Anton Boisen, a key figure in the psychology of religion and pastoral psychology, faced skepticism about his ideas and stigma over his psychiatric diagnosis. The author argues Boisen was a prophet whose critiques of psychiatry and claim that psychosis and mystical experience overlap were ahead of their time. Scholars have overlooked the prophetic truth in Boisen's 1920 visionary experience, which predicted today's ecological crisis. Reclaiming Boisen's voice could help reclaim the uniqueness of the disciplines he helped create.
Anton Boisen's most overlooked theoretical contribution is the hermeneutical treatment of psychosis, which he developed from his own 1920 psychotic episode. During that episode, he sensed his visions were describing inner conflicts and pointing toward a cure, independently replicating ideas of Freud and Jung. His visions contained a Jungian mandala, the "Family of Four," which appeared before he encountered Jung's work. Although Boisen intuited the significance of his visions, he could not fully interpret them. The article offers an interpretation of Boisen's visions as a case study in hermeneutical treatment of psychosis.