Analysis of ‘The Exorcist’

For a very long time, religion has frequently been at the core of human thinking, and this has shaped and still shapes the collective beliefs of society. Religion is regarded as the pursuit of humanity that affects all cultural norms, ideals, and moral principles as well as how people think and act in these societies by providing the answers to fundamental concerns about human existence. Even though many of the first medical institutions were founded in conjunction with religions, psychiatrists like Charcot and Freud later questioned the relationship between the two factors because they saw religion as a misguided phenomenon that should not be integrated into the treatment of people with mental illnesses. The relationship between religion and psychiatry has been under extensive studies, illustrating substantial correlations between the two mentioned variables. Nevertheless, in the recent years, the scientific approaches concerning this field are multidimensional and complex. Social media today has taken the center in influencing how we live and perceive ideas around us, and this has been a topic of discussion in psychiatric associations. In relation to religion, social media has become a modern religion as it is a platform influencing people's values and beliefs towards self and life. Regarding this, social media is now a variable that affects human relation and perspective towards various ideas and beliefs as well as understanding and altering the ideas that have been existing for a long time. Therefore, here we consider how social media influences the relationship between religion and psychiatry while exploring the 1973 drama/horror film The Exorcist.

Analysis of ‘The Exorcist’

The Exorcist is a supernatural horror film released in 1973 based on a novel of the same name by Peter Blatty and remains to be one of the most recognized films in the genre of psychiatry and religion. The film revolves around a girl named Regan who after playing an Ouija board and contacting some demonic powers, she starts to act strangely. The act forces her mother Chris to contact numerous physicians, but according to the doctors, they find that there is nothing wrong with Regan. After a series of events that include the death of her sitter, the police investigation involves a Father Damien Karras who is a psychiatrist and a priest with weakened faith in God. In trying to understand Regan’s problem, the psychiatrists undermine the role of religion in accepting that the child is indeed possessed. However, when science fails, the agnostic mother decides to apply exorcism as the last option in saving her daughter, and this happens to Regan regain her normal self.

The film is an obvious example of the fragile connection between religion and psychiatry and Father Damian Karras, the priest and the psychiatrist is the model of the medium linking the two variables. In most cases where an individual has a mental illness, to many people, religion becomes the last resort when everything else fails. It means that religion, as displayed in the film, is a matter of what one sees and believes rather than believing and then followed by seeing. In arriving at this point, we can see religion from another interesting perspective from the movie when Regan is playing the Ouija; religion is based on points of view as the girl was able to believe in the presence of a dead or evil spirit but would not base her faith in God. Such elements allow us to understand how media has shaped the idea of what people believe in today. In the modern culture, people tend to relate religion to negative images, and it is because of this that when Chris is recommended to see a Catholic priest, she claims with disbelief that she is unwilling to see a witch doctor.

The Role of Religion in Psychiatry

Religion is traceable back to a primitive man who embraced primitive religion and based his worship on elements such as the sun, the moon, water, air, etc. However, as man advanced and became civilized, the institutionalization of religions began. Though there are numerous religions existing today, they share similar characteristics. In psychiatry, religion has often been the source of guidelines based on the fact that people’s beliefs shaped the way they faced and dealt with problems arising in their daily lives. According to Prakash et al. (187), believers show the ability to tolerate stress and uncertainties of life, but if not carefully understood, certain beliefs systems and outmoded rituals may inhibit positive development and cause mental illness. The birth of psychiatry developed from religion with two different aims, that is, helping people cope with stress in their lives while at the same time liberating people from anxiety brought about by religious superstition (Curlin 1827). The idea of religion assist people in dealing with uncertainties in various aspects of life is known as religious coping. It is significant to understand that different aspects of religion have either positive or negative influence on an individual’s health and this is the approach mostly embraced by the many modern psychiatrists (Kendler et al., 499).

Some of the latest psychiatry and religion research suggests that primary importance of understanding the relationship between the two is not in acknowledging the religious beliefs in general, but rather in understanding the various coping strategies as offered by religion (Baetz et al., 656). Religion provides a background reflecting functional expressions of religiosity in stressful circumstances. Another core foundation of religion as the backbone of psychiatry is the idea that religion promotes mental hygiene movement. Moral hygiene movement is a philosophy emphasized with religious values as a way of removing any physical restraints while encouraging human care that supports religious and moral uplift in hospital performances (Hart and Div 538). The philosophy promotes the integration of clergy and other individuals in psychiatry in treating the sick, particularly the mentally ill, with the perspective that patients are psychosomatic beings. Such ideas have promoted progressive interests by many researchers in trying to understand how religion, until today, continues to influence the various perspectives of psychiatry and psychosocial development of individuals.

The Different Perspectives towards Religion in Psychiatry

As already established, religion is a universal human phenomenon that shapes many cultural parameters, ideal, moral concepts and how people think and behave. It is a practice that deals with sacred sphere ritually or non-ritually as a way of interpreting daily and extraordinary experiences, the interaction with social norms as embedded in the complex human system (Behere et al. 189). In psychology and psychiatry, there has been an increasing interest in understanding both the positive and negative effects of religion on people’s mental health, and as a result, there has been opposing perspectives regarding the relationship between religion and psychiatry on human well-being.

