Could belief in an afterlife, etc. lead to psychosis?

[IndigoChild5559]

Is it rational? Does it have the potential to seriously affect your mental well being or is it considered a normal and healthy thought? Also, could things like believing in Christ, his resurrection and second coming have the potential to lead to mental illness as well?

Let's look at what the actual psychiatric understanding of psychosis is. Psychosis means having hallucinations and/or delusions. Although you don't use the word, it certainly seems like you are suggesting that belief in an afterlife is delusional. However the definition of a delusion specifically excludes common religious beliefs. The delusion cannot be anything that is part of the person's culture or subculture, and pretty much everyone knows the belief is false.

On the flip side, psychologists support a person's religious faith, because studies have shown that involvement in religious communities is beneficial to a person's physical and mental well being. Even atheists are encouraged to develop their own form of spirituality. An exception to this rule would be if the client was involved with an emotionally toxic group.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

lol now that I think of it, I edited my thread and got rid of the word delusion because other people were getting confused as well long before you came around questioning it haha

You may have edited out that word, but it sure comes across like that is exactly what you meant.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

No, it is certainly not psychotic - but I think it is delusional.

Please see my discussion on delusions in post 81.

By the way, anyone who has a delusion is by definition psychotic. Examples of delusions would be like, "I am Jesus Christ," or "The CIA is following me." Because belief in an afterlife is commonly accepted by a culture and subcultures, it cannot be considered a delusion.

As far as irrational beliefs go, we all have them. Me. You. Everyone. Human beings are phenomenally illogical.

 

[PureX]

Is it rational? Does it have the potential to seriously affect your mental well being or is it considered a normal and healthy thought? Also, could things like believing in Christ, his resurrection and second coming have the potential to lead to mental illness as well?

Interesting question.

On the one hand, willfully believing things that we cannot know to be so is dishonest, and therefor irrational. And yet, so long as we understand that we don't know, we can choose to hope and trust that what we want to believe is so, is so. And in doing this we can benefit from that hope in the present moment. Which makes it therefor quite a logical and rational choice.

So I think the key is in the self-awareness. In being aware that we don't know, but that are choosing to trust, anyway, for the benefits that trust brings us.

 

[Mock Turtle]

Please see my discussion on delusions in post 81.

Well, I appear to be with those who don't give religious beliefs any dispensation for being such, as for any beliefs, and where there is not enough evidence in my view to make any kind of afterlife more likely than not. And numbers believing such also means nowt to me.

By the way, anyone who has a delusion is by definition psychotic. Examples of delusions would be like, "I am Jesus Christ," or "The CIA is following me." Because belief in an afterlife is commonly accepted by a culture and subcultures, it cannot be considered a delusion.

As far as irrational beliefs go, we all have them. Me. You. Everyone. Human beings are phenomenally illogical.

Well I agree we are all prone to having irrational beliefs, but I don't think delusions are so readily stuck to psychosis - as per here:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/delusion

 

[Jimmy]

Interesting question.

On the one hand, willfully believing things that we cannot know to be so is dishonest, and therefor irrational. And yet, so long as we understand that we don't know, we can choose to hope and trust that what we want to believe is so, is so. And in doing this we can benefit from that hope in the present moment. Which makes it therefor quite a logical and rational choice.

So I think the key is in the self-awareness. In being aware that we don't know, but that are choosing to trust, anyway, for the benefits that trust brings us.

I hear your point, but couldn’t even trusting in something irrational lead to mental unwellness?

 

[Valjean]

That's... not at all what I meant - there is little reason to believe that critical thinking and rational analysis were absent from or of little use to our ancestors. For one, humans simply have not been a species that long and we are really not evolutionarily different from our ice age ancestors

True, and the small-band, hunter-gatherer lifestyle that shaped our psychology does not strongly favor abstract thinking or critical analysis. Sophistry and critical thinking are not needed in a culture that precludes long-term planning or occupational specialization, and favors quick decisions and error on the side of caution.

and it has wired our brains for analysis and evidence-based conclusions (all living organisms do this, honestly, since it's a basic requisite of being able to survive). For two, there is no direct evidence at all about the intellectual life of our ancestors that far back given these were pre-literate cultures. We can make indirect best guesses from the limited material culture artifacts available and from contemporary pre-literate cultures, which as far as I'm aware do not paint the sort of picture you are trying to sell us here.

We can observe the lifestyles and intellectual development of other small-band foraging animals, as well as the anthropological studies of primitive human bands at comparable cultural levels.

 

[Valjean]

Ok. You’re getting off the subject of the thread. If you’d like to start a new thread to debate the intricacate differences between delusion and psychosis by all means do so.

