In a vague way, relations between religion and psychiatry are as old as civilization, but that observation is as troublesome as it is edifying. For instance, the fact that ancient temple healings of the mentally deranged in Egypt, Greece, and Rome are on record says little more, after some reflection, than that ritual played an important role in ancient medicine, as it did indeed in all walks of life. The 12th-century report of a Jewish traveler who visited Dar-el-Maristan, an asylum for the insane in Bagdad kept up by the caliphate, is intriguing as an instance of religion's concern for the mentally ill, but loses some of its charm when one hears that the patients were chained to the walls in manacles. Upon hearing that, in the 14th century, some European monasteries opened their doors to the care of lunatics, one will rejoice, until one discovers that the regimen for