Psychosis and Spirituality Consolidating the New Paradigm

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.And rightly so, becauseit degrades the memory of an obviously talented woman.Yet if we accept one(Margery Kempe) then we should surely also accept the other (Julian) as togetherrepresenting the several different ways in which psychoticism can find spiritualexpression, and both veering – again in different ways – towards clinical psychosis.ConclusionsAs was anticipated, the dilemma used to introduce this chapter has not been resolvedin what has followed.We are no nearer to knowing whether the mystic shouldbe considered formally mad, or whether the clinically psychotic sometimes stumbleon universal insights of great significance, albeit through the distorted lens of thepersonalised paranoia to which their nervous systems make them peculiarly sus-ceptible.But hopefully the discussion here has moved the debate on slightly.In some respects, of course, the perspective on psychosis adopted in this chaptermakes it more, rather than less, difficult to solve the puzzle of spirituality by referring to clinical data.Conventional interpretations of psychosis – even some of thosegrounded in a dimensional viewpoint – are essentially modelled on notions of diseaseas neurological deficit.If spiritual experience is to be brought within that samedomain, then the logical conclusion is surely that the spiritually inspired are merelyderanged.The alternative presented here at least offers a way out of that simplistic equation.Psychosis – or rather psychoticism – could simply be, as suggested, a variation on‘ways of behaving and thinking’.In which case, the judgment, ‘mad’ or ‘inspired’,becomes a matter of personal (or societal) evaluation.Well, not quite: it probably isthe case that some ideas, perceptions, interpretations of events, are crazy, having nofoundation either in consensual reality or in a theoretically fathomable universaltruth.But at least, for the moment, the matter remains open, if we are prepared toaccept the view of psychosis offered here.Of course, one could step completely outside the spirituality/psychosis debate as ithas been interpreted in this chapter.Mysticism and psychosis might be completelydifferent universes of discourse; high psychoticism need not be a necessary conditionof enhanced spirituality; and, even if it were in some instances, this might not always(or mostly) be the case.It would be difficult to counter that argument entirely.Although a truism, it has to be conceded that behaviour is always multiplydetermined and the explanations of particular cases rarely identical.Nevertheless,the argument here has been – and the evidence seems in its favour – that psychoticismand psychosis do provide a substantive bridge to the understanding of the origins ofmost spiritual, mystical or religious experiences that stem from the personalpsychology of the individual – as distinct, that is, from cult or culture bound ormimicked religious versions that originate in ritualised, theological dogmas or thesuggestibility of gullible persons.Spiritual Experience: Healthy Psychoticism?87Psychoticism has been assumed to be a substantially constitutional trait, reflectingcentral nervous system differences between people, but the precise mechanismswhich, at that level, mediate the connection between psychoticism and spirituality(or psychosis) are not entirely clear.Given the multi-dimensional nature ofpsychoticism itself, it is likely that several processes are involved, to do with bothaffect and cognition, and their interaction.However, one central explanatoryconstruct here probably is something like the ‘transliminality’ quoted by Thalbourne.This or similar notions have existed in various forms throughout the history ofattempts to explain the psychotic’s wild swings and unpredictable trajectories ofideation and emotion; a condition found as ‘skinlessness’ (Anthony, 1987), in thecharacteristic childhood trait said to pre-dispose to such reactions.As a key feature of the psychotic personality, this supersensitivity of perception, thinking and feelingmight provide a common mechanism for the phenomena discussed here, the contentof individual experiences – and whether positive or negative in tone – being shaped bysituational, life history, and other contextual factors.In clinical psychosis, suchhyperawareness results in a state that fluctuates along a continuum from the realthrough the misperceived to the seemingly entirely imagined.If we were to try toconfront how the same formulation might also account for spiritual or mysticalexperience, then we might logically be forced to consider that the psychotic person’sskinlessness (or transliminality) could even extend to what in conventional termswould be called the ‘supernatural’.The possibility is intriguing but takes us to the very far reaches of a topic that is already fraught with philosophical uncertainty and its own brand of irrationality.For the moment therefore that particular theme must remain,unsubstantiated, outside the scope of our discussion.Instead, the final remarks of this chapter more properly belong, I feel, not withthose people whose psychoticism results in a spiritually satisfying, highly valuedexperience, but rather with those whose similar personality dispositions lead theminto mental illness [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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