Posted on 09/19/2012 7:38:58 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
Erica Loberg doesn’t come right out and say it, but the author of “Inside the Insane” believes that those of us who are very religious – or “hyper religious,” as she describes us – are mentally ill.
“Are there are lot of hyper religio(us) people walking around with schizophrenia or hypo mania and not even know it?,” she asks. “Can religion be a springboard to help discover a mental illness?”
Loberg doesn’t answer her own questions, but it’s pretty obvious what she thinks: Religiosity is a marker for mental illness, if not insanity.
When I checked Loberg’s biography, I discovred that the author has no training whatsoever in psychiatry. In fact, she received a degree in English from Columbia University.
She deems herself qualified to write about mental illness, to suggest that there is some sort of correlation between religious devotion and mental illness, because she spent some time in hospital psych wards in Los Angeles County working with the mentally ill
And, oh yes, she was, herself, a psych patient at one time.
Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t give Loberg’s not-so-subtle disparagement of the religiously devout a second thought.
But her disparagement appeared in an essay she wrote that appears on Psych Central, the largest and oldest online mental health social network. And her essay has been republished on Google News, giving it an exponentially wider audience.
Many will read Loberg’s essay and unwittingly think she has scientific or clinical evidence to support her hypothesis that a lot of very religious people are walking around with a screw loose.
But they will be wrong. Because Loberg’s hypothesis is based solely on her personal anecdotes.
“When I worked in psych wards,” she wrote, “patients that were considered ‘hyper’ religious would carry a Bible under their arm all day long or point out passages that spoke to them directly.”
So the amateur shrink asked herself “what the correlation was between the Bible and individuals suffering from a mental illness.”
Loberg is guilty of what trained psychiatrists call “projection.” Because she once had a faith life herself, because she also suffered a mental illness, she believes that there must have been some correlation.
But neither God, nor the Bible were responsible for Loberg’s bout of mental illness. The authoress should blame instead the inner demons with which she was afflicted.
“Authoress Suggests Very Religious Are Mental Cases”
Does she mean like the ‘Let’s kill everyone who isn’t Muslim’ Terrorists???
What's that? Fear of vaccines?
Homosexual behavior is insane. A male trying to mate with another male’s anal canal is insane. A female trying to mate with another female using a rubber appliance is insane. It’s like having Aunt Rosie sitting at your dinner table tring to eat by sticking a turkey baster in her ear and telling you that’s her life style. It may be, but it’s still insane behavior.
Hyperreligiousity is quite recognizable and is very different from what any religious person would consider normal. Carrying a Bible around with them is the least of their problems.
Yeah, because atheist countries like the USSR and North Korea have always been utopias.
They are also those are the ones who are suffering from mental illness.
“God gives not a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.”
Christianity,and Judaism are basically peaceful and positive.Those who adhere to either one,even very firmly,cannot reasonably be considered to be of low intelligence or mentally ill.I don't know enough about Hinduism or Buddhism to make a judgment either way but I have a hunch that the same can be said of them as well.
OTOH,"Satanism" and The Religion of Pieces are a different matter altogether.The same could probably be said of other religions as well.
They teach that if you do not use snakes in church you will go to hell.
Any snakehandler who tells you he's Pentecostal isn't really using poisonous snakes ~ you get to jumping and jerking around those critters will bite you right now.
how about religions like environmentalists,
who want millions to die, to “preserve the planet”?
or religions like communism ?
or even, religions like Atheism
(which IS a religion. unlike agnostics,
atheists BELIEVE there is no God.
even if they admit there is no evidence.
so, it is a belief, based on faith.)
Exactly what I thought. Will the author take responsibility for deaths and rioting abroad when Muslims realize they’ve been insulted?
This broad is a kook.
Many will read Loberg’s essay and unwittingly think she has scientific or clinical evidence to support her hypothesis that a lot of very religious people are walking around with a screw loose.
Actually it is a little worse than that.
What is at work here is that people will have their personal prejudices reinforced.
People who by their personal thoughts and attitudes consider the religious odd or personally repellant will give this woman’s personal unfounded opinion a weight of authority that it in no way deserves simply because it was published.
The Left frequently uses this propaganda technique to great effect to counter the Right’s historically proven economic policies.
It is certainly no coincidence that this article and book are coming out shortly before a national election where the Religious Right is a voting block on which the Republicans must depend to carry the election.
The Leftist media will seize on this article to try and push a few undecided voters away from the Republican camp simply by having these voters not want to associate themselves with the mentally ill.
Considering that psychology is a soft science in which you make it up as you go along, I find her credentials to be adequate.
That is an interesting picture. I was born and raised in West Virginia, which, as I understand it, is one of two states in which snake-handling during religious services is still lawful. Once in a while I see a headline come from WV along the lines of “Pastor with 30 years of snake-handling experience dies from snakebite”.
Actually, it is the rejection of Christianity with its soul saving power that is insanity....
Secularism, PC, is a religious creed, insisting on compliance.
Failure to comply with its doctrine begins with scorn and, later, to death. Death is the end game.
Its god is the power of government.
Its sacrificial mass is abortion.
Actually, it is the rejection of Jesus with His soul saving power that is insanity....
About Erica Loberg
by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
August 7, 2012
http://blogs.psychcentral.com/manic-depression/files/2012/08/erica-loberg.jpg
Erica Loberg was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. She attended Columbia University in New York and graduated with a BA in English.
She is a published poet and author of Inside the Insane. Her book is a memoir that takes an in-depth look at her own struggles with Bipolar II coupled with a look at inpatient psychiatric wards in Los Angeles County, California.
“I was diagnosed with Bipolar II in 2006 and find little education on living with bipolar II versus Bipolar I,” says Erica. “Often times I try to hone in on that experiences since it is less understood or discussed in our culture than bipolar I disease. I also work with the mentally ill so glean material from that experience to further advocate for mental illness awareness.”
http://blogs.psychcentral.com/manic-depression/about/
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