Draft:Richard Gallagher

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Richard Gallagher MD is an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. Dr. Gallagher sees patients in private practice and supervises residents in psychiatric and psychoanalytic training. As a Catholic medical professional, Gallagher also performs medical and psychiatric evaluations on people brought to him by priests, ministers and others whom they suspect of being demonically attacked.

Education and career

Gallagher graduated from Princeton University in classics, trained in psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, and completed psychoanalytic training at Columbia University. He is currently a Professor of Psychiatry at New York Medical College and a faculty member at Columbia University Department of Psychiatry[1] and St. Joseph's College Seminary.

Gallagher is a member of the Vatican-recognized[2] Catholic organization International Association of Exorcists and has been described as "the world's foremost scientific expert on the subject of diabolic attacks."[3] Gallagher himself is not an exorcist.

Gallagher's views on the demonic

Gallagher holds the historical Christian view[4] that demonic possessions are extremely rare but real phenomena. Gallagher has written:

"An objective medical view can confidently conclude that assaults by the devil, like genuine miracles, are rare but quite real scientific facts."[5]

"Most doctors will never see such a case; even the vast majority of clergy are unlikely ever to encounter a genuine possession. Many believers are surprised when I state that of the 25,000 or so formal patients I have assessed in depth over the course of my career during my normal professional workday, none were possessed."[6]

"Once one has witnessed a number of these possessions, it is impossible to credit their appearance to anything but distinct creatures entirely separate in their identity from the human host, real entities with spiritual faculties beyond the human"[7] and that "a segment of that invisible world seems to be mysteriously but remarkably hostile to human beings and seeks their physical and spiritual destruction."[8]

Controversies

Gallagher's belief in the existence of demons and the reality of demonic possession has been both disputed and supported.

Critics of Gallagher maintain that "there's no real evidence to support" the claim "that demons and devils really exist and that they can inhabit the bodies of people and take control";[9] that Gallagher is misdiagnosing mental illness as possession and has "fallen for his patients' delusions that they are possessed by demons";[10] that he has been deliberately deceived by his patients, has "fallen prey to confirmation bias" and is embracing "an anti-scientific mindset";[11] has been taken in by the "cheap parlor trick" of cold reading;[12] and has misdiagnosed as demonic activity events that "might well be the result of telepathic functioning."[13]

Supporters of Gallagher maintain "the reality of demonic possession";[14] that Gallagher is "a highly respected clinician" with "a trained intellect and unimpeachable integrity";[15] and that "the criteria for diagnosing demonic possession are quite rigorous."[16]

Publications

  • "A Case of Demonic Possession -- Among the Many Counterfeits", Richard Gallagher, New Oxford Review, March 2008.
  • "As a Psychiatrist, I Diagnose Mental Illness. Also, I Help Spot Demonic Possession", Richard Gallagher, Washington Post, July 1, 2016.
  • Demonic Foes – My Twenty-Five Years as a Psychiatrist Investigating Possessions, Diabolic Attacks, and the Paranormal. HarperOne, 2020.
  • "The Odd Case of Adrienne von Speyr", New Oxford Review, October 2022 and November 2022.
  • "A Deeper Look at the Balthasar-Speyr Collaboration", Gallagher, R and Pitstick, L., Forum Katholische Theologie 41(2), 89-131, 2025.
  • Gallagher is also the author of a large number of scholarly articles dealing with psychiatric and psychoanalytic topics.

References

  1. "Our Faculty". Columbia University Department of Psychiatry. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
  2. "Vatican formally recognizes international association of exorcists". National Catholic Reporter. July 3, 2014. Retrieved December 1, 2025.
  3. Sotillos, Samuel (2023). "Book Review". The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology. 55 (2): 219. Retrieved November 24, 2025.
  4. "Demoniacal Possession". Catholic Answers. Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
  5. Gallagher, Richard (March 2008). "A Case of Demonic Possession -- Among the Many Counterfeits". New Oxford Review. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
  6. Gallagher, Richard (2020). Demonic Foes. HarperOne. p. 7.
  7. Gallagher, Richard (2020). Demonic Foes. HarperOne. p. 82.
  8. Gallagher, Richard (2020). Demonic Foes. HarperOne. p. 11.
  9. Pierre, Joseph (December 5, 2023). "A Differential Diagnosis of Demonic Possession". Psychology Today. Retrieved November 23, 2025.
  10. Novella, Steven. "A Psychiatrist Falls for Exorcism". NEUROLOGICAblog. Retrieved November 23, 2025.
  11. McKay, Dean (November–December 2016). "Superstition Masquerading as Science". Skeptical Inquirer. 40. Retrieved November 23, 2025.
  12. Walko, Andrew (November 15, 2016). "Letter to the Editor". Washington Post. Retrieved November 23, 2025.
  13. Baughman, Steve (November 15, 2016). "Letter to the Editor". Washington Post. Retrieved November 23, 2025.
  14. Albanese, Mark (June 2008). "Letter to the Editor". New Oxford Review. Retrieved November 24, 2025.
  15. English, Joseph (2020). Foreword. Demonic Foes, by Richard Gallagher. HarperOne.
  16. Sotillos, Samuel (2023). "Book Review". The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology. 55 (2): 216. Retrieved November 24, 2025.