The Secular Sacrament of the Needle: Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotics, the Liturgy of the Clinic, and the Epistemological Convergence of Evidence-Based Medicine and Faith-Based Healing in South Korea

This paper explores the religious, ethical, and epistemological dimensions surrounding Long-Acting Injectable (LAI) antipsychotics for severe schizophrenia in South Korea. Moving beyond pure bioethics, this study analyses LAIs through Religious Studies, framing the psychiatric injection as a "secular sacrament" administered within the modern "liturgy of the clinic." By deconstructing the supposedly objective framework of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM), the paper utilises the concept of "meaning response" to reveal how psychiatric efficacy heavily depends on the therapeutic alliance and "secular faith." We evaluate this ritualised clinical encounter against the WHO QualityRights framework, investigating whether LAIs function as inhumane "chemical restraints" or as instruments of empowerment. Ultimately, this research argues that EBM and traditional Faith-Based Healing (FBH) are not fundamentally opposed. Both operate on parallel mechanisms of belief, authority, and meaning-making, demonstrating that true psychiatric recovery requires a collaborative synthesis of biological intervention and faith-based trust.