Separate Communities within Mainline Religious Groups


Some mentally disturbed persons may believe that they are "called" to a religious vocation, and subsequently may find a haven in a religious community that separates them from the world. This view has been confirmed by Kelley, who studied Catholic nuns. Finding a variety of disordered states among the sisters, she concluded that these were a function of pre-existing difficulties rather than of the chosen religious life.136 Reference has also been made to a high frequency of hypochondriacal complaints.137 Similar findings have been reported in other studies of nuns.138 Research Box 12.5 describes Kelley's significant study.

Additional work on disturbed sisters attributes their motivation to enter orders to a desire for security because of emotional starvation and/or a view of the world as dangerous. These needs are frustrated by organizational pressures and restraints, which are thought to exacerbate the nuns' tenuous grip on reality.139 Kurth has claimed that two factors should be recognized as contributing to this situation. First, "many mentally ill individuals seek to enter religious life. Such neurotic and pre-psychotic individuals are especially attracted to cloistered life, which by its very nature caters to the needs of schizoid individuals."140 Second, according to Kurth, "too many Superiors of convents in the United States think that all their candidates are psychologically sound and enjoy good mental health."141




Research Box 12.5. Hospitalized Mental Illness Among Religious Sisters
(Kelley, 1958)

Kelly, a nun herself, gathered data from 357 U.S. private and public mental hospitals regarding 783 Catholic sisters who were hospitalized for mental disorders in 1956. High rates for depression and schizophrenia were observed; yet, prior to being committed, the sisters had spent an average of 17 to 20 years in their order.

The incidence of severe disorders among sisters who performed domestic functions was over seven times higher than the rate for those involved in teaching. The rates for cloistered nuns were also higher than those in uncloistered orders. Among the hospitalized nuns, 80% suffered from psychotic states, 65% of which were schizophrenic. Depressive symptomatology was also quite common. Kelley theorized that the highly structured life in these religious communities often led to feelings of failure and ensuing breakdown on the part of those unable to cope with the stringent demands of such an existence.





NOTES

136.   Kelley (1958).
137.   Sister Margaret Louise (1961).
138.   Jahreiss (1942); Kurth (1961).
139.   De Maria, Giulani, Annese, Corfiati (1971).
140.   Kurth (1961, p. 20).
141.   Kurth (1961, p. 23).



REFERENCES

De Maria, F., Giulani, B., Annese, A., & Corfiati, I. (1971). A picture of psychopathological conditions in members of religious communities. Acta Neurologica, 26, 79-86.

Jahreiss, W. O. (1942). Some influences of Catholic education and creed upon psychotic reactions. Diseases of the Nervous System, 3, 377-381.

Kelley, Sister M. W. (1958). The incidence of hospitalized mental illness among religious sisters in the United States. American Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 72-75.

Kurth, C. J. (1961). Psychiatric and psychological selection of candidates for the sisterhood. Guild of Catholic Psychiatrists Bulletin, 8, 19-25.

Margaret Louise, Sister. (1961). Psychological problems to vocation candidates. National Catholic Education Association Bulletin, 58, 450-454.


Hood, R., Spilka, B., Hunsberger, B., Gorsuch, R. (1996, pp. 422-423). The psychology of religion: An empirical approach (second edition), New York: Guilford.