intellectica 2008/3, n° 50

Religion and Cognition

Mark R. ANSPACH

The birth of divinity and of insanity

Abstract: Is the belief in the existence of a transcendent being a mere « God delusion », as devoid of any real referent as the ravings of the mad ? For Durkheim, such a being truly does exist in the shape of the totality of individuals, transcendent with respect to those who compose it. Here we will analyze certain Vedic myths which provide a glimpse of how a divinity is born out of the collectivity, and we will compare these myths to the accounts of patients suffering from nascent psychosis in order to suggest that even the ravings of the mad are not devoid of any real referent : they reflect the identification of the individual with the totality of other human beings. This identification is based on universal processes of imitation.

Keywords: religious belief; Vedic mythology; nascent psychosis; imitation.

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