Religion and prevention of illness in later life
Religion beliefs and behaviors are common among older adults. This is true for the elderly in the community (Princeton Religion Research Center, 1982) and those in medical outpatient settings (Koenig, Moberg, & Kvale 1988). This high prevalence of religious behaviors has intrigued medical and social scientists, who have sought to understand their psychological origin and their function in later life. Traditional ludeo-Christian teachings frequently involve suggestions and admonitions concerning physical and mental health, and belief in supernatural healing is a major component of fundamentalist and evangelical teachings and rituals. Freud believed that religion originated out of man's insecurity and helplessness against the powerful forces of nature that surrounded and threatened to overcome him. In Future of an Illusion (1927), he characterized religion as a universal neurosis and Likened it to obsessive-compulsive disorder found in the mentally disturbed. While Freud believed that adherence to the universal neurosis might spare some individuals from constructing a personal one, he also feit that religion Icd to an unhealthy repression of natural instincts. Because religion was only partially successful in controlling such impulses, psychologieal instability would follow. Freud called for the replacement of religious belief and ritual by the rational operation of the intellect, which would lead to more effective and durable control over these drives and fears.
