new study about JW mental health

Jerry Bergman

Author	Humpl, Lukas
Title
Translated Title	The Jehova's Witnesses - psychological aspects of membership and leaving the group.
Appears In	Ceskoslovenska Psychologie . Vol 46(4), 2002, 323-339.

Publisher Info Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences/Inst of Psychology, Czech Republic. 2002. Abstract Examined the attitudes and experience of former members of the religious society Jehovah's Witnesses, focusing on circumstances of the first contact with the group, on the period of active membership, and on the mental distress accompanying leaving the group. The members report they are thoroughly indoctrinated and are usually strongly in support of the organization that asks for complete attachment from them. The level of confidence in the group is high and it is connected with the level of attained education. The first phase of membership is usually accompanied by a positive experience and positive emotions. During conflicts and leaving the group the evident increase of negative experience and negative emotions appears; these are related to length of membership. By means of Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire, the author determined that almost two thirds of respondents tended to introversion and 35 percent scored as emotionally unstable. In the milieu of Jehovah's Witnesses, signs characterizing sect groups occur, including the components of mental manipulation: controlled behavior, controlled thinking, controlled emotions and controlled information. (PsycINFO Database Record © 2003 APA, all rights reserved) 26 references present. 26 references displayed.

Jerry Bergman

The above is another new study about JW mental health (over 20 have been completed now and they all say basically the same thing). This study is not perfect but does contribute to the literature. We need a study of active Witnesses (but that will probable never be done at least in a free society without a draft). Any comments???

Jerry Bergman

Can someone out there read Czechoslovakian? If so, I would love to see an English translation of this article.

Lady Lee

Jerry

Is it possible to copy it into an on-line translator and get an english version?

Sara Annie

Hardly surprising, is it? You'd have to be already a little bit unstable to buy into the whole thing, and even if you weren't it wouldn't take long on the inside before you were well on your way to being so...

It's been my experience that JW's have a higher incidence per capita (astronomically so) of mental illness within their ranks than the population at large.

kgfreeperson

" By means of Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire, the author determined that almost two thirds of respondents tended to introversion and 35 percent scored as emotionally unstable." I'm wondering if the suggestion is that the introversion and emotionally instability are a result of their time within the organization or if the organization is more attractive to the introverted and the emotionally unstable. Anecdotal evidence from this board would suggest that the emotionally instability might be caused by the organization.

kgfreeperson

Oops. Slipped by Lady Jane and Sara Annie.

garybuss

Hi Jerry,

I am anxious to read the latest report. Thanks for posting the information. I hope you and your family are doing well.

My son that we talked about some time ago, is a Witness and has battled Paranoid Schizophrenia since about age 18. He has resisted treatment and medication and is currently hospitalized. I believe his disease could have been treated earlier and his outlook might have been better but the Witnesses kept him from receiving treatment and treated my attempts to intervene as an attempt to interfere with his Witness activity. I first put a 72 hour hold on him when he was 20 years old. He is now almost 28.

He was working for the publishing corporation as a full time recruiter and hiding his delusions and other symptoms from them I suspect. I saw his behavior as beyond off, although I did not know the disease was Schizophrenia when I put the first hold on him. The group seems to me to have a paranoid outlook and I think his paranoid delusions fit and initially were not seen as out of the ordinary by them. Now I think they recognize he is sick. He has been in trouble with the law and has made some very irrational decisions. The Witnesses do not visit him in the hospital and he is still shunning me and often his mother as well.

I'm not sure what effect the Witness group had on the beginning of the illness, but I can assure you they assisted him in refusing treatment and housed him when he checked out of a mental hospital against medical advise very early in the illness. They have seemed to provided the patient with the disease a fertile environment for the disease to progress without treatment and they have supported that lack of treatment.

Gary Busselman [email protected]

ballistic

Gary, I havent read these reports yet but I have come across documented evidence posed in a completely different perspective that certain types of Schizophrenia patients are attracted to religious cults / extreme religious views. This is an established fact in the medical world.

garybuss

Hi Ballistic, Our poor kids were infected on every level. Both their mother and I were third generation corporate agents for the Watch Tower Publishing Corporation. They were set up. I feel so sorry for them. My life results from being exposed to this group have been just terrible. Gary

new study about JW mental health

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