When Religion Gets Sick

Preface to the Second Edition (1998)

This is the second edition of When Religion Gets Sick. The first edition was published in 1970 by the Westminster Press, long before electronic publishing came into being. Yet, the contents of the book are as true today as they were in 1969. The case histories can be found in present day mental patient's lives just as often as when the first edition was published twenty-eight years ago. In fact, it may be more prevalent today.

This book and its contents are not "arm chair" speculations by a theoretician. The book was written in the Norton Psychiatric Clinic, a teaching unit of the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Louisville over the course of a year. It was written in class collaboration with and is dedicated to Edward E. Landis, M.D., William Keller, M.D., Roger White M.D. - all board certified and experienced psychiatrists and Ms. Rebecca Gass, R.N., the head nurse.

The case material is drawn from specific but representative patients whose identity is not revealed. Pseudonyms and the changing of identifying data has been carefully done. In addition, clinical material has been taken from professional journals and books.

Even so, patients were never "used" as objects but treated reverently as persons made in the image of God and as persons for whom Christ died. They were viewed as suffering people from whom we could learn valuable truths unavailable elsewhere.

Wayne E. Oates, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus
School of Medicine
University of Louisville

October 1998

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