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Pastoral Psychol (2009) 58:183191 DOI 10.1007/s11089-008-0142-1
God Diagnosed with Bipolar I
Philip Browning Helsel
Published online: 13 August 2008# Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008
Abstract The ancient Scriptures of the Judeo-Christian tradition portray a God whose behavior is erratic, unstable, and often cruelly violent. The attempt to understand, and even come to worship, this God has often required a sacrifice of the intellect. This article explores the behavior of this God in light of the diagnosis of Bipolar I in the Bible, exploring the characteristics, causes, course, consequences, and curability of Bipolar I through Gods purported activity. The value of the treatment is heuristic in that it provides an opportunity for a sustained engagement with a description of Bipolar I that will be accessible to those from the Judeo-Christian tradition. At the same time, it playfully makes space for alternative images of God that move away from the cruelty and violence often implicated within the tradition.
Keywords God . Mental illness . Kay Redfield Jamison . Hebrew Bible . Diagnosis
Introduction
The nucleus of this article came from correspondence with my professor, Donald Capps, in which I shared an article from the satirical newspaper, The Onion, in which a psychiatrist diagnosed God with bipolar disorder (God diagnosed with bipolar disorder 2001). In following conversations, a range of possible psychiatric diagnoses became evident from the witness of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures. While Capps and Carlin have forwarded different diagnoses, I will continue in the vein of The Onions satirical piece, arguing that the diagnosis of Bipolar I is indeed the most appropriate one to apply to Gods behavior. Capps (2008) has challenged the methodology of The Onion article and proposed the diagnosis of a personality disorder based upon important Biblical themes, and Carlin (2008) has grappled with the question of playfulness as an appropriate activity within theology while making his treatment specifically theological.
P. B. Helsel (*)
Princeton Theological Seminary, 303 Emmons Dr. Apt 8B, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA e-mail: [email protected]
184 Pastoral Psychol (2009) 58:183191
Certainly, such a treatment will be unsettling to some because of its irreverence, but it might be another form of faithful religious expression, manifesting some of the qualities of skepticism that are a consistent part of the Hebrew and...