Can spirituality have a positive impact on mental health? Jacques Besson, psychiatrist and drug addict, honorary professor at the University of Lausanne, is convinced of this.
His belief stems from an observation made at the beginning of his career, when he accompanied people addicted to alcohol who were also followed by Alcoholics Anonymous: “I saw patients lost to medicine and psychiatry who returned, like corks, to the surface when they had found a vision of the world that enlightens them and saves them. In Alcoholics Anonymous the role of spirituality is important, it is secular.
An encounter with spirituality through fantastic literature
In the Dingue podcast, Éliane (not her real name) talks about her great difficulties as a teenager which led to her forced psychiatric hospitalization at the age of 13. Éliane lives with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) which will not be diagnosed until much later. Around the age of 14, when she read a lot, she discovered the works of Terry Pratchett, in particular the “Annals of World Record”. She is also passionate about Alessandro Pignocchi’s satirical comics, which offer an animist perspective of the world.
If you have a big turning point in your life, suddenly your worldview is turned upside down, you can have a spiritual collapse, with a terrible emptiness.
Jacques Besson, psychiatrist and drug addict
Éliane confides: “These readings allowed me to find a relationship with the world that suited me. I also began to have my own list of moral rules, in particular on the respect to be given to each of the beings around us.” Éliane is what the Anglo-Saxons call SBNR, Spiritual But Not Religious. Today, at 30, she believes she is inhabited by this spirituality, especially in her relationship with the environment.
The 3rd order of mental health
Jacques Besson points out that spirituality is often overlooked in the psychiatric field. He emphasizes the importance of a third “order”, the spiritual one, in addition to the somatic and psychic approaches. Jacques Besson specifies: “If you have a big turning point in your life, suddenly your vision of the world is turned upside down, you can have a spiritual collapse, with a terrible emptiness. This spiritual distress is different from psychological distress. C This is where the my notion of order comes in handy.”
Today more and more attention is paid to what we call “spiritual care”, in particular with the arrival, in healthcare facilities, of chaplains who do not have a religious role, but as spiritual companions, trained to follow the patient in his spirituality whatever can be.
Make room for others
When questioned about the influence of her spirituality on her perception of the world, Éliane insists on the attention that must be paid to others: “I think of human beings, but above all of other beings as very small microscopic creatures that populate the earth by example.”
If we ask her if this attention towards others can also concern neurodivergent people, she confirms. “Of course! For example, being autistic today is a handicap, but 2000 years ago was it? If we were in a social situation where there are much fewer people, where for example you have to hunt – then have a very great sensitivity to the smallest details: it would be It’s rather an advantage to have this sensitivity. Our conception of disability is very limited.”
Adriano Zerbini
2024-01-13 10:33:28
#Podcast #Mental #health #spirituality #integrative #approach #rts.ch