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A Study on Religiosity in Individuals Diagnosed with Neurotic Disorder

Summary/Abstract: There are basically two views on the relationship between neurotic disorder, religion, and religiosity. The first one defends the view that religion is a neurosis, makes the person mentally ill, and worships are obsessive behaviors. Another view emphasizes that religion and religiosity will not make the person sick, on the contrary, atheism or inadequate religious knowledge and experience can causemental problems. For this reason, mental health and religion research has increased in USA and Europe since the 1970s and in Türkiye since the 2000s. Different studies have been conducted abroad and in Türkiye on the relationship between neurotic disorder, which is a mental health and personality disorder, religion, and religiosity. It is seen that all these studies were conducted with quantitative methods. Different and even opposite results have been obtained in the studies conducted on the relationship between neurotic disorder and religiosity. Such contradictory and inconsistent findings show that there is no one-way and simple relationship between neurotic disorder and religiosity. In this study, the religiosity of individuals diagnosed with neurotic disorder was examined. It was attempted to understand how individuals diagnosed with neurotic disorders perceive subjective religiosity, religion and God, the frequency of their worships, their individual and institutional religiosity, whether their religiosity causes them to be neurotic and neurotic disorders affect their religious life. It is considered important because the research attempts to shed light on these issues and is the first study used the qualitative method. The phenomenological design of the qualitative method was used in this research, which aims to understand the religiosity perceptions and experiences of individuals diagnosed with neurotic disorders. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with 30 participants receiving treatment in the Mental Health and Diseases (Psychiatry) outpatient clinic. The data obtained were evaluated with descriptive analysis, content analysis, and interpretative phenomenological analysis techniques. As a result of the analyses, it was determined that most individuals diagnosed with neurotic disorders have weak subjective religiosity perceptions, but their perceptions of religion and God are generally positive. It was observed that they experienced deficiencies and disruptions in their worships, but enjoyed performing their religious practices individually. It is understood that their beliefs and religiosity do not directly cause their neurotic disorders. However, it was observed that some participants thought that their religious life was inadequate or incorrect and that it could contribute to their neurotic disorders. In addition, it was determined that their neurotic disorders somehow affected their religious life, and that this effect was negative in half of the participants. The fact that the studies obtained contradictory and different results regarding the relationship between neuroticism and religiosity indicate that new research is needed on the subject. Using different methods and techniques, expanding the sample group and examining different variables can provide a more comprehensive and in-depth perspective on the subject.

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