Editing Demon (section)

== Psychological interpretations ==
=== Islamic world ===
A minority of Muslim scholars in the Medieval Age, often associated with the [[Muʿtazila]] and the [[Jahmi|Jahmītes]], denied that demons (jinn, devils, divs etc.) have physicality and asserted, they could only affect the mind by ''[[Waswas|waswās]]'' ({{langx|ar|وَسْوَاس}}, 'demonic whisperings in the mind').<ref name="Böttcher–2021"/>{{rp|style=ama|p= 73}}<ref>Dein, Simon, and Abdool Samad Illaiee. "Jinn and mental health: looking at jinn possession in modern psychiatric practice." The Psychiatrist 37.9 (2013): 290-293.</ref> Some scholars, like [[ibn Sina]],<ref>Rosen, L. (2008). Varieties of Muslim Experience: Encounters with Arab Political and Cultural Life. Ukraine: University of Chicago Press.</ref>{{rp|style=ama|p= 89}} rejected the reality of jinn altogether. [[Jahiz|Al-Jāḥiẓ]] and [[Mas'udi|al-Masʿūdī]], explained jinn and demons as merely psychological phenomena.

In his ''[[Kitāb al-Hayawān]]'', al-Jāḥiẓ states that jinn and demons are the product of loneliness. Such a state induces people to mind-games, causing {{Lang|ar-latn|waswās}}.<ref name="Nünlist-2015">{{cite book |last=Nünlist |first=Tobias |year=2015 |title=Dämonenglaube im Islam |trans-title=Demonic Belief in Islam |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |isbn=978-3-110-33168-4 |language=de}}</ref>{{rp|style=ama|p=36}} Al-Masʿūdī is similarly critical regarding the reality of demons. He states that alleged demonic encounters are the result of fear and "wrong thinking". Alleged encounters are then told to other generations in bedtime stories and poems. When they grow up, they remember such stories in a state of fear or loneliness. This encourages their imaginations, resulting in another alleged demonic encounter.<ref name="Nünlist-2015"/>{{rp|style=ama|p=37}}

=== Western world ===
Psychologist [[Wilhelm Wundt]] remarked that "among the activities attributed by myths all over the world to demons, the harmful predominate, so that in popular belief bad demons are clearly older than good ones."<ref>{{harvp|Freud|1950|p=65}}, quoting Wundt (1906, 129).</ref> [[Sigmund Freud]] developed this idea and claimed that the concept of demons was derived from the important relation of the living to the dead: "The fact that demons are always regarded as the spirits of those who have died ''recently'' shows better than anything the influence of mourning on the origin of the belief in demons."<ref>{{harvtxt|Freud|1950}}</ref>

[[M. Scott Peck]], an American psychiatrist, wrote two books on the subject, ''People of the Lie: The Hope For Healing Human Evil''<ref>{{cite book |last=Peck |first=M. S. |author-link=M. Scott Peck |year=1983 |title=People of the Lie: The Hope For Healing Human Evil|publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=9780671454920 |url=https://archive.org/details/peopleofliehopef00peck |url-access=registration}}</ref> and ''Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession, Exorcism, and Redemption''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Peck |first=M. S. |author-link=M. Scott Peck |year=2005 |title=Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession, Exorcism, and Redemption|publisher=Free Press |isbn=9780743254670 |url=https://archive.org/details/glimpsesofdevila00peck |url-access=registration}}</ref> Peck describes in some detail several cases involving his patients. In ''People of the Lie'' he provides identifying characteristics of an evil person, whom he classified as having a character disorder. In ''Glimpses of the Devil'' Peck goes into significant detail describing how he became interested in [[exorcism]] in order to debunk the ''myth'' of [[Demonic possession|possession]] by evil spirits – only to be convinced otherwise after encountering two cases which did not fit into any category known to [[psychology]] or [[psychiatry]]. Peck came to the conclusion that possession was a rare phenomenon related to evil and that possessed people are not actually evil; rather, they are doing battle with the forces of evil.<ref>[http://www.salon.com/2005/01/18/peck_5/ The exorcist] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420045711/http://www.salon.com/2005/01/18/peck_5/ |date=2017-04-20}}, an interview with M. Scott Peck by Rebecca Traister published in [http://www.salon.com/index.html Salon] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051219102002/http://www.salon.com/news/col/horo/1999/12/13/betty/index.html |date=2005-12-19}}</ref>

Although Peck's earlier work was met with widespread popular acceptance, his work on the topics of evil and possession has generated significant debate and derision. Much was made of his association with (and admiration for) the controversial [[Malachi Martin]], a [[Roman Catholic]] priest and a former [[Jesuit]], despite the fact that Peck consistently called Martin a liar and a manipulator.<ref>[http://www.beliefnet.com/story/159/story_15928.html The Patient Is the Exorcist] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081005151954/http://www.beliefnet.com/story/159/story_15928.html |date=2008-10-05}}, an interview with M. Scott Peck by Laura Sheahen</ref>