Religion is largely recognized as being beneficial to the lives of humans. It can help us make sense of the world by answering the big questions of life. Religion can also bring comfort, healing, and a sense of safety from a traumatic world.
So what happens when it’s religion itself that is the source of distress and trauma?
Researchers have studied harm and abuse inside cults for years, but these environments were usually differentiated from mainline religious groups. With new reports of abuse and trauma coming out of Christian churches in recent years, people are looking deeper at the similarity between high-control Christian groups and cults, and when affinity to doctrine crosses a line and becomes dangerous.
Increasingly, researchers, clinicians, and survivors are calling this religious trauma.
When I first began researching this topic I felt uneasy about using such a strong term. After all, not all religion inflicts trauma. Even within the same denominations or churches, people experience religion differently, similar to when two people go off to war and only one develops PTSD.
But, after learning about complex trauma and listening to dozens of stories through research interviews, I have come to believe that religious trauma is definitely something that is bringing harm to a great deal of people.
Religious Trauma
Dr. Marlene Winell was the first person to use the term Religious Trauma Syndrome to describe the wide array of emotional issues people face as they leave authoritarian religions; psychological harm including fear, anger, depression, loss of self, agency, and decision-making.
After her own experience coming out of fundamentalism, Winell began to notice similar issues with her therapy patients and has focused her entire practice on helping victims and training other professionals in how to work with religious trauma ever since..
Religious trauma is different from spiritual abuse, though it can include abuse. It refers to the overlying religious system that is characterized by captivity, and psychological domination and results in an erosion of the personality, characteristics of Complex PTSD outlined by Judith Herman in her groundbreaking work, Trauma and Recovery.
Herman introduces the concept of complex trauma that goes beyond single event-driven experiences to include prolonged and repeated events that create a psychological impact of subordination inside institutional, political, and domestic systems.
When looking through Herman’s prism of captivity, domination and personality erosion, there is a clear connection between the symptoms of religious trauma and Complex PTSD.
Captivity
For Herman, complex trauma takes place in captivity where individuals are in a prison of sorts and under the control of a perpetrator. Perpetrators might be a parent, partner, leader, organization, government, or even God who becomes the dominant force in the life of the victim and shapes her world and her identity.
People can be held captive without bars, windows, or guns through psychological tactics or economic forces. This type of coercion can show up in obvious ways such as in governmental or police states, but also in more subtle ways inside families and religious institutions.
Psychological Domination
Inside a system of captivity, perpetrators exert domination through techniques designed to disempower and disconnect individuals from themselves and others. Often in religion, the tactics include Biblical literalism, fear, and shame. The subtle nature of this domination is what makes it so pervasive and dangerous because it allows people who wouldn’t otherwise condone violence or abuse to dismiss it or turn a blind eye.
Erosion of Personality
The result of captivity and psychological domination is a perversion of identity where there is a loss of self and helplessness, passivity, entrapment to the past, intractable depression, somatic complaints, and smoldering anger.
People subjected to prolonged, repeated trauma develop an insidious, progressive form of post-traumatic stress disorder that invades and erodes the personality. While a victim of chronic trauma may feel after the event that he is ‘not herself’, the victim of chronic trauma may feel herself be changed irrevocably, or she may lose the sense that she has any self at all. (Herman)
In my research, I heard story after story from people who felt this profound identity loss or distortion coming out of Christian fundamentalism.
Connecting the Dots
Herman’s categories of captivity, psychological domination, and the erosion of personality are evident in Marlene Winell’s descriptions of religious trauma indicated in the chart below.
This is, of course, an oversimplified summary but is an important primer for those beginning to make connections with what their body is telling them and the current trauma science.
Religious Trauma Resources
The field of religious trauma is exploding and new resources are constantly being created. For more information or to connect with a professional, you can access these religious trauma resources.
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REFERENCES
- Almendros, Carmen, Manuel Gámez-Guadix, Álvaro Rodríguez-Carballeira, and José Antonio Carrobles. “Assessment of psychological abuse in manipulative groups.” International Journal of Cultic Studies 2 (2011).
- Herman, Judith. Trauma and Recovery. New York: Basic Books, 1992.
- Joshua Pease, “The Sin of silence”, Washington Post Online, 2028, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/05/31/feature/the-epidemic-of-denial-about-sexual-abuse-in-the-evangelical-church/
- Winell, Marlene. Leaving the Fold. Apocryphile Press, 2001.
- Image credit: Patrick Fore on Unsplash
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Beth Alford is a communication strategist, writer and independent scholar. Her writing combines her personal experiences of complex trauma with academic work in theology, religious trauma, culture and gender studies. You can find more of Beth’s work at thebethalford.com.
My only angst about the criteria for RTS is the phrase “leaving the religion or fold”. As a sufferer, it is triggering and reengaging in the torment or trauma because of the threat of things such as ECT if you recognize the abuse and try and protect yourself from further harm by “leaving the fold”. I hope this makes sense.
I have been experiencing trama for many years. I’ve lived in the Bible Belt for 34 years coming from LA. Not only has and currently is a problem, but has been the .most current preoccupation in my life; includes torment, dominance, anger, body issues, oppression, clinical depression, persecution, disturbing my work and continuously suffering: religious trama.
I’m a retired psychologist, also known as The Spiritual Psychologist online where spirituality and personal growth have been a specialty interest for nearly 50 years. (Yes, I’m that old) Currently I have released a book titled “Breaking the Spell of Religion & Healing the Trauma.” Sounds scary doesn’t it? What could this possibly have to do with spirituality? Very simple. Persons traumatized in their formative years by their native religion, catholicism in my case, have more than a Difficult time getting in touch with their deep rooted spirituality simply because it’s been buried under mounds of guilt, shame & fear, the main products of such religions. How can that be overcome? Everything we learned about dysfunctional families back in the 80s can now be applied to uncovering said trauma and helping individuals find their way to that Deepest Self, always ready to emerge once these layers of trauma have been uncovered and healed. I’ve lived this myself. That story is part of my book, which also includes the stories and life experiences of numerous individuals overcoming such challenges. For some people, walking through this minefield of assaults on their spiritual dimension is the only way Home. But it is doable, as I have experienced, and helped many others do the same. I know this is Not a Pretty Picture where achieving spiritual awareness is concerned but it is a real journey for those of us saddled with such challenges. Regardless of what path once chooses up the mountain, the view from the top is the same. Spirituality awaits and Love is the gift box it comes in.