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Spiritual crisis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_crisis

Spiritual crisis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Spiritual crisis (also called "spiritual emergency") is a form of identity crisis where an individual
experiences drastic changes to their meaning system (i.e., their unique purposes, goals, values, attitude and
beliefs, identity, and focus) typically because of a spontaneous spiritual experience. A spiritual crisis may
cause significant disruption in psychological, social, and occupational functioning. Among the spiritual
experiences thought to lead to episodes of spiritual crisis or spiritual emergency are psychiatric
complications related to existential crisis, mystical experience, near-death experiences, Kundalini syndrome,
paranormal experiences, religious ecstasy, or other spiritual practices.

Contents
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Background
Study
Neurological causes
See also
References
Sources

Background
In general, before the mid-1970s mainstream psychiatry made no distinction between spiritual or mystical
experiences and mental illness (GAP, 1976, p. 806). However, during the 1960s and 1970s, the overlap of
spiritual/mystical experiences and mental health problems became of particular interest to counterculture
critics of mainstream psychiatric practice who argued that experiences that fall outside of the norm may
simply be another way of constructing reality and not necessarily a sign of mental disorder. The assumption
of mainstream medical psychiatry was also challenged by critics from within the field of medical psychiatry
itself. For example, R. D. Laing argued that mental health problems could also be a transcendental
experience with healing and spiritual aspects. Arthur J. Deikman further suggested use of the term "mystical
psychosis" to characterize first-person accounts of psychotic experiences that are conceptually similar to
reports of mystical experiences.
Because of the gaining recognition of the overlap of spiritual/mystical experiences and mental health
problems, in the early 1990s authors Lukoff, Lu, & Turner (Turner et al., 1995, p. 435) made a proposal for
a new diagnostic category entitled "Religious or Spiritual Problems". The category was approved by the
DSM-IV Task Force in 1993 (Turner et al., 1995, p. 436) and is included in the fourth edition of the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) (American Psychiatric Association,
1994). The inclusion marks increasing professional acceptance of spiritual issues in the assessment of
mental health problems.

Study
The concept of "spiritual crisis" has mainly sprung from the work of transpersonal psychologists and

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Spiritual crisis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_crisis

psychiatrists whose view of the psyche stretches beyond that of Western psychology. Transpersonalists tend
to focus less on psychopathology and more unidirectionally toward enlightenment and ideal mental health
(Walsh & Vaughan, 1993). However, this emphasis on spirituality's potentials and health benefits has been
criticized. According to James (1902), a spiritual orientation focusing only on positive themes is incomplete,
as it fails to address evil and suffering (Pargament et al., 2004). Scholarly attention to spiritual struggle is
therefore timely as it can provide greater balance to the empirical literature and increase understanding of
everyday spirituality. Another reason for the study of spiritual crisis is that growth often occurs through
suffering (e.g., Tedeschi, Park, & Calhoun, 1998). As such, neglecting problems of suffering might result in
neglecting vital sources of spiritual transformation and development (Paloutzian, 2005).
Both the terms "spiritual crisis" and "spiritual emergency" (Grof, 1989) share in the common recognition
that:
1. non-ordinary experiences and psychological disturbances (e.g., anxiety and panic) often overlap;
2. Western medicine may have different, and therefore potentially conflicting, values among their
patients about these experiences;
3. people need specialized support in their local area when in crisis.

Neurological causes
Spiritual crises, and spontaneous spiritual experiences, may have neurological causes, such as described in
the Geschwind syndrome and in neurotheology. The Geschwind syndrome is a group of behavioral
phenomena evident in some people with temporal lobe epilepsy. It is named for one of the first individuals
to categorize the symptoms, Norman Geschwind, who published prolifically on the topic from 1973 to
1984.[1] There is controversy surrounding whether it is a true neuropsychiatric disorder.[2] Temporal lobe
epilepsy causes chronic, mild, interictal (i.e. between seizures) changes in personality, which slowly
intensify over time.[1] Geschwind syndrome includes five primary changes; hypergraphia, hyperreligiosity,
atypical (usually reduced) sexuality, circumstantiality, and intensified mental life.[3] Not all symptoms must
be present for a diagnosis.[2]

See also
Altered state of
consciousness
Born again
Broken heart
Dark Night of the Soul
Ego death
Emotional dysregulation
Existential crisis
First Vision

Human spirit
Ineffability
Jerusalem syndrome
Leap of faith
Maladaptive daydreaming
Mental health
Monomyth
Mysticism
Near death experience

Post-traumatic stress
disorder
Psychedelic experience
Religious experience
Spiritual dryness
Spiritualism
Spirituality
Weltschmerz

References
1. Devinsky, J.; Schachter, S. (2009). "Norman Geschwind's contribution to the understanding of behavioral
changes in temporal lobe epilepsy: The February 1974 lecture". Epilepsy & Behavior. 15 (4): 41724.
doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2009.06.006. PMID19640791.

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Spiritual crisis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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2. Benson, D. F. (1991). "The Geschwind syndrome". Advances in neurology. 55: 41121. PMID2003418.
3. Tebartz Van Elst, L.; Krishnamoorthy, E. S.; Bumer, D.; Selai, C.; von Gunten, A.; Gene-Cos, N.; Ebert, D.;
Trimble, M. R. (2003). "Psychopathological profile in patients with severe bilateral hippocampal atrophy and
temporal lobe epilepsy: Evidence in support of the Geschwind syndrome?". Epilepsy & Behavior. 4 (3): 291.
doi:10.1016/S1525-5050(03)00084-2.

Sources
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition.
Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association.
GAP (Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry) (1976). Mysticism: Spiritual quest or psychic disorder? New
York: GAP.
Grof, S. & Grof, C. (Eds.) (1989). Spiritual emergency: When personal transformation becomes a crisis. Los
Angeles: Tarcher.
James, W. (1902). The Varieties of Religious Experience: A study in human nature. New York: Longmans,
Green.
Paloutzian, R. F. (2005) Religious conversion and spiritual transformation: A meaning- system analysis. In
Paloutzian R.F. & Park, C.L. (Eds.), Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (pp. 331347).
New York: Guilford.
Pargament, K. I., Murray-Swank, N., Magyar, G. M., & Ano, G. G. (2004). Spiritual struggle: A phenomenon of
interest to psychology and religion. In W. R. Miller & H. Delaney (Eds.), Judeo-Christian perspectives in
psychology: Human nature, motivation, and change (pp. 245268). Washington, DC: APA Books.
Tedeschi, R. G., Park, C. L., & Calhoun, R. G. (Eds.). (1998). Posttraumatic growth: Positive changes in the
aftermath of crisis. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Turner, R. P., Lukoff, D., Barnhouse, R. T., & Lu, F. G. (1995). Religious or spiritual problem: A culturally
sensitive diagnostic category in the DSM-IV. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 183, 435444.
Walsh, R. & Vaughan, F. (1993). On transpersonal definitions. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 25, 12582

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