Madness as religious experience: The case of Allen Ginsberg

Various writers have considered madness to be a religious experience. On the basis of the literature in the area and conversations with psychiatric patients, it is argued that madness as a religious experience can be viewed as a four-stage developmental process. The four stages are: 1) The hurt-and-...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Wasserman, Martin (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V. [1982]
In: Journal of religion and health
Year: 1982, Volume: 21, Issue: 2, Pages: 145-151
Further subjects:B Religious Experience
B Developmental Process
B Psychiatric Patient
B Psychotic Episode
B World View
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:Various writers have considered madness to be a religious experience. On the basis of the literature in the area and conversations with psychiatric patients, it is argued that madness as a religious experience can be viewed as a four-stage developmental process. The four stages are: 1) The hurt-and-be-hurt state of being, 2) The self-induced psychedelic experience, 3) The confusion-and-dread reaction, and 4) The reconstruction-with-insight world view. To clarify how these four stages make up a religious experience, the poet Allen Ginsberg's so-called psychotic episode is organized around each of the stages.
ISSN:1573-6571
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and health
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/BF02276778