Kathleen Taylor from the University of Oxford is suggesting that 'one day' religious fundamentalism may be classified as a mental disorder and treated as a curable mental disorder...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/31/kathleen-taylor-religious-fundamentalism-mental-illness_n_3365896.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
I find this dangerous and misleading...the first bells that go off in my mind are Foucault's critique of mental health and power. By doing this we marginalize and cast away those we do not want in our society. One easy way to do it outside of the criminal justice system is the mental health system. They are the abnormals of our society.
Secondly, Taylor's vision fails to recognize those who effectively leave fundamentalist groups or whatever radical abusive "belief systems" they adopt. Granted that there must be neural activity in relation to the way persons think about certain things including those that are considered to be most radical. It does not extend that they are necessarily "mental disorders." This is folly and falls into an elusive domain of how to categorize mental disorders. Talking about 'down's syndrome' or some other neurodegenerative disorder like parkinson's is not quite the same as talking about fundamental Christians or fundamental Muslims.
I haven't read her book, The Brain Supremacy, so I can't formulate a complete opinion of her views but I am weary of this idea of hers equating "brainwashed" individuals as a mental disorder. The criteria of "brainwashed" is problematic and...if we wanted to we could include any number of those persons with dogmatic beliefs in what is correct and incorrect or right and wrong. Hell, we could label those who love Ayn Rand as brainwashed and in need of treatment for their mental disorder...
A thought-provoking suggestion nonetheless...
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