Older Workers

TL;DR: Older workers are at risk of pathologizing religion and spiritual experience. This risk is mitigated in DSM-IV by ' Z ' codes for relevant psychoreligious and psychospiritual experiences.

Abstract: the risk of pathologising religion and spiritual experience. This is avoided in DSM-IV by ' Z ' codes for relevant psychoreligious and psychospiritual experiences. Other obstacles identified include the differences between patients and practitioners in religious beliefs, the risk of inappropriate pressure on patients from the religious beliefs of practitioners and feasibility problems connected with measuring the existential rather than the purely nominal value of religion. Attribution theory, personal construct theory and interpersonal and psychodynamic theories are suggested as ways of approaching religious experience in psychiatric research.