Attacks Faced by Psychology of Religion

The history of Psychology of Religion has not always been pleasant and smooth it had to survive the difficulties and attacks on it like any other growing discipline. During the beginning of this century Psychology of Religion faced severe attacks from German and French sociological schools. 'The German attack was lead by W. Wundt, in his monumental; 'Volkerpsychologie' (1900ff): in this work, as well as attacking the Americans and their European imitators Wundt advanced anthropological reason, in a collective rather than an individual way.'

The French attack was led by Durkheim. He argued that, 'The sacred - that which for man is vested with ultimate authority is none other that the group acting on and on behalf of its constituents'. Durkheim postulated three well defined stages in the evolution of religion in 1912. They are,
1. Mythological Stage
2. Metaphysical Stage
3. Scientific Stage

Within the first quarter of the 20th century Psychology of Religion had to face two other great difficulties,
a. the study of the exceptional events such as conversions, mystical states and traumatic experiences.
b. a preoccupation with psychopathology combined with a pretended "redutionism"

Starbuck, J.H. Leuba and J. Marechel dealt with the former difficulty. Marchel showed the impossibility of applying the psychological method, either of experimentation or of clinical observation, to mystics.

It is interesting to note that the reports of the 8th International Congress of Psychology in 1926 does not show any reports on psychology of mystics.Those reports started appearing only since the Symposium on the Psychology of Religion at the 16th Congress (Brussels-1957) and at the 17th Congress (Bonn-1960).

The second difficulty is due to the belief the certain mental illnesses such as obsessional neurosis, could be explained in a mechanical way, basing the argument on elemental needs like security and reduction of anxiety. But after 1930 researches were conducted which used statistical indices and other methods that were used in the observations of non religious behaviour to the Psychology of Religion. These experiments used attitude scales, multiple choice questionnaires and projective techniques.