Simon Dein
Biographic Data
| ID | 3640685 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Simon Dein |
| GIVEN NAMES | Simon |
| FAMILY NAME | Dein |
| SIGNATURE | DEIN S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Department of Psychiatry, Guy's Hospital |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 57 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 131 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 57 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Theory of Mind Across Cultures: Psychological Implications
Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to a set of social and cognitive abilities that we use to infer and understand other people’s mental states. This paper begins by outlining ToM, its component skills, and what research methods have been used to measure it. It then summarises research on how culture and other social factors such as language, parenting, and socio-economic status can impact its development, in particular differences in age of mastery of v…
Magic and the Postsecular: Disenchantment and Participatory Consciousness
This paper examines postsecularism, magic and disenchantment in the West with an emphasis on Wicca. Following a discussion of postsecularism, it provides a critical overview of the Weberian notion of disenchantment which describes the decline in magic in modernity. Magic, far from disappearing in the postsecular, has been transformed through a process of psychologization. While there is substantial evidence for the persistence of magic in moderni…
Bereavement related perceptions and transformation: Psychological and religious aspects
This review paper focuses upon bereavement related perceptions (also called bereavement hallucinations). It begins with a discussion of the literature on the epidemiology, phenomenology, cultural variation and the transformative nature of such perceptions. There follows a critical discussion of the role of bereavement hallucinations in the origins of early Christianity and more specifically visions of the resurrected Christ. Bereavement related p…
Cryonics: Science or Religion
Trauma, theodicy and faith: Maintaining religious beliefs in the Holocaust
The experience of trauma presents significant challenges to the maintenance of religious faith. Here, we document the role of theodicy in “protecting” religious belief. We argue that the maintenance of religious faith is dependent on the availability of a theodicy framework which can assimilate evil. After defining the concept of theodicy, we critically overview those few studies looking at the relationships among trauma, theodicy, and religious …
The myth of the golden past: Critical perspectives on the paleo diet
The paper examines the Paleo Diet as a form of primitivism. After describing its constituents, it moves on to assess the evolutionary assumptions surrounding it through the lens of evolutionary mismatch theory. Evolutionary assumptions include the emphasis on one unique evolutionary environment of adaptation (EEA); the assumption of little or no evolution occurring in humans over the past 12,000 years; the use of contemporary hunter-gatherer grou…
Covid-19 and the Apocalypse: Religious and Secular Perspectives
The current Covid-19 pandemic has led to existential crises. One way of finding meaning in this is through apocalyptic narratives. We differentiate between religious (based upon eschatology) and secular apocalypticism (based upon radical political and economic change) and argue that both are to be found in the wake of Covid-19 infection. For religious believers, the apocalypse signifies the rapture of the faithful into heaven while those on earth…
The power of the divine: Religion, rituals, and healing in Greece
The present critical review examines the role of religious healing in mental health in Greece. After describing the history of psychiatry in Greece, and the close links between medicine and religion, we discuss the role of various ritual contexts in healing mental distress. Findings suggest that supernatural explanatory models of mental illness, such as the evil eye and spirit possession still appear to be prevalent in many parts of Greece. Despi…
Conversion from British Hinduism to Christianity: An anthropological study
This paper examines conversion from “Hinduism” to Christianity in India and in the UK. To date work in this area has focused upon Hindu–Christian conversion among Hindus in India largely focusing upon Dalits. It explores the experience of Hindu Christian conversion through five case studies and focuses upon antecedents and consequences of conversion. It stresses the central role of profound religious experiences in those converting and the result…
Primate Cognition and the Origins of Human Culture
The concept of culture is central to cross cultural psychology. This paper examines the evolutionary roots of human culture through examining the similarities and differences between human and non-human primates. After discussion of the meaning of the term culture, I present evidence that it is to be found in non-human primates with a focus upon chimpanzees. I then discuss how human culture differs from that of its non -human cousins. I consider …
