Wait! Most psychiatrists are atheist or agnostic. Most do not believe in the devil and see religious ideology as weakness or disorder. At least in California, most mental health people with any sort of preternatural belief system are into New Age, shamanism, etc. There are very few Christians. Even the Bishops themselves no longer believe and will refer to psychiatrists.
Malachy Martin and Fr. Amorth are right. People who have harassments or possessions are often misdiagnosed and mistreated for years.
I read a story once of an Episcopal priest who was also a psychiatrist. He had some institutionalized patients that no matter what he did, they did not improve. Out of desperation one day he tried exorcism. More than one walked out of the hospital completely cured.
The only Catholic psychiatrist I know of who was involved in exorcisms is Rama Coomaraswamy M.D. He is brilliant but a bit 'offbeat' as of late in his thinking. But, his articles on psychiatry and exorcism are quite good. One thing I read which has stuck with me, he stated (paraphrasing) "The mistake psychiatry makes is that the spirit is not located in the psyche. The psyche is within the spirit."
I wasn't talking about psychiatrists, but exorcists. Fr. Amorth is credited with getting the two together.
Yes, it is true, in the US, most psychiatrists are agnostic or athiest. But there are some, mostly Catholics, who are not.
A simple test is to observe the patient's reaction to a crucifix or holy water.
I'm particularly interested in schizophrenia, where people hear voices, etc. Such cases certainly sound like demonic oppression or possession. It's also my understanding that medication simply "zombifies" the patient, rather than curing the problem.
I watched a secular program regarding exorcism which showed Fundamentalist Christians exorcising demons from a person who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic. The evidence seemed to indicate possession since the spirits attacked several of the people performing the exorcism. The video showed several of the exorcists at various points in the exorcism being overcome by what they claimed to be an outside force.