Psychiatry, religious conversion, and medical ethics.

The interface between religion, psychiatry, and ethics is often a locus for considerable controversy. This article focuses on the response of American psychiatry to religious nonconformism, and to religious conversion generally. At issue is the societal pressure against unpopular religious movements. The author argues for an ethic that conserves the freedom of religious conscience, and that guards against inquisitions in the guise of medical expertise and nosology.