PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION: RELIGIOSITY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS IN THE PSYCHIC DEVELOPMENT OF SUBJECTS

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The psychology of religion emerged from the need to understand the homo religiosus that lives in each of us, permeating our psyche and its elements: the conscious, the unconscious and their manifestations. OBJECTIVE: to analyze how religiosity contributes to the formation and psychic development of individuals. METHODOLOGY: This study adopted a bibliographic, exploratory and qualitative approach as a methodology. The materials were printed books and scientific articles available in databases such as: Scientific Electronic Library Online (Scielo), Virtual Health Library (BV-Saúde), Electronic Journals in Psychology (Pepsi), Psychology and Religion journals, in addition to publications from renowned institutions such as PUC, USP, UFC published from 2015 to 2021. RESULTS: The results indicate that religiosity is a real aspect of the psyche and fundamentally interferes in the structuring process of the individual's psychological development, which it moves man towards the search for meaning and permeates a large part of his life in its broadest aspects, from relational, professional to strictly personal. In addition, it was found that the psychology professional has an active role in the analysis and interpretation of religious phenomena and experiences. CONCLUSION: This study sought to leave the simplistic idea that religion is only of an institutional nature and sought to discard the fact that religiosity is limited to when the client talks about God, faith or their external practices. In this way, this scientific study contributes to the deepening of the religious character of the human psyche and the phenomenon of religiosity, which is a psychological phenomenon and inherent to every being that lives and thinks, that is, the psychologist must not only expect that religiosity manifest abruptly, but base your analysis on discovering where this phenomenon is alive in the subject's personal life. For, as Von Franz (2021) apud Jung (1932) states: “the only way in which God has ever spoken to man is through the psyche, and the psyche understands it and we experience it as something psychic. Anyone who calls it psychologism is denying the eye that beholds the sun.”