Religion and Spirituality, Meaning, and Faith in American Psychiatry From the 19th to the 21st Century

Since the beginning of American psychiatry, we have discovered and rediscovered connections among religion, spirituality, meaning, and mental health. In the 19th century, religion was an embedded attribute of moral therapy, the framework for treatment in mental institutions. During the decades in the 20th century when psychoanalysis was ascendant in the profession, some psychiatrists collaborated with the emerging field of pastoral care. As biological psychiatry has come to dominate the profession, though, pastoral care providers and some psychiatric researchers have identified gaps in the human interactions that characterize ideal and meaningful encounters with patients. This article examines how religion has been mobilized in American psychiatry over the centuries within institutional settings, but also looks at a broad consideration of faith in psychiatrists' clinical interventions, how that has affected their interactions with religious ideas and people, and where they have found meaning and purpose in mental health care.