title: Did Christianity lead to schizophrenia? Psychosis, psychology and self reference.
abstract: Both geographically and historically, schizophrenia may have emerged from a psychosis that was more florid, affective, labile, shorter lived and with a better prognosis. It is conjectured that this has occurred with a reflexive self-consciousness in Western and globalising societies, a development whose roots lie in Christianity. Every theology also presents a psychology. Six novel aspects of Christianity may be significant for the emergence of schizophrenia-an omniscient deity, a decontexualised self, ambiguous agency, a downplaying of immediate sensory data, and a scrutiny of the self and its reconstitution in conversion.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Anthropology and Mental Health, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK. r.littlewood@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Littlewood
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dein
mesh_terms: D002835:Christianity / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology*; D004532:Ego; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology*; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000266:history
keywords: Christianity; conversion; indigenous psychology; proprioception; proto-schizophrenia; schizophrenia; self