Obsession in terms of psychology and religion -waswasah

Psychology and religion are the main areas of human interest. Psychology is necessary to know the human being, and religion is necessary to understand the belief and spiritual world of the human being. For this reason, it is also a need to examine it in every aspect with scientific studies and to seek solutions to its problems. Waswasah is one of the main human problems. Waswasah is a problem of interest in the fields of psychology and religion because it is a problem that concerns people and has a spiritual emphasis. There are some differences in the approaches of psychology and religion to the problem of waswasah. While psychology deals with the problem of waswasah by accepting it as an obsession and detaching it from spiritual reasons, religion makes suggestions that can overcome this problem with concrete data, taking into account the metaphysical reasons of waswasah. Within the framework of this article, it has been tried to reveal how psychology and religion fields ground the problem of waswasah. By revealing the similarities and differences between the obsession and compulsion problem and the waswasah problem in the field of psychology, the associations between obsession and waswasah are mentioned. There is also a misconception that obsession is the name of the problem of waswasah in the field of psychology. The problem of obsession and waswasah is similar to situations such as affecting people negatively, being in the form of whispers, inner voices, and making them helpless to act humanly. The point that waswasah disease can arise from the devils and demons, which are metaphysical entities, is the sharp theological and metaphysical differences that distinguish the obsession and waswasah from each other. Psychology suggests that metaphysical processes are far from experimentation and observation. It emphasizes that obsession problem can arise from the physiological, biological and neurological processes of the human being and their past lives. Previously, obsession and compulsion problems were attributed to metaphysical causes such as devil, demon and witch, which are explained by scientific inadequacy in terms of psychology. Repetitive behaviors to get away from repetitive thoughts and anxiety are explained with the concept of compulsion. In the article, in which a concept determined for the behaviour alized form of waswasah problem was not reached, as a result, obsession and delusions were evaluated as common problems of two different areas. It has been observed that psychologists, who prioritize religious life, bring the problems of obsession and waswasah closer to each other. In terms of psychology, it has been observed that obsession and compulsion disorder is a mental problem for which concrete reasons are sought.