Analyzing the causes of mental illnesses, you understand that all their diversity is difficult to fit into one scheme. Anyone who has been to a psychiatric hospital, seen, heard or communicated with mentally ill people, can confirm that the "spirit" of this institution is very heavy. I mean, in this case, not so much the impression of what I have seen, as the inner feeling of the heart. We have said that in the case, so to speak, of "natural" psychic pathology, the symptoms develop for biological reasons, and not because of enemy temptation. But the "atmosphere" in psychiatric clinics is significantly different from that which, for example, occurs in a somatic hospital.

What's the matter here? Maybe sometimes there is both possession and carnal illness at the same time? Most likely, so.

Bishop Luke (Voino Yasenetsky) said about this: "The causes of many mental illnesses are unknown to the most learned psychiatrists. Nor do we know the cause of violent insanity. But it seems to me beyond doubt that among the violently insane there is a certain percentage of those who are genuinely possessed."

For example, there is a category of mentally ill people who cannot stand anything churchly, whether it is prayer, sprinkling holy water, the smell of incense, etc. I know of cases when patients with epilepsy, being in a dysphoric (malicious, aggressive state of consciousness), tried to tear off crosses from their households, blasphemously treated icons and other shrines. This behavior was accompanied by swearing, shouting, and threats.

More than once I observed that the onset of mental illness coincided in time with occult "healing", infatuation with magic, witchcraft of one of the family members of the sick person. I also observed the development of mental pathology in children that arose after the suicide of the mother or father. The fact that there is a close spiritual connection between parents and children has long been well known. It is also known that if parents sin gravely, do not repent and do not correct themselves, then children often suffer greatly. And sometimes they get mentally ill. From my practical work, I have also drawn the following conclusion: the overwhelming majority of children born out of wedlock have one or another deviation, including psychopathological or personality.

Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh writes in his article "Psychoillness: Punishment or the Cross?": "There is a passage that may puzzle us, but which cannot be dismissed in the writings of St. John of Kronstadt, where, mentioning mental illnesses, he says that there are souls so fragile that they would be shattered by the coarseness and cruelty of the world around them. And the Lord allows that a veil of mental illness falls between them and the world in order to separate these souls from what could ruin their integrity. And behind this veil, the soul matures and changes, and the person grows. I remember this place especially because I saw it in reality.

Many years ago, when I was still a doctor in France, I was asked about an artist. There was an outstanding iconographer in our midst who began to go crazy. His mother and sister did what many do: they did not want to upset him. And when he said that he smelled sulfur, they pretended to sniff and said: "Yes, really..." – while, of course, they didn't perceive any of this, because none of this happened!

When the disease began to progress, they turned to me, as a doctor, with a question. As I said earlier, I was a doctor at the time and I was asked as such. They told me: "We sprinkled him with holy water, he confessed, we served molebens, we anointed him, we communed him – and there was no healing. He still continues to get sick ... What should I do?" I said, "Just send him to the hospital to get electrotherapy." I remember with what indignation I was answered then: "Are you an unbeliever?! Do you think that the power of prayer cannot do what an electric shock can do?! And what if it is the devil who is at work in him?!" I said, "You know what, if it's the devil working in him, the electric shock won't do the devil any harm, but it can save the man..." This was met with great indignation, but the patient still had to be sent to the hospital. I worked in this hospital at that time and therefore saw him every single day. He was in the hospital for about a year. He blasphemed, he fought, he was completely insane. It was impossible to enter into any contact with him, to anyone... And then suddenly he came to his senses.

When he left the hospital healed, thanks to medical care, it turned out that what John of Kronstadt had spoken about had happened to him. Still inexperienced, although very gifted, not yet fully mature, the iconographer came out of the hospital as a mature iconographer, which he had not been before."

In most cases of mental disorders, a spiritual "diagnosis" is also appropriate. The borders here are very transparent.

And one more thing. More than once I have seen mentally ill people with a long history of illness, who, in the course of becoming churched, by the mercy of God, suffered from various incurable and incurable manifestations of illnesses. Prayer and the Holy Sacraments radically changed their mental state. Persistent delusions and hallucinations disappeared. Meaningfulness appeared in his eyes, and his well-being improved significantly. Instead of the "mask of a madman", the seal of spirituality was displayed on the face.

Professor D. E. Melekhov wrote in his work "Psychiatry and the Problems of Spiritual Life": "Under the influence of sin, the living human soul, which has not lost its conscience, experiences a sense of guilt, sorrow, torment and the need to be freed from sin. A believer goes to church for help, turns to a spiritually experienced person. He experiences spiritual pain and suffering, and sometimes bears the physical consequences of sin.

The spiritual father, as well as the psychiatrist, if he is a believer, has the first task – to make a "spiritual diagnosis", i.e. it is necessary to determine what in these sufferings of a person has a direct spiritual cause and is subject to spiritual treatment. At the same time, it is necessary to establish what in his experiences turns out to be a manifestation of a mental illness that has its cause in disorders of brain activity or the whole body, and therefore requires medical competence...