It is hard to establish a rationale direction of the correlation between the two variables and therefore the researchers trying to identify this analyze a thin spectrum of religious aspects in comparison to the wide range of clinical representation. The result does not disclose their directionality but rather only reveals either a positive or negative statistics in the relationship (Krok 6). Other studies have shown that there is a positive relationship between extrinsic religiousness and depressive symptoms and these same symptoms had a negative correlation to intrinsic religiousness (Krok 6).

In support of integrating religion into psychiatry was Rev. Anton Boisen commonly recognized as the father to the clinical pastoral movement who stated that mental problems are primarily organic in origin, and instead they are spiritual troubles (Hart and Div 537). The Church needs to foster physicians who carry a sound and systematic assessment of spiritual pathology (Hart and Div 537). Verhagen (356) also argues that religion and psychiatry should not be based on the description of gathering evidence and empirical testing and instead the two should mutually work together to achieve a common goal.

On the other end of the argument against incorporating religion into psychiatry is Nietzsche who believed that belief in the existence of a higher power is misguidance because its philosophies lack fixed truth (Yalom 2). Human experiences are products of neuronal behavior powered by electrochemical (Yalom 3). Yalom continues to explain that in psychiatry, physicians often seek to connect more with their patients authentically and deeply hence; as a result, they seek out to integrate religion with psychiatry, not because it is valid but as a common ground for a common goal (3). In relation to this perspective, other psychiatrists address the existence of a God-gene which is a by-product of natural selection (Properzi 63), and therefore, according to these arguments, it is senseless to misguide mentally-ill patients to hold onto a delusional reality that does not exist.

Role of Social Media in the Relationship

Social media occupies the center of the culture today as it is a platform for interaction, sharing and gaining information. In this age of diversity and plurality of religion, questions often arise regarding the interaction and intersection of faith and popular culture. The religious institution serves as a source of social pedagogy, and social media plays the same role as well, but with an additional power of defining how we think towards faith related forces such as religion. In most cases, social media use the concept of propaganda when it comes to matters of faith. They manipulate symbols to influence attitudes and any different issues, and this triggers the question of the extent to which media uses religious characters to change the attitudes of the audience towards faith.

In analyzing the film The Exorcist, it is easy to underline the role of religion as portrayed by the characters. The problem is an individual who suffers from an all over sudden mental illness, and the mother has to find a solution for saving her daughter. She is challenged by the ultimatum of accepting the existence of a higher being and dark forces which are often disregarded by science. The consumer’s view towards religious groups can be weakened, altered or reinforced based on what the religion's representation in the media. According to Stout and Buddenbaum (42), modern cults and religious movements influence the conscious of people today by using social media as a medium and in turn, consumers will receive an interpret the given information in one way or another.

The film The Exorcist is a perfect example of how media can be used in shaping the people’s consciousness concerning religion and psychiatry. The movie shows the significance of the relationship between religion and psychiatry; this is exemplified by using Father Karras, a psychiatrist who was once a believer but lost its faith. In a way, the movie communicates the importance of understanding the underlying aspects in the two variables as a way of knowing their limits. As already stated, media influences how we perceive and interpret things and from the movie the idea offered is that psychiatry without religion is nothing. When the dark spirits attack Regan, her mother Chris, responded the way any other normal person would have reacted, assuming that the child has mental illness because of the developing risk factors such as the absence of a father in her life. Analyzing this scene, it means that people do not believe in matters of spirituality despite its power and influence on aesthetics of psychiatry.

It is significant to understand that the objects and symbols that human interact with directly alters and fosters their views of the world in which they live. The need to have a meaningful orientation drives humans, and this is what social media bestows (Griswold 42). Referring to the film The Exorcist, when the audience starts watching the movie, their first reaction is to relate their lives to the presented conflicts, after all, mental illness and issues related to is becoming a menace to the society today. In doing so, we imagine what would happen if we or anyone close to us is in the same condition. The movie presents the audience with two options of either trusting science or religion, but when science fails to help Regan, the solution offered is the other variable, religiosity or spirituality. Therefore, even anyone who was previously an atheist or Protestant, after watching the movie, their view towards the relationship between religion and psychiatry will change. To this category of consumers will believe that psychiatry is ineffective and that mental illnesses are matters of spirituality that only religion can help.

Conclusion

The relationship between religion and psychiatry runs both ways, and in supporting Rev. Anton Boisen's perspective on the two variables, religion needs to be incorporated into psychiatry. Embracing this philosophy enhances the understanding of the patients and how to help them using aesthetics of the both religion and psychiatry. It is because of this reason that the film used a character that is both a church Father and a psychiatrist in finding the solution Regan’s problem. Media is a tool used by many and that additionally influences people’s views towards various matters in the society. For the sake of consumers, social media should be used to impact their perspectives towards different disciplines positively instead of undermining the role of one while over-praising the other. In conclusion, the relationship between religion and psychiatry often involves studying religiosity and its beliefs from a psychological perspective, and this is limiting, but rather, it is imperative to understand the models of human and how both variables affect their well-being. The best tool to use is social media as it is the platform that models the current culture.

















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