Religion and Spirituality in Psychiatry

44 Armando R. Favazza2.6. HealingThe O.T. attributed most disease to God’s revengeagainst sinners. In Deuteronomy, God threatenedthe disobedient with all sorts of physicalills including insanity, blindness, severe fever,tumors, boils, and scabs. Because God causeddiseases, it seemed only logical to look to Godfor cures. Exodus 15:17 is the definitive OldTestament statement on God the healer. “If youdiligently heed the voice of the Lord your Godand do what is right in his sight, give ear to hiscommandments and keep all his statutes, I willput none of the diseases on you which I havebrought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord whoheals you.”The most common acceptable “treatment”for sick Hebrews was prayer. The Hebrews led aspiritualized life in which God’s handiwork wasimplicit in every event. He was seen as the primemover in everything from famine and war tofamily discord and diseases. Because they diminishedGod’s position, formal medical practiceand magic were disdained by the early Hebrews.To remain healthy and to have a good heart, thebest approach was to follow God’s rules as writtenin the code of Moses. Many of the rules were,in fact, incidentally beneficial to public health.Rest one day a week. Eat vegetables with impunitybut avoid pork (pigs probably were sacredto some Semitic group; Moses didn’t know thatpork is often infested with parasites). Don’t pollutethe water supply. No incest. Wash frequently.Bury human excreta. Obey these rules and younot only stay on God’s good side, but you alsodecrease the possibility of getting sick.Things started to change in about the fourthcentury BC after the Hebrews returned fromtheir exile in Babylon. The priestly writers whoreedited the Bible put such an emphasis on puritythat physically “impure” humans, such as lepers,the blind, and the lame, were treated badly andexcluded from the Holy Temple (Lev. 13–14;2 Sam. 5–7). Perhaps it is purely coincidental,but the attitude toward physicians began tochange as handicapped and chronically ill personswere increasingly stigmatized by the priests.By 180 BC, Jesus the Son of Sirach wrote thatphysicians are needed and should be honored(Ecclus. 38). Likewise, sensible persons shouldtake medicines that heal and take away pain.When you are sick, you should pray to the Lordfor healing, but “there is a time when success liesin the hands of a physician.”In the N.T., Jesus revolutionized the approachtoward the sick. He actually welcomed the sickas well as socially marginal and even despisedpersons such as the blind, eunuchs, hunchbacks,dwarfs, cripples, tax collectors, and prostitutes.He immediately healed all the sick people whoapproached him, even on the Sabbath day. Hedid not take a medical or social history and didn’trequire confessions or a therapeutic relationship.Most important, he didn’t blame the sick forbeing sick. The early Christians accepted Christas the Messiah in great part because of his healings,which fulfilled O.T. prophecies.Almost 20 percent of the Gospels are devotedto Christ’s forty-one healing encounters. Hisusual technique was to say a few words and totouch the sick person. What types of illness didhe heal? The list includes the fever of Peter’smother-in-law; eleven lepers; a man with palsy,and one with dropsy or edema; the severed ear ofthe High Priest’s servant who had arrested him;a crippled man; a boy and a girl on the brink ofdeath; the woman with vaginal bleeding; a man’swithered hand; a centurion’s paralyzed servant;the dead son of a widow; four blind men; theblind and lame in the Temple; a blind, mute man;and, most of all, people who were possessed withdemons. He passed on the power to cast out(exorcise) demons to his twelve disciples and toall believers.For several centuries, healing through bothexorcisms and prayer was common in earlyChristianity and was effective in recruiting membersto the new church. However, once the churchwas officially recognized by the Romans, healingsgreatly diminished. This change was facilitated in400 AD when St. Jerome made an error in histranslation of the Bible into Latin. The classicN.T. model for healing was the text from James5:13–26. James wrote that sick people should call