Draft:Richard Gallagher MD
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Richard E. Gallagher, MD is an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.
As a Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst, Gallagher sees patients in private practice and supervises residents in psychiatric and psychoanalytic training.
As a Catholic medical professional, Gallagher advises priests, ministers, exorcists and others who bring patients whom they suspect of being demonically attacked to him for medical and psychiatric evaluation.
Education and Career
Gallagher is a graduate of Princeton University in classics, trained in Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, and completed Psychoanalytic training at Columbia. He is currently a Professor of Psychiatry at New York Medical College and a faculty member at Columbia and St. Joseph’s College Seminary.
Gallagher is the longest-standing American member of the Vatican-approved organization International Association of Exorcists. He himself is not an exorcist, though in his role as a consultant he has attended numerous exorcisms.
Published works dealing with the demonic
Gallagher is most widely known for his book Demonic Foes – My Twenty-Five Years as a Psychiatrist Investigating Possessions, Diabolic Attacks, and the Paranormal. (HarperOne, 2020)
Gallagher is the author of a two-part article in the New Oxford Review, “The Odd Case of Adrienne von Speyr” (October and November, 2022), in which he makes the case that the alleged Catholic mystic Adrienne von Speyr was the unwitting victim of demonic influence, and that the revelations she received, which she believed had been given to her by God, were in fact demonic deceptions.
"A Deeper Look at the Balthasar-Speyr Collaboration", Gallagher, R and Pitstick, L., Forum Katholische Theologie 41(2), 89-131, 2025.
"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.
“Dr. Richard Gallagher, Demonic Possession Expert, Isn’t Trying to Convince You”, Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire, Oct 2, 2020.
Gallagher’s Views on the Demonic
Gallagher holds the historical Christian views that God exists, that God created spiritual beings known as angels, and that some of those angels rejected God and became demons. Gallagher’s views include:
Demons are real -- Gallagher writes in Demonic Foes, “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" (p 82). Gallagher elsewhere writes, “Contrary to what secular opinion facilely asserts, an objective medical view can confidently conclude that assaults by the devil, like genuine miracles, are rare but quite real scientific facts.”[1]
Demons are out to hurt us -- Gallagher writes in Demonic Foes, “A segment of that invisible world seems to be mysteriously but remarkable hostile to human beings and seeks their physical and spiritual destruction” (p 11), “These spirits display obviously distinct and unattractive personalities of their own and intentionally use their preternatural talents in perverse ways. They hate their human hosts and take satisfaction in tormenting them” (p 82), and “One philosopher opined that Satan and evil spirits would kill us all if not prevented. I used to think this view a sort of superstitious, medieval hyperbole. But now I believe it is a statement of fact.” (p 243)
Demonic possessions are extremely uncommon -- Gallagher writes in Demonic Foes, “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.” (p 7)
Gallagher’s positions are contentious. His belief in the existence of demons, and his professional diagnostic competence, have been both criticized and supported.
Criticism of Gallagher
The UCSF psychiatrist, Joseph M. Pierre writes, “Bearing in mind that nearly half the population believes that possession is a real thing, intellectual humility dictates that we at least entertain the possibility that demons and devils really exist and that they can inhabit the bodies of people and take control...However, if we acknowledge this possibility, we should also acknowledge that there’s no real evidence to support it, despite what anyone believes." [2]
The clinical psychologists, Dean McKay, Rachel Ammirati and Scott Lilienfeld claim that Gallagher is affirming “superstition”, is not “a man of science” and is “embracing what is more akin to an antiscientific mind-set.” [3]
The Yale University School of Medicine clinical neurologist Steven Novella says that Gallagher “does not understand the role that scientific skepticism plays in society”, “has fallen for his patient’s delusions that they are possessed by demons” and “is a classic example of how even a highly trained professional can fall prey to bad logic and the desire to believe.”[4]
The “special knowledge” that some apparently possessed people appear to have is due not to the presence of demons. In two letters to the Washington Post, writers state 1) the ability of an allegedly possessed patient to know someone’s “secret weaknesses” is due to the patient’s use of “the cheap parlor trick” of “cold reading” [5] and 2) the ability of an allegedly possessed person to fluently speak a language that they had no knowledge of “might well be the result of telepathic functioning among living individuals…and have nothing at all to do with “demons.” [6]
Support for Gallagher
The psychiatrist Mark J. Albanese writes in a comment on the back cover of Demonic Foes that “Dr. Gallagher is unquestionably a world expert in the rarefied area of diabolic possession and in distinguishing that state from psychiatric and neurological conditions” and writes elsewhere that Gallagher’s work has applications that go “beyond reminding us of the reality of demonic possession.” [7]
In his Foreword to Demonic Foes, the psychiatrist and past president of the American Psychiatric Association, Joseph T. English, describes Gallagher as “multitalented”, “highly respected”, “superbly credentialed”, and as having a “trained intellect and unimpeachable integrity”.
In his review of Demonic Foes, the psychotherapist Samuel Sotillos, PsyD, states that Gallagher “is a trained psychiatrist who values the role of science”, that “it can be difficult to distinguish demonic activity from other, more common, causes such as physiological aberration” and that “there are psychiatrists and psychotherapists, including some scholars, who give credence to this phenomenon, yet because of the pressure to remain silent about these enigmatic matters, they do not speak about them publicly for fear of attack.”[8]
References
[edit]- ^ Gallagher, Richard (March 2008). "A Case of Demonic Possession -- Among the Many Counterfeits". New Oxford Review.
- ^ Pierre, Joseph (December 5, 2023). "A Differential Diagnosis of Demonic Possession". Psychology Today. Retrieved 6-18-25.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|access-date=(help) - ^ McKay, Dean (November–December 2016). "Superstition Masquerading as Science". Skeptical Inquirer. 40. Retrieved 6-18-25.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|access-date=(help) - ^ Novella, Steven (5 July 2016). "A Psychiatrist Falls for Exorcism". NEUROLOGICAblog. Retrieved 6-18-25.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|access-date=(help) - ^ Walko, Andrew (7-15-16). "Letter to the Editor". Retrieved 6-18-25.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|access-date=and|date=(help) - ^ Baughman, Steve (7-15-16). "Letter to the Editor". Retrieved 6-18-25.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|access-date=and|date=(help) - ^ Albanese, Mark (June 2008). "Letter to the Editor". New Oxford Review.
- ^ Sotillos, Samuel (2023). "Book Review". The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology. 55 (2): 213-219.