Transcript Slide 1

“A cognitive perspective on
spirituality - with a little help
from psychosis"
Isabel Clarke
Consultant Clinical Psychologist
Some Questions
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Why do spiritual/religious concerns persist in the
face of the dominance of science?
Why is there such a religious flavour and
preoccupation to much "psychotic" talk?
Where does the sense of unshakeable conviction
come from that we find both in delusional ideas,
and in religious/spiritual thinking – conviction
that, in extreme cases, leads both groups to acts
of violence etc. that are otherwise out of
character for the individual?
Two Ideas
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The apparent “two realities”; “higher and lower
consciousnesses” etc. is the result of properties
of human perception and information processing
– not the world out there!
There is a universal process, found in
individuals, groups and societies, starting with a
state of boundariless euphoria and ending in
paranoia
This gives us a ‘normalising’ way of
understanding psychosis as well as a richer but
humbler perspective on spirituality.
Putting Psychosis and Spirituality together:
what is the evidence?
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Schizotypy – a diminsion of experience:
Gordon Claridge.
Mike Jackson’s research on the overlap
between psychotic and spiritual
experience.
Emmanuelle Peter’s research on New
Religious Movements.
Wider sources of evidence – e.g.Cross
cultural perspectives; anthropology.
Religious experience, spirituality and
psychosis: a little reorganisation.
Instead of psychosis and spirituality, I propose two
ways of operating in the world:
Two modes of experiencing:
 The everyday
 The transliminal
Both of these are available to all human beings.
Both are incomplete.
The Everyday
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Ordinary
Clear limits
Access to full memory
and learning
Precise meanings
available
Separation between
people
Clear sense of self
Emotions moderated and
grounded
TheTransliminal
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Numinous
Unbounded
Access to ordinary
knowledge/memory is
patchy.
Connections abound - or
all is meaningless
Self: lost in the whole or
supremely important
Emotions: swing between
extremes or absent
Looking at this cognitively
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Two complementary approaches
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Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory
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Interacting Cognitive Subsystems
(Teasdale and Barnard).
Constructs
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Are based on past experience/memory
New experience is filtered through our
constructs
They colour and help to define our world
Each person’s construct system is unique
to them.
Transliminal Experience = operating
Beyond the Construct System
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No means of anticipating or
discriminating
A state without boundaries
Both/and - two contradictory things can
be simultaneously valid
Moving beyond the constructs
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Is hard for most
but not for others - cf. Schizotypy
Is often mediated by change in state of
arousal/consciousness - e.g. mind altering
spiritual practices or drugs.
It can be a response to crisis or impasse
Beyond Constructs and
Boundaries
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Liberating; ecstatic; one with the universe
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BUT
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Mind is no longer private
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Open to any influence or “insertion”
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Loss of the construct “safe/dangerous” - danger can
come from anywhere.
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The boundary between inner and outer is lost.
Introducing Interacting Cognitive
Subsystems (Teasdale & Barnard 1993).
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Interacting Cognitive Subsystems provides
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An information processing model of cognition
Developed through extensive research into
memory and limitations on processing.
A way into understanding the “Head/Heart
split in people.
Interacting Cognitive Subsystems.
Body
State
subsystem
Implicational
subsystem
Implicational
Memory
Auditory
ss.
Visual
ss.
Propositional subsystem
Propositional
Memory
Verbal
ss.
Important Features of this model
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Our subjective experience is the result of two
overall meaning making systems interacting –
neither is in control.
Each has a different character, corresponding to
“head” and “heart”.
The IMPLICATIONAL Subsystem (which I will
also call RELATIONAL) manages emotion – and
therefore relationship.
The verbal, logical, PROPOSITIONAL ss. gives us
our sense of individual self.
A challenging model of the mind.
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The mind is simultaneously individual, and
reaches beyond the individual, when the
relational ss. is dominant.
This happens at high and at low arousal.
There is a constant balancing act between
logic and emotion – human fallibility
Mindfulness is a useful technique to
manage that balance.
More about the relational mode of
being
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In our relational mode we are part of the whole
– and open to that which is beyond ourselves
We are defined by all our relationships – they
are a part of us
This includes relationship with that which is
deepest and furthest – which is beyond our
naming capacity, but is sometimes called God,
Goddess, Spirit etc.
Relationship is something we experience – so it
can be beyond propositional knowledge – we
can feel more than we know.
Web of Relationships
In Rel. with
earth:
non humans
etc.
primary
care-giver
In Rel. with
wider
group etc.
Self as
experienced
in relationship
with primary
caregiver
Sense of
value comes
from rel. with
the spiritual
Two Ways of Knowing
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Good everyday functioning = good
communication between
implicational/relational and propositional
At high and at low arousal, the relational
ss becomes dominant
This gives us a different quality of
experience – one that is both sought and
shunned.
Implicational Subsystem
concerns
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Meaning and meaningfulness
The self; threat and value
Intense, extreme feelings (all or nothing)
Loss of fine discrimination and boundaries
(the domain of the propositional)
This gives us the quality of experience I
will call the “transliminal”
I suggest
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Both ways of encountering reality are
equally valid
Both are intrinsically incomplete
Human beings have always honoured the
transliminal
Made space for the sacred.
Advantages of this model
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It clarifies the characteristics of the transliminal;
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It helps to explain common psychotic experiences, such as:
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both/and, not either/or
paradox
numinosity
thought insertion
distortions in the sense of selfIt brings psychosis into the realm of
universal human experience
It brings psychosis into the realm of universal human experience
It enables us to take experience and its consequences at face value
without judging
It provides a model to help people to learn to manage the
threshold; to be able to pass across and back and know which side
they are on.
Web addresses
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www.SpiritualCrisisNetwork.org.uk
www.scispirit.com/Psychosis_Spirituality/