A working group established by Yale Divinity School for an 18-month project examined how to bridge the gap between faith and psychiatry.
Bruce Gordon, the Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the university, has led the group, fostering collaboration between theologians and medical professionals.
The initiative seeks to address the “longstanding mistrust” between the two fields, particularly within Christian communities.
In a press release for Yale Divinity School on Feb. 11, correspondent Kim Lawton recalled how the idea came from a faculty meeting two years ago when representatives from the Yale medical school’s Department of Psychiatry gave a presentation about their field’s growing interest in spirituality.
“They were increasingly seeing patients who were speaking about spiritual experiences or religious convictions and commitments, and to put a fine point on it, they didn’t know what to do with this,” Gordon told Lawton. “They were realizing that spirituality, however you want to define it, is something that exists and has to be taken seriously.”
Topics explored by the working group include brain function, medication, psychedelics, end-of-life issues, and the nature of religious experiences. Discussions have addressed questions such as the difference between visions and hallucinations, the meaning of spiritual experience, and the role of transcendence in psychological health. The group has also examined the boundaries between medicine and religion, including how depression and other conditions are defined.
Key goals for the group, co-led by psychiatry professors Christopher Pittenger and Anna Yusim, with a focus on “person-centered medicine,” include developing shared language. This means helping psychiatrists understand spiritual experiences not as symptoms of illness but as core aspects of a patient’s identity.
Another goal is equipping ministry leaders by addressing the reality that many clergy feel ill-equipped to handle mental health crises such as depression, burnout, or suicidal ideation within their congregations.
The final goal is to destigmatize mental health in the church, challenging the misconception that spiritual faith exempts a person from clinical depression or bipolar disorder.
Gordon said he has personal experience of the longstanding mistrust between religion and psychiatry.
“There have been negative perceptions on both sides,” he said, citing a widespread “general hostility within psychiatry” toward many organized forms of religion.
“And equally within many churches, certainly in my own upbringing, psychiatry was seen as something that was for seriously damaged people,” he added.
Looking ahead, the group’s leaders want to “widen the conversation” by including more students, faculty members, and the general public. A public forum, conferences, and possibly a podcast are also planned.
The purpose is not primarily academic research but rather people from their respective fields describing what they do and finding how best to talk together, Gordon said.
“People just do not get a lot of exposure to these kinds of conversations,” he added.
