"Is it possible to be a sophisticated psychiatrist and believe that evil spirits are, however seldom, assailing humans? Most of my scientific colleagues and fri

"Is it possible to be a sophisticated psychiatrist and believe that evil spirits are, however seldom, assailing humans? Most of my scientific colleagues and friends say no, because of their frequent contact with patients who are deluded about demons, their general skepticism of the supernatural, and their commitment to employ only standard, peer-reviewed treatments that do not potentially mislead (a definite risk) or harm vulnerable patients. But careful observation of the evidence presented to me in my career has led me to believe that certain extremely uncommon cases can be explained no other way." It's curious how we humans fail to remember that we're not able to generate all explanations just by thinking about them. Getting to explanations requires experiments. But spirits and demons are so vaguely defined that we just can't test their existence empirically. Hence, in my mind, this should be in the realm of metaphor, not science. Let spirits and demons live in the humanities, so they can continue to inspire art, books, games, and much thought. They're about the internal human experience, not external reality.