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I published the column below in the 22 March 2018 issue of the Deseret News<\/em>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The great Harvard philosopher and psychologist William James (1842-1910) took a very positive view of the effects of religious belief. \u201cWe and God have business with each other,\u201d he wrote, \u201cand in opening ourselves to his influence our deepest destiny is fulfilled. The universe \u2026 takes a turn genuinely for the worse or the better in proportion as each one of us fulfills or evades God\u2019s commands.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n On the whole, though, the most prominent early figures in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis were not only personally irreligious but vocally anti-religious. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), for example, described religion as \u201cthe universal compulsive neurosis of humanity\u201d and titled one of the books that he devoted to the subject \u201cThe Future of an Illusion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cReligiosity,\u201d Albert Ellis (1913-2007) declared, \u201cis in many ways equivalent to irrational thinking and emotional disturbance.\u201d \u201cThe elegant therapeutic solution to emotional problems,\u201d he claimed, \u201cis to be quite unreligious.\u201d \u201cThe less religious they are,\u201d he asserted, \u201cthe more emotionally healthy they will be.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Not everybody agreed. Prominent among those who challenged Ellis\u2019s claim that atheism is psychologically healthier than faith was\u00a0Allen Bergin<\/a>, a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> who taught clinical psychology at Columbia University before joining the faculty of Brigham Young University, where he remained until his retirement in 1999.<\/span><\/p>\n In a brief new article, Daniel Judd, an associate dean of religious education at BYU who holds a graduate degree in family science and a doctorate in counseling psychology,\u00a0reports on the basis of 30 years<\/a>\u00a0of study that \u201cwith few exceptions, my reviews of the academic research have produced little support for the assertions of Freud, Ellis and others that religion facilitates mental illness.\u201d Although occasional contradictions and ambiguities exist, he says in\u00a0\u201cThe Relationship between Religion, Mental Health, and the Latter-day Saints,\u201d<\/a>in the winter 2018 BYU Religious Education Review, \u201cthe larger body of academic research supports the conclusion that religious belief, and most especially personal religious devotion, facilitates mental health, marital cohesion, and family stability.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Surveying 540 studies conducted during the period 1900-1995, Judd\u00a0indicates that<\/a>\u00a0\u201c51 percent reported that religion was positively associated with mental health, 16 percent indicated a negative relationship, 28 percent were neutral, and 5 percent yielded mixed results.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n When attention turns to the Latter-day Saints, however, the results are \u201cremarkably positive.\u201d Fully 71 percent of the relevant studies indicate a positive relationship between Mormon faith<\/a> and mental health, with only 4 percent negative, 24 percent neutral, and one percent mixed. \u201cLatter-day Saints who live their lives consistent with the teachings of their faith experience greater well-being, increased marital and family stability, less delinquency, less depression, less anxiety, less suicide, and less substance abuse than those who do not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Significantly, Judd points out, \u201cthe majority of the studies with negative outcomes came from the earlier part of the 20th century.\u201d Why? \u201cMy inquiries into this anomaly led me to discover that some of the early psychological instruments used to measure mental health were biased against religious belief.\u201d In view of the hostility on the part of major founding figures in the psychological field mentioned above, this is scarcely surprising.<\/span><\/p>\n Is everything rosy? Is all well in Zion? Not quite. We should not be complacent. The positive study results notwithstanding, depression, marital problems, anxiety, substance abuse and suicides still occur among Latter-day Saints, and even among those trying hard to be faithful. These require compassionate ministering.<\/span><\/p>\n Moreover, as Judd observes, there are certain problems that tend to occur precisely among those trying hardest to keep the commandments and be valiant Latter-day Saints. It\u2019s possible, in such striving, to forget the Atonement and the grace of Christ, and to act \u2014 against the plain teaching of scripture \u2014 as if we believed that our salvation hinges on us, on our good works. Such misplaced devotion can actually increase depression and anxiety in good people, as, inevitably, we and our families will all fall short of the perfection of God our Father in this mortal life.<\/span><\/p>\n This is one of the many areas where regular, deep, thoughtful reading of the Book of Mormon, with its powerful teachings on Christ\u2019s Atonement, can help. For \u201cit is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do\u201d (2 Nephi 25:23<\/a>). We don\u2019t need to earn our salvation. We can\u2019t. There are things we must do, but achieving perfection here on Earth is not among them.<\/span><\/p>\n Notes: Based upon Daniel K. Judd, \u201c<\/em>The Relationship between Religion, Mental Health, and the Latter-day Saints<\/em><\/a>,\u201d BYU Religious Education Review (winter 2018): 14-19. For a published testimony from Allen Bergin, see<\/em>\u00a0fairmormon.org\/testimonies\/scholars\/allen-e-bergin<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Posted from St. George, Utah<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 I published the column below in the 22 March 2018 issue of the Deseret News: \u00a0 The great Harvard philosopher and psychologist William James (1842-1910) took a very positive view of the effects of religious belief. \u201cWe and God have business with each other,\u201d he wrote, \u201cand in opening ourselves to his influence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n