Joseph Smith was the founding father of Mormonism. But was he in fact lucky enough to have the angel Moroni come to him and teach him about the 'true' religion? Was he a fake pulling a fast one on his followers for his own gain? Or was his mentally ill? These were some of the things my Abnormal Psychology class was asked to ponder a while back, and here is my conclusion.

Before reading Under the Banner of Heaven I was pretty skeptical of Joseph Smith and wrote him off as a narcissistic liar bent on bedding as many women as possible. After the reading it seems that there was much more going on than I had originally thought; Joseph Smith was clearly, undoubtedly mentally sick! Upon further investigation into Joseph Smith’s past it is quite clear that he could be given a number of diagnoses including, but probably not limited to: Pedophilic Disorder (Nonexclusive Type) 302.2 (F65.4), Schizotypal Personality Disorder 301.22 (F21), Narcissistic Personality Disorder 301.81 (F60.81), Delusional Disorder (Grandiose Type/Continuous) 297.1 (F22), all stemming from onset of Brief Psychotic Disorder (with marked stressors) 298.8 (F23).

I believe the onset of Brief Psychotic Disorder in a young Joseph Smith was in part due to his family’s overwhelming poverty, and the stress he felt to do better, to do more than run his father’s farm when the time came. Smith could not handle the idea of continuing to live with things as they were so he took up quick cash schemes, which he was quite good at. First, he went “money digging,” and later began work as a “scryer” to help procure treasure for property owners before his fateful meeting with Moroni. This psychotic break led to the onset of Delusional Disorder (Grandiose Type/Continuous) with Schizotypal features, and probably soon after or right along with, Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Smith supposedly spoke with an angel who was sent to tell Joseph of an ancient text that had long been forgotten; Moroni also told Joseph where this ancient text was buried in a ‘vision.’ Both of these instances and all of the following visits Moroni had with Smith can easily been seen as hallucinations along with the idea that Smith was chosen to take down this text and spread the ‘true’ word of God—clearly delusions. Smith also used “magic glasses” to decipher the sacred text Moroni had relinquished onto him. Joseph had the text printed after translating the plates and then went about distributing, and thus began the religion of the Latter-day Saints; he was very charming and persuasive with others so getting the ball rolling on this new religion was not that hard for him. With the church starting to take hold Joseph began handing down commandments from God himself, furthering his power over his followers, and increasing his reach. At first, speaking with God was encouraged, but that allowed room for others to contradict him, so Smith quickly laid down an edict that he was the only one who could receive messages directly from God—to me this was the moment that his greed really took a turn for the worse. His delusions continued to worsen—God of course communicated often with Joseph editing, and adding more principles as time went on. Smith saw his mission to be that he “reinstate the Lord’s One True Church” and ready his followers for the second coming, which he wrongly predicted. Down the road Smith published another book, The Doctrine of Covenants and thus, the beginning of polygamy, and consequently his eventual demise. Smith had an affair with a younger woman than his wife, and began an obsession with the idea of plural marriage, continually handing down more and more commandments that intended wives to be submissive, and have no say in the way of plural marriage. His actions could potentially be seen as Frotteuristic, but without more evidence of such Pedophilia is more accurate due to the age of the girls that started to be married off. When Joseph was brought up on charges he initially fled, despite his claims that he would stand by the church until the end, this highlights his narcissistic nature, and greed once again. Likewise, once he was caught he threatened the judge, and other people in power; in a fiery rage he claimed they would meet their end before he met his, and he wasn’t wrong. The power of his following was shown full force when the judge was assassinated—Joseph was so deeply influential that with a wave of his hand things were done without a moments’ thought.

Without a doubt Joseph Smith was ill. He first suffered a psychotic break in his mid-teens that later stemmed into the lifelong effects of Delusional Disorder coupled with is undeniable Narcissistic Personality Disorder. It is clear through his first hallucinations of the angel Moroni, that lead to an entire religion he suffers from multiple delusions and hallucinations almost continuously from then on. It is also very evident that his narcissism grows, and escalates to the point of no return; as Smith’s following continued to flourish so did his ego, and greed, nearly unquenchable. And last, but not least his Pedophilia became apparent when he became obsessed with the idea of marrying multiple younger women, and girls all to his wife’s dismay.