Recent Work on Culture and Schizophrenia: Epidemiological and Anthropological Approaches
The Category of the Supernatural: A Valid Anthropological Term
This paper is a survey of the anthropological literature pertaining to the term 'supernatural'. It considers a number of questions: Is the distinction between natural and supernatural universal? Can the distinction be applied to non-western cultures? What does the term mean as a cultural construction and as a response to reality? Finally, it examines the use of the term supernatural in the contemporary cognitive science of religion. The inspirati…
Miracles, Media, Mezuzot: Storytelling among Chabad Hasidim
In 1994 the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Schneerson, died leaving no successor. His group split into two groups: messianists who maintained that the Rebbe had not died and was Moshiach, the Jewish Messiah, and the non messianists who agreed that the Rebbe had died. This paper focuses upon a prominent Chabad practice; the role of storytelling. I propose the question, "Whose interests do these stories serve?" Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Lubav…
Attitudes Towards Spirituality and Other Worldly Experiences: An Online Survey of British Humanists
This study examined attitudes towards and understandings of the term “spirituality” among members of the British Humanist Association (N = 318). Thirty-five percent agreed strongly and twenty-one percent moderately agreed that it was possible to be spiritual without being religious. Some respondents asserted that the term spiritual was so vague as to be almost useless. They preferred terms such as emotional connectedness, awe, or beauty, which ar…
Does culture impact on notions of criminal responsibility and action? The case of spirit possession
Multicultural societies such as the United Kingdom are host to people with diverse belief systems and behavioral norms. Whilst a country requires that all members of society conform to standardized legal requirements, cases arise that involve certain complexities related to the cultural or religious context in which a certain action was committed. This paper addresses the impact of culture on notions of criminal responsibility and action. Through…
Carers and families: Life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London - an interview study 3
This paper looks at the role of Bangladeshi families in the provision of care and help seeking: the burden on family members but also their presumed role in the causation of illness. It deploys data deriving from an interview study examining understandings and health-related practices among British Bangladeshis with mental and physical illness and their carers. While families generally support the mentally ill, the emotional and physical burden o…
God put a thought into my mind: The charismatic Christian experience of receiving communications from God
The agentive aspects of communicative religious experiences remain somewhat neglected in the social sciences literature. There is a need for phenomenological descriptions of these experiences and the ways in which they differ from culturally defined psychopathological states. In this semi-structured interview study, eight congregants attending an evangelical church in London were asked to describe their experiences of God communicating with them.…
The Origins of Jewish Guilt: Psychological, Theological, and Cultural Perspectives
The idea that guilt and Judaism are closely interlinked has a long historical legacy. After discussing recent work on anthropology and emotion focusing on shame and guilt, we examine three theories purporting to account for this link: psychoanalytic, theological, and guilt as a cultural stereotype particularly the notion of the Jewish mother
Alpha and evangelical conversion
A semi-structured interview study was conducted among 11 ‘Born Again’ Christians eliciting their conversion narratives. Informants emphasised the importance of embodying the Holy Spirit and developing a personal relationship with Christ in the process of conversion. The Alpha Course played an important role in this process
The Mental Health Benefits and Costs of Sabbath Observance Among Orthodox Jews
At the crossroads of anthropology and epidemiology: Current research in cultural psychiatry in the UK
Cultural psychiatry research in the UK comprises a broad range of diverse methodologies, academic disciplines, and subject areas. Methodologies range from epidemiological to anthropological/ethnographic to health services research; mixed methods research is becoming increasingly popular, as are public health and health promotional topics. After briefly outlining the history of cultural psychiatry in the UK we will discuss contemporary research. P…
