Teaching residents about religion and spirituality.

As our nation has grown and continued to accept immigrants from around the world, multiculturalism has become the norm, and the growth of different religions or different subunits of certain religions (e.g., Islam and Hispanic Pentecostalism) is part of this trend. The mass media describe the general public’s rising interest in matters spiritual and religious, and point to the incredible range of religious expression in the United States—from Jainism in Michigan to a motorcycle “Christ Club” in New Jersey.1,2 Religious and spiritual concerns imbue the current political climate: the recent drive for “faith-based initiatives” by President George W. Bush has brought the debate about the separation of church and state back to the fore, and the events of September 11, 2001, have directed attention anew to how religious beliefs can be distorted to justify extreme violence. Historically, psychiatry has itself also struggled with the role of religion and spirituality in a person’s life—from Freud’s dismissal of religion as “mass delusion”3 to the view now generally held that religious beliefs and practices are deeply connected to the patient’s developmental history and therefore should be part of the psychiatric interview.4−6 Clinicians have described the importance of including religion in the assessment of patients facing serious medical illness or death.7 Others have explored the role of spirituality and religious issues in psychotherapy8,9 and in the assessment of suicide risk.10