Religious Conversion
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The International Library of Psychology RELIGIOUS CONVERSION Founded by C. K. Ogden The International Library of Psychology PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION In 6 Volumes I Hindu Psychology Akhilananda II Religious Conversion de Sanctis III The Psychology of Religious Mysticism Leuba IV Indian Psychology Sinha V Isaac and Oedipus Wellisch VI Man in his Relationships Westmann RELIGIOUS CONVERSION A Bio-Psychological Study SANTE DE SANCTIS First published in 1927 by Routledge, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd. Reprinted in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, 0X14 4RN Transferred to Digital Printing 2007 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 1927 Sante de Sanctis, Translated by Helen Augur All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. The publishers have made every effort to contact authors/copyright holders of the works reprinted in the International Library of Psychology. This has not been possible in every case, however, and we would welcome correspondence from those individuals/companies we have been unable to trace. These reprints are taken from original copies of each book. In many cases the condition of these originals is not perfect. The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of these reprints, but wishes to point out that certain characteristics of the original copies will, of necessity, be apparent in reprints thereof. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Religious Conversion ISBN 0415-21111-5 Psychology and Religion: 6 Volumes ISBN 0415-21133-6 The International Library of Psychology: 204 Volumes ISBN 0415-19132-7 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PREFACE I I. CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY : ITS SCOPE AND METHODS . II II. CONVERSION AND ITS CAUSES . 27 III. TYPES OF CONVERSION .... 52 IV. THE PROCESS OF CONVERSION . 87 V. SUBLIMATION 127 VI. AFTER THE CONVERSION : THE BEHAVIOUR OF CONVERTS 169 VII. THE PATHOLOGICAL THEORY IN RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY : PATHOLOGICAL CON- VERSIONS 193 VIII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION : THE PRE- DICTABILITY OF CONVERSIONS 244 NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 263 INDEX 319 This page intentionally left blank PREFACE DEDICATE this book to my colleagues in medical I psychiatry, in the belief that they, better than the psychologists by profession, will understand the dis- interested and scientific attitude of the book. This work is not intended for those who have the con- ception of psychology which has been usual in the past, and which is still often found to-day. The reader will find that it contains a psychology freed—as far as is possible—from arbitrary limitations. He will find it dealt with as an autonomous science with its own special aim (the reconstruction of the empirical Ego), and its own method (introspection)—though it avails itself also of the procedure common to the other sciences. He will find a psychology which employs only with particular reserve—I had almost written moderation, but that word seemed inadequate—both the philosophical method and the biological. He will find a psychology with a decided bent towards scientific objectivity, and distrustful of romantic subjectivity. Such a psychology is, I readily admit, easily liable to misconception; not only by psychologists of certain schools and philosophers of almost all schools, but in particular by the medical alienists, who, just because they are mental pathologists, feel they are entirely justified in still reiterating purely philosophic maxims, in the ingenuous conviction that these constitute a modern psychological theory, at once bold and orthodox. It is strange that so many pepple should have apparently forgotten that philosophy—whether scientific, positive, B 2 PREFACE or natural—must inevitably remain philosophy and cannot be psychology. Indeed it is philosophy, at the present day, and not psychology, which, of all the contemporary sociological sciences, attempts the most audacious interpretations. Modern psychology, on the other hand, is far too much occupied to concern itself with such controversies as Free Will and Immanence. It no longer looks approvingly on excursions into other fields which it might once have regarded as heroic under- takings. In former days psychiatry was an amorphous hybrid. It appeared to be medicine, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, social hygiene, criminology, anatomy of the brain, morbid histology, and much else besides. In truth it was so indefinite as to be at once all and none of these things. What modern psychologists would make of psychology is a science founded, not on inconclusive principles, but on working hypotheses, such as that of psycho- physical parallelism ; a psychology assuredly poor, but unadorned and pure, and garbed neither as a slave nor as a sovereign. I must avoid an easy misunderstanding. Philosophic thought there will certainly be in this very modest essay. Psychology, no more than any other of the natural sciences, can go out of its way to avoid it. We scientists employ philosophy whenever we establish the criterion of truth. Perhaps, after all, our working hypotheses are borrowed from philosophy. Even if it were possible to write of religious psychology without any reference to philosophy, this would not be in any sense com- mendable. But, on the other hand, no trace of philosophy which would obstruct the direct prosecution of the scientific method, or which would impede the PREFACE 3 untrammelled appreciation of phenomena is permissible to modern psychologists. If a good many organic and biological phenomena are here introduced, the philosophical psychologists must not take fright. Without the aid of natural science, psychology is but a crude sketch, when it is not a mere pretentious unreality. It must never be forgotten that the man of science knows no psyche without life. In discussing insanity and the neuroses, we warn the reader that psycho-pathology is merely applied psychology, and that it is neither histopathology nor philosophy. If we are concerned with conceptions apparently extraneous to science—like those of saintliness and religion—it implies that such conceptions are, in a certain aspect, also the material of psychology, as we shall see in the first chapter. Plato and the theologians are no longer the sole authorities on religion and holiness— the modern experimental psychologist may now discuss these questions without sinning in the direction of ' psychologism '. This, however, by no means implies that it is the duty of psychology to find an explanation for all phenomena, nor, on the other hand, does it mean that certain fields of investigation shall in future be interdicted by definition. It would be well to state plainly that ' the sense of the mysterious ' is no longer to be regarded as in contra- diction with positive science. Science does not admit of mystery, it is true, but this is applicable only to what science knows, and, given its methods, can know ; outside this field it has no opinions. This demarcation of the limitations of science has been expounded by Boutroux in his celebrated work, Science et Religion dans la Philosophic contemporaine. But even before its publica- tion, William James had already swept away every 4 PREFACE objection which a sincere man of science could offer. Moreover, every scientist is in a position to give evidence. The sense of the infinite is not a virus which kills positive knowledge ; nor does the implicit recognition that there is a something which invests our spirit from without, undermine and corrode the intellect and make the student repent of having devoted the best years of his life to scientific research. To such as would object that because of our caution we are deluding them or forcing them to work upon an ungrateful and fruitless soil, and who would reproach us for our failure to reach any definite conclusions, we must reply that psychology is unable to arrive at any conclusions, except in regard to its own objective. Since it lays claim to be a science, psychology, even though one of the least advanced, must logically be supposed to reach conclusions upon its subject only by such methods as obtain within the natural sciences. After these prefatory remarks it will be evident why religious psychology must avoid, on the one hand, making itself the paladin of ' grace ', and on the other hand, of becoming the preceptor of unbelievers. The anxious reader, therefore, will search these pages vainly to find either the warm thrill of joy which faith gives or the chilly sneer of scepticism. Goethe, in his conversation with Eckermann on 6th June, 1831, making a brief comment on his recently completed poem, thus expressed himself upon the redemption of Faust: " This harmonizes perfectly with our conception of religion, according to which we save ourselves, not through our own strength alone, but through the strength of Divine Grace which is added to it." Goethe, in this statement, superseded all the psychology of his hero. This book, however, modestly aims at describing the PREFACE 5 processes of redemption outside of the works of ' grace '. It endeavours to investigate the genesis, to establish the relations, and, in the last instance, to indicate the data for the recognition and the predictability of the occurrence of religious phenomena in individuals immune from either insanity or the neuropathic diseases. It will study the appearance of these phenomena in persons who have not displayed them for a long time, or who have never consciously experienced religious emotions. The attainment of so pretentious an aim is, as I realize, not easy, since the theologians will insist on the inscrutable prerogative of ' grace', while the philosophers, on the other hand, will defend the unpredictability of volitional behaviour.