Did Christianity lead to schizophrenia? Psychosis, psychology and self reference
Both geographically and historically, schizophrenia may have emerged from a psychosis that was more florid, affective, labile, shorter lived and with a better prognosis. It is conjectured that this has occurred with a reflexive self-consciousness in Western and globalising societies, a development whose roots lie in Christianity. Every theology also presents a psychology. Six novel aspects of Christianity may be significant for the emergence of s…
Islamic fatalism: Life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London - an interview study 2
An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in eastern London demonstrated frequent appeals to God and deprecation of personal agency. This paper offers an interpretation of this apparent 'fatalism', which argues for the logical downplaying of human agency and ambition in archaic Arabia, contemporary rural Sylhet and among first generation Sylheti migrants in London
The doctor's medicine and the ambiguity of amulets: Life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London - an interview study - 1
An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in London demonstrated simultaneous trust in psychiatrists as well as in the widespread use of healing amulets. At the same time, local Islamic clerics and traditional healers were seen by many with some degree of suspicion. The authors offer an interpretation in which local healers and their methods are regarded ambivalently: the more distant biomedical framework fits with the newer mod…
Mental Health and the Paranormal
To date, there has been a dearth of work examining the relationships between paranormal experiences and mental health. After defining paranormal experience and its prevalence, I examine a number of areas related to paranormal experience and psychopathology: psi and the unconscious, dissociation and fantasy proneness, schizotypy, transliminality and reality monitoring, child abuse, reasoning and information processing, and transpersonal psychology…
The Voice of God
Prayer and verbally answered prayer would seem to offer powerful evidence in relation to the question of human agency. Forty members of an English Pentecostal group completed a questionnaire on prayer: 25 reported an answering voice from God, 15 of them hearing Him aloud. The latter groups were interviewed and characteristics of phenomenology and context elicited. The voice of God cannot be held to be ipso facto pathological and many reported its…
Jinn, Psychiatry and Contested Notions of Misfortune among East London Bangladeshis
This study examines understandings of misfortune among east London Bangladeshis, particularly with respect to the role of jinn spirits. It reports on the findings of ethnographic interviews among 40 members of this community. Appeal to jinn explanations is commonplace at times of psychological disturbance and unexplained physical symptoms. Resort to traditional healers is frequent. These explanations are contested by different groups in the commu…
What Really Happens When Prophecy Fails: The Case of Lubavitch
Journal Article What Really Happens When Prophecy Fails: The Case of Lubavitch Get access Simon Dein Simon Dein * Essex & Herts Community NHS Trust Princess Alexandra Hospital * Direct correspondence to: Dr. Simon Dein, Essex & Herts Community NHS Trust, Princess Aleandra Hospital, Hamstel Road, Harlow, Essex, England CM20 1QX. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion,…
The Power of Words: Healing Narratives among Lubavitcher Hasidim
The debate concerning the relation between magic and religion has a long history. Instead of separating religion and magic as separate domains, recent work on ritual examines how symbolic and pragmatic acts interrelate. After discussing current theories of religious healing and, specifically, the power of words in healing, this article examines how a group of Lubavitcher Hasidic Jews deals with sickness and the relation between the group's use of…
The Dark Night of the Soul: Causes and Resolution of Emotional Distress Among Contemplative Nuns
An ethnographic study was conducted in the Spanish Monastery of Santa Mónica whose community consists of ten contemplative Augustinian nuns. Through participant observation and interviews the stresses encountered by the nuns and the coping strategies they deployed are explored in depth. It was found that symptoms that otherwise might have been described as evidence of a depressive episode were understood by the nuns within the framework of the so…
Lubavitch: A contemporary messianic movement
Failed prophecy may result in severe disillusionment for members of a religious group which, in turn, may lead to members losing their faith and leaving. However, the reverse may occur. When faced with this experience, there will be cognitive dissonance resulting in an enhanced commitment to messianic prophesy and activity. Such is the case among Lubavitcher Hasidim. When their leader whom they believe to be the Messiah died, messianic fervour an…
