My look at secular psychiatry

Copyright, "All rights reserved, 2017. My intention with this blog is to look at some of the basic underlying  assumptions that are part of a secular psychiatry, which includes bias against the supernatural, whether it be God or Satan. . 

 












My Presupposition

My assumption, is that the more a culture gets away from God, the  more persons in that country will practice witchcraft, and there will be more occurrences of demon possession.
But the flip side of this is a culture that does not honor Scripture will often deny the existence of demons or God. Demonic doctrine is organized and extensive. But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons (1 Timothy 4:1 ).  This anti-super naturalism was true in the Soviet Union before Glasnost. The authorities sent evangelical pastors to psychiatric hospitals and atheistic psychiatrists prescribed them medications that normally  are used for the treatment of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. The Atheistic politico in  Soviet Union do not believe there is a God or anything that is supernatural. Therefore, they believed the pastors were insane and deluded and required psychiatric intervention.

I have also read and  pieced together, that this bias against the supernatural,  was practiced  by the mad doctors of the 18th century England. These psychiatrists actually petitioned the court to hospitalize, the despised Wesleyans  because they had ecstatic utterances and feelings.  Some of these evangelicals were put in the infamous Bedlam, which was actually Bethlehem Royal Hospital.

A Secular psychiatrist mocked me

When I was in a depressive state I  enlisted a well know psychiatrist in the Wilkes/Barre, Pennsylvania area to rid me of my depression.  This was in 1986. At that time some psychiatrists were calling the medicine used for depression as "poison". But I had researched the issue and knew that calling them poison was not reasonable.

 One of the  psychiatrists from whom I sought treatment,  mocked me because I was an evangelical Christian. He said that John the Baptist suffered from psychosis and  depression.  I took the reference of psychosis to refer to a passage which involved John and Jesus at the baptism of Jesus; The text says:  

But Jesus answering said to him, permit it at this time ; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he permitted Him. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water ; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased" (Matthew 18:15-17).

 Revelation is the act of God where He reveals to man that which he would not know.

This was no hallucination that John was experiencing.Those who do not understand the giving of the Spirit without measure conclude that John was not in his right mind.  However Jesus Christ had asked John to baptize Him  and was fully aware that the Holy Spirit of God was in a extraordinary manner given to Jesus.

 He also chided me saying, "I thought Christians were suppose to have the joy of the Lord and did not need medication." To be fair not all secular psychiatrists act in this way. when dealing with born again believers. But he did and I found him to be obnoxious and arrogant.

Often Christians will accuse those who have bipolar disorder or schizophrenia of being demon possessed; But there is a difference between them and some similarities. I would argue for a pastoral theology which is balanced and analytical. We must not be afraid to use diagnostic differentials to guide us in the area of targeting mental illness and/or demon possession.

A fascinating book on the subject can be seen at the address below.

http://www.amazon.com/Undertaker-Mind-Mad-Doctoring-Eighteenth-Century-Medicine/dp/0520231511.


Steve Bloem is an experienced clinical pastoral counselor. You can  get counseling  by Skype, by phone, or in person.  For more about counseling and support groups please go to the link. http://heartfeltmin.org/what-we-do.html

Co authors, Steve and Robyn Bloem
 One of the first Christian books on mental illness to talk
 about the medical model of mental illness.
A book  and a story.  

This book is on academic status with its 
publisher Kregel Publications
  http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Minds-Healing-Youre-Losing/dp/0825421187