Psychiatry, Religion and Cognitive Science

OBJECTIVE: To see whether certain findings in cognitive science can serve to bridge the conceptual gap between psychiatry, particularly in its psychotherapeutic aspects, and religious/spiritual understanding. METHOD: A brief review is given of certain basic differences between psychiatric understanding in its psychotherapeutic aspects, and much of Western religious/spiritual understanding. Reference is then made to certain findings in contemporary cognitive science which might challenge the implicit mind-body split of Western religious tradition and its parallel in psychotherapeutic practice. Attention is also drawn to elements in religious/spiritual tradition that run counter to this dualistic point of view. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Much of contemporary religious/spiritual understanding, and of modern psychiatric understanding, especially in terms of psychotherapy, appear to exist in quite separate domains. Psychotherapy and the greater part of Western religious thinking, however, share a belief in the existence of a transcendent mind. Recent developments in cognitive science and certain spiritual traditions, challenge this implicit mind-body split, providing an opportunity for a renewed dialogue between psychiatry and religion and the possibility of collaborative research.