Did Christianity lead to schizophrenia? Psychosis, psychology and self reference
Both geographically and historically, schizophrenia may have emerged from a psychosis that was more florid, affective, labile, shorter lived and with a better prognosis. It is conjectured that this has occurred with a reflexive self-consciousness in Western and globalising societies, a development whose roots lie in Christianity. Every theology also presents a psychology. Six novel aspects of Christianity may be significant for the emergence of s…
Religion and psychosis: A common evolutionary trajectory
In this article we propose that schizophrenia and religious cognition engage cognate mental modules in the over-attribution of agency and the overextension of theory of mind. We argue similarities and differences between assumptions of ultrahuman agents with omniscient minds and certain ''pathological'' forms of thinking in schizophrenia: thought insertion, withdrawal and broadcasting, and delusions of reference. In everyday religious cognition a…
Spirituality, Psychiatry and Participation: A Cultural Analysis
This article begins by asking whether religion and spirituality are useful terms for cross-cultural comparisons. After discussing the increasing distinction between religion and spirituality in Western cultures, it points out how the terms religion and spirituality are used in divergent ways in the literature and the need for conceptual clarification in this area. Broadly, spirituality relates to interconnectedness, ultimate meaning or life force…
Mosiach is here now: Just Open Your Eyes and You Can See Him
Religious groups deal with failed prophecy in different ways. This paper examines messianic expectations among Lubavitch Hasidim in Stamford Hill and their response to the death of their leader whom they held to be the Messiah. It is based on eight years of participant observation in the community. In agreement with Melton's theory, when the Rebbe died, Lubavitchers held that the Rebbe was more powerful in the spiritual realm without the hinderan…
The management of illness by a Filipino psychic surgeon: A western physician's impression
Islamic fatalism: Life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London - an interview study 2
An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in eastern London demonstrated frequent appeals to God and deprecation of personal agency. This paper offers an interpretation of this apparent 'fatalism', which argues for the logical downplaying of human agency and ambition in archaic Arabia, contemporary rural Sylhet and among first generation Sylheti migrants in London
Detachment: Gateway to the World of Spirituality
Mystical states are common cross-culturally. Here we examine the prevalence and general characteristics of these states. We then proceed to critically examine the theories purporting to explain these states: psychoanalytic, cognitive and neurobiological, all of which attempt to explain the breakdown of the boundaries between the self and external world. We conclude by exploring the implications of mystical states for cultural psychiatry
At the crossroads of anthropology and epidemiology: Current research in cultural psychiatry in the UK
Cultural psychiatry research in the UK comprises a broad range of diverse methodologies, academic disciplines, and subject areas. Methodologies range from epidemiological to anthropological/ethnographic to health services research; mixed methods research is becoming increasingly popular, as are public health and health promotional topics. After briefly outlining the history of cultural psychiatry in the UK we will discuss contemporary research. P…
The doctor's medicine and the ambiguity of amulets: Life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London - an interview study - 1
An interview study of 44 Bangladeshi patients and relatives in London demonstrated simultaneous trust in psychiatrists as well as in the widespread use of healing amulets. At the same time, local Islamic clerics and traditional healers were seen by many with some degree of suspicion. The authors offer an interpretation in which local healers and their methods are regarded ambivalently: the more distant biomedical framework fits with the newer mod…
Judeo-Christian Religious Experience and Psychopathology: The Legacy of William James
This article examines the relationship between Judeo-Christian religious experience and psychopathology. It builds on William James's Varieties of Religious Experience and more specifically his discussions of self, agency and the subliminal. Contemporary research on Christian conversion, mysticism, and its relationship to psychosis and mental health and healing are discussed. Future themes for research are proposed
Finding Help: Turkish-speaking Refugees and Migrants with a History of Psychosis
