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Published on: September 28, 2018
Anton Boisen Reconsidered: Psychiatric Survivor and Mad Prophet
1Practical Theology and Spiritual Care, Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto, 75 Queen's Park Crescent, Toronto, ON, M5S 1K7, Canada. glenn.mccullough@utoronto.ca.
Abstract:
Anton Boisen was a seminal figure in the psychology of religion and pastoral psychology, but scholars have remained skeptical about his theoretical contributions and have perpetuated the stigma surrounding his psychiatric diagnosis and incarceration. I argue that Boisen was a prophet, ahead of his time, and that the academy has been slow to hear his salient critiques of the psychiatric system, and his contention that "psychosis" and "mystical experience" are overlapping phenomena. Most significantly, scholars have ignored the kernel of prophetic truth in Boisen's own visionary experience, which, remarkably, in 1920, predicted the ecological crisis of our current age. Reclaiming Boisen's unique voice might help us reclaim the uniqueness of the disciplines he helped birth.
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