bible and antisocial personality disorders (Isaiah, churches, prophets, spirits)

[wordbyrd]

someone asked what the bible says about personality disorders

.......yeah from 2 Thess chapter 2

because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.


It seems that while 'antisocial disorder' is not mentioned specifically, there may be references which seem to say that a person can go too far and cause God to leave them to their wickedness. Sometimes people in those days were said to 'have an evil spirit.'

Luke 7:21
At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.

[ShanaBrown]

I think that some personality disorders are not the direct result of the disabled person's sins. People can become anti-social for a number of reasons. They may have been abused, for example. Think of the person who was raped as an infant who may have developed a personality disorder in order to cope with the trauma. This person is sick.

[Miborn]

Hope that this helps.
Antisocial personality disorder is a condition in which people show a pervasive disregard for the law and the rights of others.
People with antisocial personality disorder may tend to lie or steal and often fail to fulfill job or parenting responsibilities.

Moderator cut: copywrite infringement -- Please copy/paste snippet only. Thanks!

Antisocial personality disorder - MayoClinic.com

[Tricky D]

Lets be honest, many prophets have been called crazy by the people they prophesized to, or they should be called crazy anyway.
What would the people, the media and the psychiatric community say today if a man ran into churches naked while prophesying against them? They would label this man as mentally ill and have him committed to a psychiatric institution. Yet this is exactly what Isaiah did in his day, as he was commanded to run into churches naked while reprimanding and prophesying against them.

Isaiah 20
3 And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia

[june 7th]

Originally Posted by wordbyrd

someone asked what the bible says about personality disorders

It seems that while 'antisocial disorder' is not mentioned specifically, there may be references which seem to say that a person can go too far and cause God to leave them to their wickedness. Sometimes people in those days were said to 'have an evil spirit.'

I suspect there is the tendency for all of us to look upon much that took place in the bible using our "modern day minds." While I am not questioning the reality of what could easily be described as "aberrant behavior" in much of what exists in the bible, I tend to wonder about the notion of "diagnoses."

Believe it or not, I am probably more comfortable thinking about alot of the actions and behaviors written about in the bible in "biblical terms." I find it easier to think "evil spirit" than I do "antisocial personality disorder." I absolutely see where wordbyrd is going in terms of asking what would account for the various things (behaviors, actions) in the bible. However: The DSM and all it's diagnoses are new. They were forumulated in the mid 1950's. But most of all, they are very culturally determined.

Again, I can't believe that June (of all people!) would be more inclined to think "evil spirits, unspecified type" even given her "psychologically oriented" mindset! --It's just that I am not sure that we can superimpose our modern day minds and concepts on both another time period and culture...

--But I am truly curious what others think!!! What I've written here is just my "two cents" and take on the issue.

Take gentle care.

[Padgett2]

The Times do change! And so does our thinking on medical and mental problems.

I remember that in my grandmother's time, and the same thinking carried over into my mother's, that it was not uncommon to think that a woman lost her mind because of "going through the change." It drove her crazy. Now, we don't chalk it up to menopause, but to Alzheimers or some other senile dementia.

In Biblical times, if a woman lived long enough to go through menopause, it was probably thought of as having her mind stolen by demons, or witchcraft.

[wesacat]

Originally Posted by wordbyrd

someone asked what the bible says about personality disorders

.......yeah from 2 Thess chapter 2

because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.


It seems that while 'antisocial disorder' is not mentioned specifically, there may be references which seem to say that a person can go too far and cause God to leave them to their wickedness. Sometimes people in those days were said to 'have an evil spirit.'

Luke 7:21
At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.

It is true that God may allow the sin in those who are unrepentant and arrogant to “run it’s course” and that may result in any manner of physical, mental, psychological and emotional disorders. It is also true that evil spirits exist and may cause people to behave in ways that would be labeled as a personality disorder.

However, there is also another possibility. One to which I can relate to extremely well.

In John 9 there is a story of the man born blind. One could easily replace “blindness” in this passage with any other disorder. Sometimes, God allows people to be born with or develop over their lifetime some sort of illness or disorder that seems incurable so that He can show the world just how extraordinary He can be. Having been healed of some psychological and emotional disorders, I can testify that there is NOTHING that God cannot heal. Sadly, my healing, in much the same way as the man in John 9, brought to light just how prejudice people can be towards those with such disorders, particularly in the religious community.

As I posted in another thread, If you pray for someone to be healed, how will you react if God actually heals them!? (a rhetorical question, just something to think about. )

[Tricky D]

The movie At first sight (1999) with Val Kilmer and Mira Sorvino is based on a true story To see and not to see in the book An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales by neurologist Oliver Sacks.
In this case study/story a man who lost his sight at an early age regains it later in life through radical surgery. But regaining sight doesn’t automatically mean that you can see. After his vision was restored the man could not interpret depth or any other visual data.
He had to learn to translate his visual data to his non-visual data. He could identify an apple by taste, smell or touch but not by vision.
To his 'relief' he'd lost his sight again.

[june 7th]

Originally Posted by Padgett2

In Biblical times, if a woman lived long enough to go through menopause, it was probably thought of as having her mind stolen by demons, or witchcraft.

Okay, disregard what I posted above; only now, think it in reverse!

--Because June has the funny feeling that there are alot of women out there who could more than relate to the notion of their mind's being "stolen by demons!" In fact, I've heard a few claim just that!

More than ever:

Take gentle care!

[b. frank]

Originally Posted by june 7th

Believe it or not, I am probably more comfortable thinking about alot of the actions and behaviors written about in the bible in "biblical terms." I find it easier to think "evil spirit" than I do "antisocial personality disorder." I absolutely see where wordbyrd is going in terms of asking what would account for the various things (behaviors, actions) in the bible. However: The DSM and all it's diagnoses are new. They were forumulated in the mid 1950's. But most of all, they are very culturally determined.

Again, I can't believe that June (of all people!) would be more inclined to think "evil spirits, unspecified type" even given her "psychologically oriented" mindset!

I only have two problems with your comments:
1) The word "evil"
2) The word "spirits"

Of course we cannot trust our modern nomenclature to define things from the past that we cannot examine - but, just as definitely, we cannot apply ancient diagnoses to today's medical cases (i.e. people don't EVER need to be cleansed of evil spirits to get well, but they may fit the description of "antisocial disorder" perfectly). I'm not saying that our current classification system is flawless, but it is certainly more specific and accurate than "evil spirits".