Christian Scientists' Beliefs about the Role of Suggestion in Illness and Healing
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13668486 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Arthur E Nudelman (Old Dominion University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1980 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 358-358 |
| Publication date | 1980-10-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychological Reports (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-2941 • E-ISSN: 1558-691X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.2466/pr0.1980.47.2.358 |
| PMID | 7454889 |
| OpenAlex | W2318362563 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 2 |
In apparently the first successful empirical study of rank-and-file Christian Scientists' health and illness behavior and cognitions, 85 % of rhe students who listed Christian Science as their preferred faith in a religious census at a major, state-supported midwestern university were interviewed at length (1, 4 ) . Data from the 48 undergraduate nonconverts showed 52% contended that suggestion is not only a necessary cause of illness but sufficient. In accord with the emphasis on the etiological significance of suggestion, affirmation of the Truth of man's perfection and its corollary, denial of illness, were the most commonly mentioned healing mechanisms (89% of all responses). Students displayed virtually no knowledge of two healing variants of suggestion rooted in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science: ( a ) addressing the thought, in which a Christian Science practitioner (an authorized healer) or another who assists in the healing process telepathically informs the afflicted person that he is well, and ( b ) impersonal treatment, in which another person merely perceives the patient as healthy. But illness-producing forms of indirect mechanisms of suggestion, sometimes referred to as animal magnetism, were familiar to many respondents. These deleterious mechanisms appear to be rooted in Mrs. Eddy's fears of consciously malicious and unconsciously unwholesome thoughts of other people (telepathy) (referred to by 19% of the students), as well as on free-floating or vitalistic suggestion with a source and d~rection independent of any person (referred to by 17% of the students). In a thoroughly un-Christian Scientific fashion, 33% of the sample referred to naturalistic etiological factors such as germs, which were explicitly disavowed by Mrs. Eddy. Of interest is the virtual lack of any relationship between reference to suggestion and reference to naturalistic etiological factors, which may be associated at least in part with a strain toward veridical perception of this-worldly phenomena; for these students, Christian Science and secular science lived side by side in an uneasy accommodation (1, 3 ) . Illness is, after all, a fact of life; even Mrs. Eddy, the most advanced Christian Scientist, passed on
Alternative medicine · Denial · Epistemology · Faith · Perfection · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Vitalism · Empathy and Medical Education · Ethics in medical practice · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.13 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2018 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |