Treating Christian Patients as a Non-Christian Psychiatrist

Jewish psychiatrists who are grounded in traditional Judaism can use that background to empathize with devout Christian patients who share the same intensity of religious commitment yet whose beliefs and practices are diametrically different. After identifying parallels between Jewish tradition and the conflicts experienced by pious Christian patients, Jewish practitioners can share such circumscribed personal information to increase rapport. This essay reviews the historical and contemporary connections between Jewish religious identification, Freud’s anti-religion attitudes, and psychiatry/psychoanalysis. We review case histories of patients who identify as Pentecostal or charismatic Christians, Mormon, Catholic, or Jehovah’s Witnesses. We emphasize belief systems that conflict with contemporary psychiatric practice. We review behaviors that conflict with religious norms and result in excommunication or exile from respective religious communities and the social isolation and psychological distress that results. We identify challenges in applying standard CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), such as identification of “catastrophizing, " to dispel harrowing apocalyptic ideas that are predetermined by religious ideology.