The point of view of transpersonal psychology and that of psychiatry. A possible integration.
Dr. Loretta Illuminati and Dr. Elena Toscan
The spiritual dimension accompanies the personal and collective human experience, and can be configured under multiple aspects and symbols of the sacred.
Living and “pulsating” symbols that can be structured in organized and culturally defined religious paths or in paths that are not so delimited, where a very personal relationship with the sacred and its manifestations prevails.
In both cases, however, it is possible to read on a psychological level an unfolding of events, stages, interruptions at times, difficulties or resources.
A spiritual and existential experience lived in a psychologically harmonious way can affect the overall well-being of the person, if instead it is a harbinger of difficulties it can also hinder success in other areas of life.
For this reason also in the DSM ("Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders") from the 90s onwards a specific category has been included on the subject called "Religious or spiritual problem", still present in the fifth version of the manual.
Also in consideration of the strongly intercultural, inter-religious and inter-spiritual context in which we live more and more, health professionals (in particular doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists) at the clinical level are called to develop increasingly specific skills in this. scope, for a better professional practice, for the benefit of clinical practice and therefore of the patients themselves.
Recognizing the elements that distinguish a psycho-spiritual crisis can represent a complex process for the therapist, who should know how to exploit the elements of potential contained in this type of crisis. But that in an "erroneous" way can run into a "superficial" evaluation, which does not consider, among other things, the context in which it emerges and develops, given the manifestations that may appear unusual and therefore difficult to interpret.
Addressing spiritual issues in psychotherapy involves addressing the religious issue and related problems, often linked to ethnic-cultural factors, religious doctrines, existential and archetypal themes. Direct experiences of spiritual realities tend to be relegated to the world of psychopathology and severe mental disorders.
Western psychiatry tends to consider spirituality pathological, and therefore to make no distinction between a mystical experience and a psychotic episode, considering both as manifestations of a mental illness. The great advances in the scientific field have always been made when the most accredited paradigm has not been able to provide explanations for some scientific discovery, and its accuracy has been seriously questioned.
In the history of science, paradigms are born, dominate the scene for a certain time, then are replaced by other paradigms (Kuhn 1962).
We need a new vision of these processes and a new background on which to situate its innumerable phenomena, including those of shattering and psycho-spiritual crises.
Facing the challenge and accepting the broad theoretical reach and practical implications of spiritual emergencies means contemplating a new global vision of reality, capable of integrating modern science with spirituality and Western pragmatism with ancient wisdom. It means contemplating the new revolutionary understanding of consciousness, human nature and the nature of reality as it emerged from the study and experience of transpersonal psychology.
In practice:
In the processes of psycho-spiritual crises and spiritual emergencies there are two fundamental levels: psychological support for the person and the elaboration and integration of the contents that gradually emerge.
Often the person, in his path, experiences the loneliness and the suffering of not being understood by his family or closest social environment and by the health professionals to whom he turns. During this type of processes we often feel very fragile, due to the "extraordinary character" of the manifestations, people tend to hide their experiences for fear of being considered affected by mental disorders or not taken seriously. There must be consideration that unmanaged hypersensitivity is the cause of pathology, while managed hypersensitivity is the basis of realization.
→ It is therefore of fundamental importance to help the person to channel his difficulties in order to transform them into evolutionary potential.
→ Create an appropriate support system for anyone going through a crisis of spiritual openness and the creation of conditions that allow them to fully realize the positive potential and a profound transformation of the hierarchy of values and existential priorities through work of integration.
→ The possibility of forming a good therapeutic relationship, with adequate trust, is an indispensable condition for working with people who are going through a psycho-spiritual crisis.
→ Appropriate treatment, based on understanding psycho-spiritual crises, requires a very extensive map of the psyche that also includes the perinatal and transpersonal levels.
→ If the process is in full activation, full spiritual emergency, a regular path of experiential therapy is necessary to help the unconscious material to come to the surface and to favor the complete expression of blocked emotions and physical energies.
The one who will come out of a psycho-spiritual crisis is the one who on the one hand will be able to master their own inner processes and on the other hand the one who will recognize the strong sense of the profound purposes of existence, and often will also introduce spiritual reality into the lives of others. .
Discover the ECM Refresher Course on this topic of May 16th by clicking HERE.
Discover the ITI Emergency Unit on Spiritual Emergencies, coordinated by Dr. Loretta Illuminati and Elena Toscan, by clicking HERE.
REFERENCES
• American Psychiatric Association (APA) (2013), DSM-5 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders (5th ed.), American Psychiatric Publishing, Arlington, VA; trad. it. F. S. Bersani, E. Di Giacomo e al. (2014), (a cura di Biondi M.), DSM-5 Manuale diagnostico e statistico dei disturbi mentali, Raffaello Cortina Editore, Milano.
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• Assagioli R. (1988), Lo sviluppo transpersonale, Astrolabio-Ubaldini, Roma.
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• Grof S. (2012), Healing Our Deepest Wounds: The Holotropic Paradigm Shift, Häftad, Engelska; trad. it. F. Speciani (2013) Guarire le ferite più profonde: straordinari metodi per cambiare il paradigma della mente, Macro Edizioni,Cesena.
• Grof S., Grof C. (1989), Spiritual Emergency: When personal transformation becomes a crisi, Tarcher, Los Angeles; trad. it. C. Sborgi (1993), Emergenza spirituale, Red, Como.
• Kuhn T. (1962), La struttura delle rivoluzioni scientifiche, Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi, Bologna.
• Lukoff D., Lu F., Turner R. (1998), From spiritual emergency to spiritual problem: the transpersonal roots of the new DSM-IV category, in “Journal of Humanistic Psychology”, 17, pp.21-50.
• Toscan E. (2015), Venne l'alba. La sfida evolutiva della crisi spirituale, ITI Edizioni, Milano.
• Vieten C., Shelley S. (2015), Spritual & Religious competencies in clinical practice, New Harbinger Publications, Oakland.
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• Wilber K. (1986), Lo spettro dello sviluppo. In Wilber K., Engler J., Brown D.P. (1986), Transformations of consciousness- conventional and contemplative perspectives on development, Shambala Publications, London; trad. it. Menzio A. (1989), Le trasformazioni della coscienza. Psicologia transpersonale e sviluppo umano, Ubaldini editore, Roma.