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| Saba_gracile... |
 Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:09 am |
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Guest
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Jehovah's Witnesses who have mental difficulties are
typically ashamed of them because they often believe
good Witnesses do not become mentally ill. Due to
the fear that their illness may bring reproach upon the
Watchtower, they not uncommonly are not open with
a therapist or researcher about their problems. Often
they will undergo intense suffering to protect the
Watchtower reputation. When a Witness becomes "mentally ill,"
regardless of the reason, much personal guilt results
because of the belief that faithfulness to the Watchtower
will usually protect one from emotional problems.
Witnesses often believe that mental problems are
evidence of personal shortcomings that are usually
religious in nature. Active Witnesses are instructed
to believe that "if I am not happy, I must not be
pleasing God or doing what God desires of me"
as interpreted by the Watchtower.
Witnesses commonly react to the research on
their mental health by refusing to acknowledge its validity.
They may cite the Watchtower's teaching that "
....the Christian Witnesses of Jehovah are the best
oriented, happiest, and most content group of people
on the face of the earth. They get along better with
each other than do people of any other religion,
tribe or social group. They have the least need
for psychiatrists." The Watchtower adds: "Jehovah
God has a New World Society operating earth-wide
today, and that it is through it that true happiness
can be found."
Many Witnesses accept this statement as true even
though their own experience is often contrary to this
frequently repeated misconception.
The Rylander Study
Swedish psychiatrist Dr. Rylander investigated a sample of
conscientious objectors imprisoned in Sweden. Of the 135 randomly
selected cases, fully 126 were Witnesses. Of these 126, Rylander
diagnosed 51 as neurotic, 42 psychotic, 32 as mentally retarded, and 5
as brain-damaged (some overlap exists because some cases were in two
or more categories). Diagnosis was made solely on the basis of
behavior that was clearly pathological, such as irrational paranoia or
severe long term depression, and not behavior that resulted from
following Watchtower doctrine as non-social involvement with the non-
Witnesses. Rylander also concluded from the subjects' medical records
and his interviews that their pathological state was not uncommonly
evident before conversion, but that the Watchtower's' influence was
often detrimental to mental health, sometimes severely so.
About four percent of the eligible armed service Swedish population
were judged psychologically "unfit" for military services. The
corresponding figure for Witnesses was twenty-one percent, or a rate
five times greater. This was very close to the same ratio found by
Spencer whose diagnosis of "psychotic" or "neurotic" was made on the
basis of mental hospital admission screening. Few of the cases in
Rylander's study were marginal Witnesses, and most were actively
involved in the Watchtower. Rylander concluded that many of those he
studied lacked an education, job skills, emotional stability, and
quality social relations. Unsatisfactory employment records often
existed because of psychological deficiencies, lack of ability or
immaturity. Rylander found that Witnesses committed "...a relatively
large number of small crimes and other misdemeanors which generally
resulted only in a fine...three [Witnesses] have been imprisoned for
stealing or harboring of stolen property, and 36 have been fined for
various offenses (traffic violations, drunkenness, unlawful selling of
alcohol, poaching, unlawful entering, etc.)"
Neurotic symptoms commonly found in his sample included "feelings of
discomfort, general anxiety, poor sleep habits, times of brooding over
what they see as the meaninglessness of life, the wrongs they have
suffered and the mistakes they have made." Rylander noted that the
Watchtower doctrine helped some adherents to explain "all of their
problems in life, and has given them a satisfaction and calmness which
has brought a measure of stability to their lives."
He also concluded that individual Witnesses tended to be burdened with
a variety of serious concerns and often joined the sect in an effort
to solve their many problems. Although the results of this study are
not fully applicable to today's situation, many of his conclusions are
still largely true. A major difference between his sample and today is
that the Witnesses are now more middle-class and less socially
rejected. .."
more on this: http://www.seanet.com/~raines/mental.html |
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