RLG211H1

Psychology of Religion

This course focuses upon the psychology of religion from the perspectives of psychoanalysis, affective neuroscience, attachment theory and evolutionary psychology. We explore the nature of religious beliefs, experiences and practices as interactive creations of mind and culture. We will inquire into the relationship between belief and knowledge, subjective and objective experience/reality, phantasy, dreams and reality. How does the unconscious create and shape religious beliefs, experiences and practices? How have the insights of the founders of the field been updated by contemporary neuroscientific and evolutionary theories? We consider visionary, esoteric and paranormal experiences and consider the distinctions between mental health and pathology.