Читать книгу Finding Jesus in the Storm - John Swinton - Страница 29

I have been a part of the conversations around spirituality and mental health care for many years. In 2001, I wrote a book titled Spirituality and Mental Health Care: Rediscovering a “Forgotten” Dimension.46 Among other things, that book pointed out the lack of research and practical attention being paid to spirituality within mental health care. It suggested that the “forgotten dimension” of spirituality was in fact crucial for good mental health care and indicated ways in which mental health professionals could be encouraged to remember it and, in remembering, become people who care for the spirit as well as minds and bodies.

Since then, the situation has changed significantly. What appeared to have been “forgotten” in 2001 is well and truly remembered today! The literature emerging from the mental health-care professions reveals a burgeoning and vibrant interdisciplinary conversation that explores a variety of issues around spirituality, religion, and mental health. Religious spirituality has been positively associated with the alleviation of depression, anxiety, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), schizophrenia, anorexia, and personality disorder.47 The more generic forms of spirituality are not so closely tied to measurable outcomes, but they are assumed to be fundamental to genuinely person-centered care.48 Some authors even suggest it is essential to our humanness.49 This latter claim is probably not very wise, because highlighting any capacity or desire as fundamental to what it means to be human inevitably means that those who do not have that capacity or share that desire can be viewed as less than human. Nevertheless, the universality of spirituality is certainly a frequently made claim.50 The presence of spirituality is recognized even at the level of policy, with governments insisting that all mental health professionals and indeed all health-care professionals take spirituality seriously.51

At first glance, this seems to be very good news! We may not be clear on what mental disorders are, but we do know what human beings are and what human beings need: they need spiritual care. Alongside the necessary care for mind and body, we also need to care for people’s spirits. One might ask the question: “What could possibly be wrong with this?” Surely this puts things like religion and theology back on the map of professional credibility and offers important new possibilities for care. To an extent this is true, however, as useful as a focus on people’s spiritual dimensions is, there are significant problems with this approach.