Jerome
Stack, a Catholic Chaplain at Metropolitan State
Hospital in Norwalk, California for 25 years, observed
that many people with mental disorders do have genuine
religious experiences:
Many patients over the years have spoken to me
of their religious experience and I have found their
stories to be quite genuine, quite believable. Their
experience of the divine, the spiritual, is healthy
and life giving. Of course, discernment is important,
but it is important not to presume that certain
kinds of religious experience or behavior are simply
"part of the illness."
During manic episodes in particular, people have experiences
similar to those of the great mystics.
There is a general agreement among those who have
experienced it, that religious truths are realized,
the religious truths, the ones of the desert fathers
and the great mystics. (p. 118)
Ed Podvoll,MD The
Seduction of Madness : Revolutionary Insights into
the World of Psychosis and a Compassionate Approach
to Recovery at Home
Pat Deegan, who is both a consumer and a psychologist,
makes the point that psychosis can be a genuine route
to spirituality:
Distress, even the distress associated with psychosis,
can be hallowed ground upon which one can meet God
and receive spiritual teaching. When we set aside
neurobiological reductionism, then it is conceivable
that during the passage that is madness, during
that passage of tomb becoming womb, those of us
who are diagnosed can have authentic encounters
with God.These spiritual teachings can help to guide
and encourage the healing process that is recovery.
Spiritual
Lessons in Recovery
One woman who had been hospitalized for a manic episode
told me:
"Since being discharged my appreciation of
music, poetry and the Spanish mystics has been enhanced
and I have gained insight into the need of others,
which has made the whole experience worthwhile."
Anton Boisen who was hospitalized for a psychotic episode
and then became a minister and the founder of pastoral
counseling, maintained that,
Many of the more serious psychoses are essentially
problem solving experiences which are closely related
to certain types of religious experiences.( p. 154)
Exploration
of the Inner World : a Study of Mental Disorder
and Religious Experience
Sally Clay, an advocate and consultant for the Portland
Coalition for the Psychiatrically Labeled, has written
about the important role that religious experiences
played in her recovery following two years of hospitalization
while diagnosed with schizophrenia at the Yale-affiliated
Hartford Institute of Living (IOL). While hospitalized,
she had a powerful religious experience which led her
to attend religious services.
My recovery had nothing to do with the talk therapy,
the drugs, or the electroshock treatments I had received;
more likely, it happened in spite of these things. My
recovery did have something to do with the devotional
services I had been attending. At the IOL I attended
both Protestant and Catholic services, and if Jewish
or Buddhist services had been available, I would have
gone to them, too. I was cured instantly-healed if you
will-as a direct result of a spiritual experience.
Many years later Clay went back to the IOL to review
her case records, and found herself described as having
"decompensated with grandiose delusions with spiritual
preoccupations." She complains that "Not a single aspect
of my spiritual experience at the IOL was recognized
as legitimate; neither the spiritual difficulties nor
the healing that occurred at the end."
Clay is not denying that she had a psychotic disorder
at the time, but makes the case that, in addition to
the disabling effects she experienced as part of her
illness, there was also a profound spiritual component
which was ignored. She describes how the lack of sensitivity
to the spiritual dimensions of her experience on the
part of mental health and religious professionals was
detrimental to her recovery. Nevertheless she has persevered
in her belief that,
For me, becoming "mentally ill" was always a spiritual
crisis, and finding a spiritual model of recovery was
a question of life or death. Finally I could admit openly
that my experiences were, and always had been, a spiritual
journey -- not sick, shameful, or evil.
The
Wounded Prophet by Sally Clay
Thus experiences with religious/spiritual content can
be explored, particularly to find direction for spiritual
support. They can also play an important role in helping
to redefine a person's personal mythology as noted in
lesson 4.
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