Psychiatry and religion: consensus reached!

ABSTRACT

In December 2015 the Executive Committee of the World Psychiatric Association accepted a position statement on spirituality and religion in psychiatry. In this contribution the author will (briefly) sketch the background of the development of this position statement, and the criteria it needs to fulfil. The aim of the final result will be explained, and some desiderata with regard to its future will be expressed. The full text of the Position Statement as it has been published in World Psychiatry (February 2016) is added as appendix (permission granted by the editor).

KEYWORDS:

• World Psychiatric Association (WPA)
• position statement
• biopsychosocial-religious/spiritual model
• religion
• spirituality
• science
• dialogue

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Founding chair emeritus professor Herman M. van Praag (Netherlands) and co-chair professor Driss Moussaoui (University of Casablanca, Morocco).

2 Director of the Research Center in Spirituality and Health (NUPES) at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora.