Depressive disorders and religious conversions

The sparse psychiatric literature concerning religious conversions is reviewed. Four case histories of diagnosed depressive illness followed by religious conversion are presented. In two obsessive-compulsive patients, the religious experience failed to resolve the depression, and both ended in suicide. Two hysterical personalities had a resolution of depressive symptoms following the religious experience. The authors suggest that religious conversion dynamically strengthens repression in hysterical persons, but in some cases fails to resolve obsessive isolation of affect and ambivalence.