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Psychosis

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What is psychosis? How is it related to religion and religious factors?

Psychoses are psychiatric illnesses normally distinguished from neuroses, the other main group of psychiatric disorders. In psychosis the degree of impairment and lack of insight are said to be more severe than in neurosis. Psychotic illnesses have been categorized into two broad groups: the schizophrenic disorders and the bipolar disorders. There are significant concerns about the use of these diagnostic categories, but they are likely to remain in use for the foreseeable future. In schizophrenia, the individual normally shows a marked deterioration in self-care, work functioning, and/or social relations, and moods may be inappropriate. There may be genetic susceptibility to stress and cannabis use, making the appearance of schizophrenia more likely. Symptoms normally include two or more of delusions, hallucinations, incoherent speech, catatonic behavior (rigid, frozen posture), and flat or very inappropriate mood...

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Loewenthal, K.M. (2020). Psychosis. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_543

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