Psychopathological Symptoms and Religious Experience: A Critique of Jackson and Fulford

Abstract

The boundary between spiritual experience and mental disorder remains unclear and should invite collaboration between psychiatry and other disciplines, including theology. Jackson and Fulford (1997), using the tools of analytic philosophy, have proposed a model allowing principled differentiation between spiritual experience and psychotic symptoms based on the personal values of the subject, a cognitive problem-solving model. Spiritual experience is described as positively evaluated psychotic experience, which enables the subject to do more than he or she normally does. In the present paper, it is claimed that values and actions cannot alone always discriminate between religious experience and psychopathology. With reference to three case studies, drawn from the practice of one of us, it is argued that spirituality is not all about experience and that it cannot be understood without reference to the subject's personal history and spiritual tradition, however implicit or fragmented. This approach would allow an account of ordinary religious experience in those who have suffered ego disablement during mental illness. Drawing primarily on the Christian tradition, we argue that the use of theological criteria may allow levels of discrimination between spiritual experience and mental disorder not allowed for by philosophical psychopathology.

Progress or Pathology? Differential Diagnosis and Intervention Criteria for Meditation-Related Challenges: Perspectives From Buddhist Meditation Teachers and Practitioners

“…Together this shows it can be difficult to generalize about how to apply differential diagnosis in certain local contexts, as these criteria often have to be negotiated in relation to the other emic frameworks held by members of communities. Thus, while these criteria remain useful, they cannot be applied in all cases as self-evident rules for determining the nature of an experience (Marzanski and Bratton, 2002;Rashed, 2010).…”

“…In the case of spiritual psychotic phenomena, action is radically enhanced" (p. 55). However, their reliance on the action criterion has also been challenged (Marzanski and Bratton, 2002;Rashed, 2010). Vieten and Scammell (2015) follow the Grofs by including the classic list of ten spiritual emergencies.…”

“…In the case of spiritual psychotic phenomena, action is radically enhanced” (p. 55). However, their reliance on the action criterion has also been challenged ( Marzanski and Bratton, 2002 ; Rashed, 2010 ).…”

Psychosis Good and Bad: Values-based Practice and the Distinction Between Pathological and Nonpathological Forms of Psychotic Experience

“…Marek Marzanski and Mark Bratton reexamine the questions raised by our cases from a Christian theological perspective (Marzanski and Bratton 2002). They suggest a theologically based definition of spiritual experience according to which the criteria for "genuine" experience concerns its context within the development of the individual's religious faith.…”

Relações entre religiosidade e saúde mental em imigrantes: implicações para a prática psi

“…Esse tipo de preocupação tem levado ao desenvolvimento de toda uma literatura psiquiátrica e interdisciplinar que procura discutir a questão do diagnóstico diferencial entre psicopatologia e experiência religiosa ou espiritual, como ilustram alguns trabalhos britânicos (Jackson & Fulford, 1997;Brett, 2002;Marzanski & Bratton, 2002;Sykes, 2002). Ou, ainda, levado a estudos acerca de como as diferentes condições psiquiátricas -esquizofrenia, desordens maníaco-depressivas, ansiedade, depressão, somatização e dissociações -podem ser afetadas e analisadas a partir das diferentes influências culturais e religiosas, como encontrado em Loewenthal (2007).…”