In any serious discussion the interlocutors need to agree on the technical terms being used, or they'll just be talking past each other. They need to understand the nature and characteristics of the facts and features pertinent to the discussion.

I understand you prefer to keep the discussion casual and superficial, but a correct decision regarding the OP's question cannot be determined at a superficial level. It involves effects of belief systems on human psychology and neurology.

 

[Jimmy]

In any serious discussion the interlocutors need to agree on the technical terms being used, or they'll just be talking past each other. They need to understand the nature and characteristics of the facts and features pertinent to the discussion.

I understand you prefer to keep the discussion casual and superficial, but a correct decision regarding the OP's question cannot be determined at a superficial level. It involves effects of belief systems on human psychology and neurology.

Superficial? You’re entitled to think what you want. I’m asking a serious question and just wanna keep it a little simple.. if you wanna blow it up into this big deal where everything is not understood then go for it

 

[Valjean]

Let's look at what the actual psychiatric understanding of psychosis is. Psychosis means having hallucinations and/or delusions.

No. Lots of otherwise perfectly normal people have hallucinations and unfounded, intransigent beliefs.

Although you don't use the word, it certainly seems like you are suggesting that belief in an afterlife is delusional.

It is a fixed, untested, unstudied, untested belief not supported by any objective evidence.

However the definition of a delusion specifically excludes common religious beliefs. The delusion cannot be anything that is part of the person's culture or subculture, and pretty much everyone knows the belief is false.

OK, I can work with those criteria, but inasmuch as existential delusion is a hallmark of psychosis it must be taken into consideration in a discussion of causative factors.

On the flip side, psychologists support a person's religious faith, because studies have shown that involvement in religious communities is beneficial to a person's physical and mental well being. Even atheists are encouraged to develop their own form of spirituality. An exception to this rule would be if the client was involved with an emotionally toxic group.

No disagreement here. I see no statistical correlation between religious belief and psychosis.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

Well, I appear to be with those who don't give religious beliefs any dispensation for being such, as for any beliefs, and where there is not enough evidence in my view to make any kind of afterlife more likely than not. And numbers believing such also means nowt to me.

Right. Because you know so much more about delusions then trained psychiatrists and psychologists.

Well I agree we are all prone to having irrational beliefs, but I don't think delusions are so readily stuck to psychosis - as per here:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/delusion

I am not referring to the figurative use of "delusion" that is used in common conversations. I'm talking about its clinical definition in the DSM-5.

 

[GoodAttention]

Is it rational? Does it have the potential to seriously affect your mental well being or is it considered a normal and healthy thought? Also, could things like believing in Christ, his resurrection and second coming have the potential to lead to mental illness as well?

Neurosis I suspect would be the far greater concern rather than psychosis.

 

[Mock Turtle]

Right. Because you know so much more about delusions then trained psychiatrists and psychologists.

What has this to do with my comment - as to religious beliefs not being considered as delusions? Why should such beliefs have any special value - and which as to such? Purely based upon the most popular perhaps? And I did say how I used the term delusion/delusional.

I am not referring to the figurative use of "delusion" that is used in common conversations. I'm talking about its clinical definition in the DSM-5.

Well I wasn't - using such as per the normal use of the word, as linked. So perhaps it is all about this.

 

[Valjean]

Neurosis I suspect would be the far greater concern rather than psychosis.

We're all neurotic.

 

[GoodAttention]

We're all neurotic.

Abrahamic adherents certainly are.

 

[muhammad_isa]

I think many many people, religious or not live their life as a nice person not because they’re concerned about the consequences in the afterlife, but they’re concerned about consequences in their real life.

Well, the afterlife is like an extension of this one .. so in that context,
it is very real.

 

[paarsurrey]

Could belief in an afterlife, etc. lead to psychosis?

Is the vice verse also true, please?
Could psychosis cause one to believe in afterlife, please?

Regards

 

[Jimmy]

Well, the afterlife is like an extension of this one .. so in that context,
it is very real.

This life is all we got really. Heaven is real too but it ain’t here yet. But I hear ya.

 

[GoodAttention]

Could belief in an afterlife, etc. lead to psychosis?

Is the vice verse also true, please?
Could psychosis cause one to believe in afterlife, please?

Regards

No. During psychosis people don't "believe", they "perceive" an alternate reality that is generally anxiety or fear inducing.

Not fertile ground for any belief in an afterlife.

 

[Valjean]

Could belief in an afterlife, etc. lead to psychosis?

Is the vice verse also true, please?
Could psychosis cause one to believe in afterlife, please?

Regards

Yes.