Divinity School May Give Courses Connecting Religion to Psychiatry

The Divinity School may offer courses which link religion and psychiatry next fall, Dean Horton said yesterday.

The courses would institute a cooperative program between the Divinity School and the National Academy of Religion and Mental Health, a recently formed association of psychiatrists and religious leaders, Horton said.

Horton hoped that the Academy will come in close contact with the Divinity School beginning next year. The School already maintains informal relations with it on a consulting basis, Horton said.

Through the National Academy of Religion and Mental Health, religion and psychiatry are getting together to see how they can help each other contribute to "the fundamental structure of life."

Leaders of the three major faiths and some of the nation's most prominent psychiatrists are taking part in this movement and met in New York yesterday to open the new academy formally. The Rev. George C. Anderson, executive director of the academy, said that planning has been under way about three years.

The academy's president is Dr. Kenneth E. Appel, head of Congress' Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health. Appel is professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and is past president of the American Psychiatric Association.

Appel declared yesterday that religion and psychiatry have many closely related aspects and can contribute to each other. No other institution has as much influence on morals and behavior patterns as religion, he added, and these influences affect people's physical and mental health.

In addition to the Harvard Divinity School, the new academy is serving as consultant to Loyola Catholic University of Chicago and Yeshiva University in New York.