This is the third installment of my posts based on the book: Spirituality and Psychiatry, which was kindly sent to me by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
The first part can be found here, and the second here.
As you may have guessed from the title, the third chapter deals with psychosis.
It is on this subject – and this chapter – that I’m going to duck out to a certain degree. The first reason for this is that I don’t believe I can do justice to a topic of this nature in a short blog post. Psychosis is the very heart of insanity and delusion the cardinal symptom, and requires extremely careful treading.
The second reason revolves around certain assumptions asserted within this chapter relating to the overlap of spirituality with psychosis that I’m simply not comfortable with.
Here’s an example:
Page 49:
We share the view that there are no clear phenominological differences that distinguish the psychotic experience from the spiritual one, but they differ in terms of life consequence.
It also anecdotally noted that:
Mystics of different faiths have long been known to have psychotic experiences; this neither confirms nor invalidates their spiritual standing.
I will make note of two points only.
The first revolves around the definition of ‘spiritual’, ‘mystical’ or ‘religious’ which again is impossible to address in a short blog post. Quite coincidentally, Clayboy, just recently noted that in most contexts the idea of “religion” is profoundly unhelpful.
Here’s some of what Clayboy said, but I would urge you to read the entire post, as he grapples with the problem of defining ‘religion’
It seems to me there is very little meaning in word “religion” beyond some kind of barely helpful definition in which it refers to some kind of communal, traditional set of practices and narratives which humans use to explore the meaning of existence, and how to live wisely.
I agree with Clayboy and would say that as my first criticism of this book so far, there is not in this chapter a clearly defined definition of ‘religion’, ‘mystical’ or ‘spirituality’ to assert such similarities with psychosis, phenomenological, or otherwise.
Having said this my second point is that I – somewhat paradoxically – accept that a person experiencing a psychotic episode may form delusional beliefs that are adhered to in a manner which may be loosely described as religious.
I’m sorry to opt out on this one, but it’s just too complex and perhaps not appropriate for a blog post.
For anyone reading this that does suffer from bouts of psychosis, always remember there is a brighter tomorrow and it’s not your fault.
I thought this from the end of the chapter very helpful:
An individual is a person, not a diagnosis – their spiritual needs do not change just because a diagnosis has been made. Recovery is about helping the person re-emerge and gain a sense of personal identity separate from their illness.
