The Disenchanted Self: Anthropological Notes on Existential Distress and Ontological Insecurity Among ex-Mormons in Utah.
Cult Med Psychiatry
; 44(2): 193-213, 2020 Jun.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31463757
This paper describes a pervasive form of psychological distress occurring among people undergoing a sudden and acute collapse of faith in the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka LDS, or Mormon Church). Drawing on 18 months of fieldwork in Utah, I trace the cultural-historical etiology of this unique form of psycho-existential trauma, focusing on ex-Mormons' narratives of 'world collapse'-in which the all-encompassing symbolic-existential framework of reality once provided by religion disintegrated once they lost faith in the Mormon Church. Although marked by symptoms resembling depression, anxiety, dissociation and paranoia, this condition is however unlike mental health disorders described in psychiatric diagnostic manuals, and has thus been largely overlooked within the mental health professions. I thereby discuss the extent to which the distress of religious disenchantment constitutes a unique form of 'cultural syndrome' (Hinton and Lewis-Fernandez in Cult Med Psychiatry 34(2):209-218, 2010), reflective of complex historical, cultural, and religious transformations occurring within contemporary Utah Mormonism.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días
/
Distrés Psicológico
/
Trastornos Mentales
Tipo de estudio:
Diagnostic_studies
Límite:
Humans
País/Región como asunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Cult Med Psychiatry
Año:
2020
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos
Pais de publicación:
Países Bajos