There is a large population of Turkish-speaking migrants living in London, many of whom are refugees (Enneli , Modood, & Bradley, 2005). Primary care and secondary mental health services have consistently reported poor continuity of care among patients from this community. The aim of this study was to explore the possible interconnection of causal attributions and pathways into care among Turkish-speaking, mainly Kurdish, patients with a past his…
The Category of the Supernatural: A Valid Anthropological Term
This paper is a survey of the anthropological literature pertaining to the term 'supernatural'. It considers a number of questions: Is the distinction between natural and supernatural universal? Can the distinction be applied to non-western cultures? What does the term mean as a cultural construction and as a response to reality? Finally, it examines the use of the term supernatural in the contemporary cognitive science of religion. The inspirati…
Attitudes Towards Spirituality and Other Worldly Experiences: An Online Survey of British Humanists
This study examined attitudes towards and understandings of the term “spirituality” among members of the British Humanist Association (N = 318). Thirty-five percent agreed strongly and twenty-one percent moderately agreed that it was possible to be spiritual without being religious. Some respondents asserted that the term spiritual was so vague as to be almost useless. They preferred terms such as emotional connectedness, awe, or beauty, which ar…
Does culture impact on notions of criminal responsibility and action? The case of spirit possession
Multicultural societies such as the United Kingdom are host to people with diverse belief systems and behavioral norms. Whilst a country requires that all members of society conform to standardized legal requirements, cases arise that involve certain complexities related to the cultural or religious context in which a certain action was committed. This paper addresses the impact of culture on notions of criminal responsibility and action. Through…
Carers and families: Life and suffering among Bangladeshi psychiatric patients and their families in London - an interview study 3
This paper looks at the role of Bangladeshi families in the provision of care and help seeking: the burden on family members but also their presumed role in the causation of illness. It deploys data deriving from an interview study examining understandings and health-related practices among British Bangladeshis with mental and physical illness and their carers. While families generally support the mentally ill, the emotional and physical burden o…
Drawing together psyche, soma and spirit: My career in cultural psychiatry
In this article I discuss my career in cultural psychiatry. I begin by examining the influence of my personal background on my interests in cultural psychiatry and religion and health. I then discuss my research, which has focused upon two areas: the cognitive and phenomenological parallels between religious experiences and psychopathological states, and relationships between biomedicine and religious healing in diverse cultural contexts. Finally…
From chaos to cosmogeny: A comparison of understandings of the narrative process among Western academics and Hasidic Jews
Illness narratives are informed by grand metanarratives in any society. This paper compares and contrasts understandings of stories relating to illness among Western academics and Hasidic Jews. While not arguing for any historical continuity, both cultures are informed by core metanarratives of progress and ascendance. Contemporary Western society emphasizes coherence, success, progress, and movement. In Hasidism the universe is slowly progressin…
Millenium, Messianism and Medicine Among the Lubavitch of Stamford Hill, London
The Lubavitch are a group of Hasidic Jews living in Stamford Hill, London N16. After a description of their lifestyle and the importance of the Rebbe in the community, this paper examines their concepts of the body, health and healing based on Kabbalistic teachings. For this group healing involves both control of sickness and the correction of spiritual disorder associated with it: the Rebbe plays a key role in the latter. The paper ends by discu…
The management of illness by a Filipino psychic surgeon: A western physician's impression
Asians Presenting To a Sex and Marital Therapy Clinic
This paper presents the findings of a retrospective analysis of the clinic registration forms and case files of Asian attenders of a sex and marital problems clinic over a three year period. An age/sex matched English control group was selected for comparison. Diagnoses, presenting patient complaints, sociodemographic charac teristics, time between referral and first attendance and outcome of therapy were examined. Our samples of Asian and Englis…
The effectiveness of words: Religion and healing among the Lubavitch of Stamford Hill
Religion and mental health
Lubavitch: A contemporary messianic movement
