relative to other kinds of help for depression, religious activity was not seen as particul…
Are women more religious than men? Gender differences in religious activity among different religious groups in the UK
Suicide beliefs and behaviour among young Muslims and Hindus in the UK
It has been suggested that Hindu tradition is relatively tolerant of suicide, while Islamic tradition has consistently regarded suicide as a very grave sin. This study sought to examine the possible impact of religious-cultural tradition by examining suicide-related beliefs and reported behaviour in non-clinical samples of young Hindus ( n = 40) and Muslims ( n = 60) living in the UK. Participants completed a short demographic questionnaire, the …
Guarding the Tongue
This paper describes the views and experiences of Strictly-Orthodox Jewish women with respect to the metapragmatic ethos of Shmiras HaLoshon (monitoring one's talk, literally 'guarding the tongue'). Eight extended interviews were conducted with Strictly-Orthodox women and teenagers in London, and salient themes were identified, namely: (1) Loshon Hora ('evil talk') is the prime exemplar of bad talk. (2) Loshon Hora is the hardest (one of the hard…
Culture-Sensitive Counselling, Psychotherapy and Support Groups in the Orthodox-Jewish Community
Background: There is political and scientific goodwill towards the provision of culture-sensitive support, but as yet little knowledge about how such support works and what are its strengths and difficulties in practice. Aims: To study groups offering culture-sensitive psychological and other support to the strictly orthodox Jewish community in London. Methods: Semi-structured interviews with service providers, potential and actual users from the…
Textbook of Cultural Psychiatry
Cultural psychiatry is concerned with understanding the impact of social and cultural differences and similarities on mental illness and its treatments. A person's cultural characteristics can often lead to misunderstandings, influenced by language, non-verbal styles, codes of etiquette and assumptions. There may also be perceived misconceptions and differences in beliefs and values. In order to provide appropriate, sensitive and acceptable servi…
Challenges to sanctuary
Religion and Altruism
Surviving the early loss of a mother
The case for narrative
This commentary highlights some of the key features of Belzen's book, notably his suggestions about the nature of the cultural psychology of religion, and the implications of this for methodology. Although there are a number of interesting and sometimes controversial views in the book, this commentary will focus particularly on Belzen's emphasis on the importance of the study of narrative
Religion and Altruism
This article explores the relationship between religion and altruism, a research concern identified and pursued by classical sociologists including Max Weber, and one of interest and concern today, especially in societies where the building of social capital encounters serious obstacles. It points out that while early research was rather muddled about the correlation between religion and altruism, research since the 1980s has been less ambiguous …
Psychology (40 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (28 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Social Psychology (18 works) · Psychiatry (17 works) · Mental health (13 works) · Judaism (12 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (12 works) · Medicine (11 works)