Investigating the Lived Experience of Religion in People with Neurotic and Borderline Personality Organization: A Phenomenological Study

Research in the field of religion has always been accompanied by many complications, which is partly due to the lack of a single definition of this concept. In order to provide a precise definition of religion, we have to know its nature in people's minds. Personality is an important factor that affects the formation of mental perceptions in people. The aim of the present study was to determine and investigate the lived experience of religion in people with neurotic and borderline personality organization: a phenomenological study.

The present qualitative descriptive study was conducted by phenomenological method in 2019. The data collection method was a semi-structured interview and the sample group included 10 interviewees who were selected by purposive sampling and divided into two groups. People with neurotic personality organization (5 people) and borderline personality organization (5 people) were categorized. Interviews with each person lasted between 120 and 420 minutes and were conducted on one to six occasions. The interviews continued until theoretical saturation and a total of 2890 minutes of interviews were conducted. Data were analyzed by Moustakas method.

The most important categories discovered in the border organization included individual-centered religiosity, religious instability, religious excitement, and a fragmented one-dimensional God. People with borderline personality organization have an unstable image of God in their mind and their relationship with God changes under the influence of momentary emotions. The most important categories obtained in the neurotic organization were duty-oriented religiosity, religious perfectionism, religiosity based on suspicion and relatively consistent God. The image of God in the minds of people with neurotic personality organization is highly stable; The integrity of the idea of God makes a person's relationship with God not affected by momentary emotions.

The results of the present study revealed that religion had different qualities in the minds of people with different personality organizations and despite these differences in belief and behavior, people at all levels consider themselves believers in the same religion. The results indicated that at the lower levels of the spectrum of personality organization, personality acts as a vessel in which the content of religion is poured and religion takes on the color of personality, and people's interpretation of religion and the quality of their religious behavior is based on their personality and as we move towards higher levels of personality organization, a dialogue takes place between religion and personality, which causes personality to be influenced by religion.