Failed prophecy may result in severe disillusionment for members of a religious group which, in turn, may lead to members losing their faith and leaving. However, the reverse may occur. When faced with this experience, there will be cognitive dissonance resulting in an enhanced commitment to messianic prophesy and activity. Such is the case among Lubavitcher Hasidim. When their leader whom they believe to be the Messiah died, messianic fervour an…
Apocalyptic suicide
As the current millennium draws to a close, there are increasing media reports of violence among cult members. This paper presents a provisional typology of apocalyptic suicide and analyses the factors associated with it. These factors include: a strong dualistic philosophy, a leader with total control over the movement, and relative isolation in the presence of apocalyptic teachings. The role of mental health professionals in dealing with these …
The Use of Traditional Healing in South Asian Psychiatric Patients in the U.K: Interactions between Professional and Folk Psychiatries
The use of traditional healing and traditional healers among ethnic minority psychiatric patients remains little explored in the U.K. Using qualitative and quantitative methodology, this article examines the use of traditional healing among 25 South Asian psychiatric patients in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Twenty-eight percent of the sample had resorted to a traditional healer during their psychiatric illness. Five case studies are pres…
Commentary
To what extent do significant events determine the timing of our deaths? Anecdotal reports among the terminally ill and anthropological and epidemiological studies suggest that the timing of a patient's death may be related to symbolically meaningful occasions such as anniversaries and festivals. Those looking forward to such events may delay the timing of their deaths although the literature is often contradictory. In contrast, those subject to …
The Time to Die: Symbolic Factors Relating to the Time of Death
What Really Happens When Prophecy Fails: The Case of Lubavitch
Journal Article What Really Happens When Prophecy Fails: The Case of Lubavitch Get access Simon Dein Simon Dein * Essex & Herts Community NHS Trust Princess Alexandra Hospital * Direct correspondence to: Dr. Simon Dein, Essex & Herts Community NHS Trust, Princess Aleandra Hospital, Hamstel Road, Harlow, Essex, England CM20 1QX. E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion,…
The Power of Words: Healing Narratives among Lubavitcher Hasidim
The debate concerning the relation between magic and religion has a long history. Instead of separating religion and magic as separate domains, recent work on ritual examines how symbolic and pragmatic acts interrelate. After discussing current theories of religious healing and, specifically, the power of words in healing, this article examines how a group of Lubavitcher Hasidic Jews deals with sickness and the relation between the group's use of…
Mosiach is here now: Just Open Your Eyes and You Can See Him
Religious groups deal with failed prophecy in different ways. This paper examines messianic expectations among Lubavitch Hasidim in Stamford Hill and their response to the death of their leader whom they held to be the Messiah. It is based on eight years of participant observation in the community. In agreement with Melton's theory, when the Rebbe died, Lubavitchers held that the Rebbe was more powerful in the spiritual realm without the hinderan…
From chaos to cosmogeny: A comparison of understandings of the narrative process among Western academics and Hasidic Jews
Illness narratives are informed by grand metanarratives in any society. This paper compares and contrasts understandings of stories relating to illness among Western academics and Hasidic Jews. While not arguing for any historical continuity, both cultures are informed by core metanarratives of progress and ascendance. Contemporary Western society emphasizes coherence, success, progress, and movement. In Hasidism the universe is slowly progressin…
Apocalyptic Suicide: From a Pathological to an Eschatological Interpretation
Background: The authors examine the possible interpretations of apocalyptic suicide – a form of suicide amongst a group which believes that the world will end imminently. Material: Through a literature search the authors identify a number of paradigmatic cases exemplifying this phenomenon including Jonestown, Waco, The Order of the Solar Temple and Heaven's Gate. Discussion: Interpretations of apocalyptic suicide might consider individual factors…
Detachment: Gateway to the World of Spirituality
Mystical states are common cross-culturally. Here we examine the prevalence and general characteristics of these states. We then proceed to critically examine the theories purporting to explain these states: psychoanalytic, cognitive and neurobiological, all of which attempt to explain the breakdown of the boundaries between the self and external world. We conclude by exploring the implications of mystical states for cultural psychiatry
