Psychotherapeutic Aspects of Pentecostal Sects among West Indian Immigrants to England

Bibliographic Data

ID5636052
AuthorsAri Kiev (corresponding author)
Year1964
Volume15
Issue2
Pages129
Publication date1964-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueBritish Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-1315 • E-ISSN: 1468-4446
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/588294
OpenAlexW2319606569
LanguageEN
Citations received6

groups during critical periods of history is a well-documented and substantiated phenomenon. This has been manifest in recent times in the various messianic sects of the more deprived socioeconomic and racial groups in the United States and in various nativistic movements among societies recently in contact with Western civilization.2t There is a large literature describing such phenomena in terms of their function in supporting both the structure of institutions and the individuals within a society in addition to fulfilling religious needs. By symbolically expressing customs and social relationships, ritual and belief have been viewed as supporting the individuals participating while reinforcing the values of the group. Underlining the value of sects many workers have pointed to the socio-economic roots of such sects, emphasizing their value for the poor and frustrated, particularly in times of social and economic upheaval. Thus for example, millenial ideas have been seen as compensations for the lack-lustre and impoverished existence of sect members or as satisfying the fantasy needs of oppressed racial minorities. These sociological and anthropological views emphasizing the integrative functions of religion, have been supplemented in recent years by the interest in the mental health potentialities of religious behaviour expressed by religious leaders, behavioural scientists and physicians.4 Some workers have in fact demonstrated parallels to psychotherapy in religious activities. Sargant examining the parallels of thought reform, religious conversion and psychotherapy, noted that they all facilitated change by producing excessive cortical excitation in individuals, leading to emotional exhaustion and states of reduced resistance

Criminology · Demographic economics · Economics · Ethnology · Immigration · Political science · Sociology · Christian Theology and Mission · Gender Studies · History · Law · Pentecostalism and Christianity Studies · Philosophy · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious studies

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