Physicians Who Can’t Heal Themselves

 

“Psychologists and psychiatrists have the highest percentage of any profession under the care of psychiatrists, committing suicide, divorcing, and on prescription drugs. Consulting them is like asking directions of someone who is himself hopelessly lost.“

David Hunt, Psychology and the Church

I shared this with some people recently, and while this might be pretty well known to those who have examined the psychological profession closely in the past, many ordinary people who might be tempted to look to a psychologist for help may not be aware of this. Well, now you know, now you know that those who purport to be the experts at helping people deal with emotional issues, are often those most in need of help,

-        “Psychologists are at greater risk of dying by suicide, and the rates may be increasing.

-        Factors including the burden of managing care for vulnerable individuals contribute to psychologist suicide.”[1]...

...The Link Between Psychologists and Suicide

A significant body of research shows that health professionals in general are at an elevated risk of death by suicide, but research on the risk of suicide in psychologists specifically is limited and mixed. However, most research does indicate that suicide is a problem among psychologists. Some past findings include:

- Older data suggest that more than 1 in 4 psychologists have felt suicidal: A 1994 sample of 800 psychologists found that most had received therapy themselves. Of the psychologists who had received therapy, 61 percent reported a history of clinical depression, 29 percent reported a history of suicidal ideation, and 4 percent reported a suicide attempt.

- Rates may be increasing over time: Compared to the 1994 study, a 2002 sample of 1000 psychologists found that 62 percent of respondents were depressed, and 42 percent of that depressed population experienced suicidal ideas or behaviour.

- Professional stressors often contribute to psychologists feeling suicidal: A 2009 survey found that 40 to 60 percent of responding psychologists reported disruption in their professional functioning because of burnout, anxiety, or depression, and 18 percent reported suicidal ideation while dealing with personal and professional stressors or challenges.

- Psychologists may have the fourth highest rate of suicide among health professions: In a sample of 4,733 suicides across various health professions from 2003-2018 psychologists had the fourth highest rate of suicide.”[2]

Human mental health was never meant to be attended to by a pseudo-scientific profession. Human beings are comprised of body, mind and soul, and all three of these things need to be in good health for us to be in optimal physical or mental health. Psychology, literally ‘soul science, is a profession that purports to be able to heal the body and the mind, often without even recognizing the reality of the soul, and the importance of spiritual factors in the mental health of any given person.

As I said in a sermon recently, we Christians often forget just what an advantage we have over many people in this world, because we know that our sins are forgiven. Just the burden that this takes off our minds is incredible. Many people in our world live in expectation of some kind of judgment or reckoning, and this is not just true of the religious. Even our modern secular world is fixated on a hypothesized human driven climate catastrophe that is meant to strike in some not to distant future and bring about a reckoning on all humankind for the way we have treated this planet. Imagine living with this sense of dread, and having no spiritual relief or recognition that there is a way for your sins to be forgiven? This is how much of the world lives, this is how many psychologists live. No wonder so many people are depressed. 

Of course, there is much more that goes into a good state of mental and spiritual health, like being accepted into a loving family and wider fellowship, eating well, looking after our bodies, getting out into nature, working hard, but in a balanced way, taking rest, getting enough sleep, and much more. But the truth is that the Bible gives good advice about all of this and much more. Psychology can speak to many of these material needs for human beings, but it offers nothing for the soul and for spiritual matters. And this is an area where both psychologists and their patients are in desperate need for counsel.

Psychology is a sick profession, in large part because its own therapists themselves are deeply spiritually ill and in need of healing, so they do not really have much to offer people. Christianity was designed to fill this gap. I hope the church remembers this.

 

List of References

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[1] Simon Sherry, 2024, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psymon-says/202302/why-are-psychologists-at-greater-risk-of-suicide

[2] Ibid.