Do Atheist Therapists Discount Faith’s Proven Role in Overcoming Mental Illness?
Atheism Correlates With Emotional Suppression, Yet Psychology is Most Atheist Occupation
Hello there, sharing an update: today Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal published my oped exploring research from the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality finding atheism correlates with emotional suppression. Psychology professors (along with biologists) are least likely among all disciplines to believe in God, Harvard reported. The journal Sociology of Religion similarly found psychologists the least religious of American professors. This is a troubling combination. The same trained experts ordained to heal mental disorders are sometimes the very ones skeptical toward rescuing balm….
A profound mismatch exists between proven treatments for mental illness and the worldview of practitioners. Robust scientific evidence correlates faith and religious practice with strengthening mental health and preventing suicide and drug and alcohol overdoses.
A faith-based worldview, often correlated with what society deems “conservative” or “traditional” religious values, is highly underrepresented among psychiatrists. For example, psychiatrists ranked 23rd among 24 medical specialists in their low propensity for Republican Party registration—far below the general population, Yale researchers reported.
The religious composition of the mental health industry doesn’t mirror the United States. Similar trends can be seen across elite media and Hollywood. This is creating massive cultural blind spots—including in the treatment of mental health. This is why we are getting the “Bad Therapy” identified by author Abigail Shrier.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late last year released provisional data showing 49,449 people committed suicide in the United States in 2022. This nearly 3% increase from 2021 is the highest number ever recorded and the highest rate since 1941—the aftershocks of the Great Depression. It’s nearly 17 times the number of people killed in the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Yet women who attend religious services at least weekly are 68% less likely to die “deaths of despair”—suicide, drug overdose, or alcohol poisoning. Men are 33% less likely, according to 2020 research from Harvard University’s School of Public Health.
The National Bureau of Economic Research reported that states with declining religious attendance correlated with increased deaths of despair, and vice versa.
Check out my full Daily Signal article here.
Enjoy your weekend!
Blessings,
Carrie