The Psychiatric Study of Jesus: Exposition and Criticism

by Albert Schweitzer

Author's doctoral thesis attempts to refute arguments of several critics who claimed Jesus was a paranoiac. The first English translation of the author's M.D. thesis, Strassburg, 1913.

Genres: Christian

79 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1913

About the author

Albert Schweitzer, M.D., OM, was an Alsatian theologian, musician, philosopher, and physician. He was born in Kaisersberg in Alsace-Lorraine, a Germanophone region which the German Empire returned to France after World War I. Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of historical Jesus current at his time and the traditional Christian view, depicting a Jesus who expected the imminent end of the world. He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 for his philosophy of "reverence for life", expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and sustaining the Lambaréné Hospital in Gabon, west central Africa.

Reviews

[Will Staton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schweitzer's intellect is evident, but I didn't realize this short piece was his rebuttal to many early 20th-century psychiatrists who used Schweitzer's previous groundbreaking work on the historical Jesus to build their case for Jesus suffering from some form of mental illness.

Schweitzer responds to these critics, and three in particular, by building a psychiatric and historical case to prove that Jesus was not suffering from a mental illness, but that his words and ideas made sense in the context of his place in history. Schweitzer draws on his own historical and psychiatric knowledge to make this case. His historical points are compelling, but much of the psychiatric evaluation now seems remarkably outdated (both Schweitzer's and his critics').

An interesting read if one has the context and the interest (I had previously read Schweitzer's text on the historical Jesus), but not something to pick up for a casual read.

[James Herrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting work. This would essentially be the source work behind C.S. Lewis's comment that either Jesus was who he said he was, or he was a raving lunatic. I had not, until reading this, ever considered that anyone actually thought he was a raving lunatic. This was a very nice defense of the sanity of Jesus... for what that's worth.

[Karina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very short thesis, I think it took me less than an hour to read. Very difficult to follow because he is assuming you have read two other writers and knocking their arguments down. If you didn't read them, it is hard to know if his arguments are sound. Also the psychiatric terms are so outdated it was hard to know what illness or symptom he is referencing.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it interesting to see how Schweitzer attempts through this doctoral dissertation to dispute the turn of the 20th Century psychoanalytic studies of Jesus that thought of him as paranoid person subject to hallucinations and the like.