Spirituality, Psychiatry and Participation: A Cultural Analysis
This article begins by asking whether religion and spirituality are useful terms for cross-cultural comparisons. After discussing the increasing distinction between religion and spirituality in Western cultures, it points out how the terms religion and spirituality are used in divergent ways in the literature and the need for conceptual clarification in this area. Broadly, spirituality relates to interconnectedness, ultimate meaning or life force…
Finding Help: Turkish-speaking Refugees and Migrants with a History of Psychosis
There is a large population of Turkish-speaking migrants living in London, many of whom are refugees (Enneli , Modood, & Bradley, 2005). Primary care and secondary mental health services have consistently reported poor continuity of care among patients from this community. The aim of this study was to explore the possible interconnection of causal attributions and pathways into care among Turkish-speaking, mainly Kurdish, patients with a past his…
The Voice of God
Prayer and verbally answered prayer would seem to offer powerful evidence in relation to the question of human agency. Forty members of an English Pentecostal group completed a questionnaire on prayer: 25 reported an answering voice from God, 15 of them hearing Him aloud. The latter groups were interviewed and characteristics of phenomenology and context elicited. The voice of God cannot be held to be ipso facto pathological and many reported its…
The psychology of prayer and the development of the Prayer Experience Questionnaire
To date, prayer has been a largely neglected area in the social sciences. This paper describes four main areas which have been addressed in relation to prayer: the effect of prayer on empirical processes, prayer and coping, the development of praying, and the neurobiology of prayer. After pointing out that the receptive side of prayer has largely been ignored by social scientists, it goes on to describe the development of a new prayer experience …
Jinn, Psychiatry and Contested Notions of Misfortune among East London Bangladeshis
This study examines understandings of misfortune among east London Bangladeshis, particularly with respect to the role of jinn spirits. It reports on the findings of ethnographic interviews among 40 members of this community. Appeal to jinn explanations is commonplace at times of psychological disturbance and unexplained physical symptoms. Resort to traditional healers is frequent. These explanations are contested by different groups in the commu…
Becoming A Fulfilled Jew: An Ethnographic Study of a British Messianic Jewish Congregation
This paper discusses the findings of ethnographic fieldwork among a congregation of British Messianic Jews. After a description of the history and theology of the movement, it describes various themes expressed by informants who have come to accept Yeshua as the Messiah: An ethnic as opposed to a spiritual religious identity; dissatisfaction with Judaism; the influence of family and social networks outside the home; a religious search; a process …
A Messiah from the Dead: Cultural Performance in Lubavitcher Messianism
The scholarly literature on millennialism commonly employs Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance to understand how groups deal with failed prophecy. For many years Lubavitcher Hasidim held that their spiritual leader, Menachem Schneerson—the Lubavitcher Rebbe—was the Jewish Messiah and that he would reveal himself as such, ushering in the redemption. He died, however, in 1994 without fulfilling his followers’ messianic expectations. The auth…
Jewish-Arab Couple Relationships in Israel: Underlying Motives for Entering and Engaging in Intermarriage
There has been little data concerning psychological aspects of Israeli Jewish and Arab couples. This study investigated Israeli Jewish and Arab minority couples from the perspective of the women involved in these relationships. Semistructured interviews were deployed (n = 29) and the data were examined in relation to the sociopolitical background in Israel. The article presents a number of motivations for engaging in such relationships: love, res…
Judeo-Christian Religious Experience and Psychopathology: The Legacy of William James
This article examines the relationship between Judeo-Christian religious experience and psychopathology. It builds on William James's Varieties of Religious Experience and more specifically his discussions of self, agency and the subliminal. Contemporary research on Christian conversion, mysticism, and its relationship to psychosis and mental health and healing are discussed. Future themes for research are proposed
Psychology (39 works) · Sociology (37 works) · Philosophy (31 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (26 works) · Social Psychology (21 works) · Medicine (19 works) · Psychiatry (17 works) · Theology (16 works) · Epistemology (15 works) · History (15 works)