Anton Boisen revisited

Anton Boisen was both a psychologist of religion and a schizophrenic. His autobiography presents his "case history" but leaves many of his psychotic communications and experiences uninterpreted. This essay attempts to account for Boisen's most idiosyncratic psychotic products, drawing on theories of Jung and Bateson. Boisen and Jung both used experiences deriving from psychotic episodes to shape their subsequent life work. Boisen remained within liberal Protestantism, relinquishing his own "crazy" critique of Christianity developed during his mental illness. This critique is expressed through Boisen's notion of the "Family of Four", a plan for world renewal that he himself never adequately interpreted.