Isabel ClarkeConsultant Clinical Psychologist

Looking at psychosis and spirituality in the same frame, as one potential of human experience.

Research that supports this perspective. A model of brain architecture to underpin

this perspective. Implications of looking at human beings

in this way. Implications for clinical practice will be

the subject of my second talk.

Mental breakdown: what is going on? How can people be better supported

through it? Where does spirituality fit within

psychological science? Psychotic experiences: what is going on

here? Euphoria followed by catastrophe ????

Early breakdown Overwhelming sense of connection – spiritual

literature Followed by fear

Revolution and social movements Euphoric, everything possible stage Followed by terror, brutal dictatorship and

repression Stepping out of individuality – a sought

after experience

Mike Jackson’s research on the overlap between psychotic and spiritual experience.

Emmanuelle Peter’s research on New Religious Movements.

Schizotypy – a dimension of experience: Gordon Claridge. High Schizotypy = positives as well as negatives

Wider sources of evidence – e.g.Cross-cultural perspectives; anthropology. Richard Warner: Recovery from Schizophrenia.

Caroline Brett’s AANEX makes it possible to measure anomalous experiences phenomenologically – get away from symptom language

Research that demonstrates: having a context for anomalous experiences makes the difference between whether they result in diagnosable mental

health difficulties whether the anomalies/symptoms are short

lived or persist. Caroline Brett, Heriot-Maitland and others.

An area where experience becomes anomalous – spiritual/psychotic/ THE TRANSLIMINAL

This challenges the idea of psychosis as ‘just’ an illness and symptoms as things to be got rid of at all costs.

Powerful evidence: how the experience is made sense of impacts peoples’ lives

Health services do not come well out of this Time for a new perspective!

Traditions such as Psychosynthesis and Spiritual Emergence/Emergency recognize the transformational potential of the transliminal.

Jung: Meeting and integrating shadow - an aspect of transformation

These traditions tend to distinguish between ‘psychosis’ and transformational crises

More and more this is seen as a false dichotomy – Spiritual Crisis Network (.uk)

Mike Jackson’s Problem Solving Model, encompassing potential and dangers.

Role of stigma in trapping people.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.Don’t go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.Don’t go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsillWhere the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.Don’t go back to sleep.

Rumi, translated by John Moyne & Coleman Barks in ‘Open Secret’ (Threshold books).

Being human is difficult because our brains have 2 main circuits – they work together most of the time, but not always.

There is one direct, sensory driven type of processing and a more elaborate and conceptual one.

The same distinction can be found in the memory. Direct processing is emotional and characterised by

high arousal. The other one filters our view to make it more

manageable The direct processing system is the default system

– the one that dominates if the other gets disconnected – in which case we lose that filter – and land up ACROSS THE THRESHOLD –THE TRANSLIMINAL

The split between realities comes from the split in us!

Interacting Cognitive Subsystems provides a way of making sense of this ‘crack’.(Teasdale & Barnard 1993). 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.

REASONABLEMIND

EMOTIONMIND

IN THE PRESENTIN CONTROL

WISE

MIND

Reasonable Mind Memory

Emotion Mind Memory

BodyState

subsystem

Auditory

ss.

Visualss.

Interacting Cognitive Subsystems.

Implicational subsystem

ImplicationalMemory

Propositional subsystem

PropositionalMemory

Verbal

ss.

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 manages emotion – and therefore relationship.

The verbal, logical, PROPOSITIONAL ss. gives us our sense of individual self.

Good everyday functioning = good

communication between the main organizing systems

At high and at low arousal, the implicational ss becomes dominant

This gives us a different quality of experience – the transliminal

More often, the two are working together, adding something to ordinary experience – e.g. where we get that sense of the sacred, the supernatural.

The human being is a balancing act as the two organising systems pass control back and forth: there is no boss.

The mind is simultaneously individual, and reaches beyond the individual, when the implicational ss. is dominant.

This constant switch between logic and emotion gives us human fallibility

The self sufficient, billiard ball, mind is an illusion

In our implicational/relational mode we are a part of the whole – and the nature of our experience changes.

Mental health breakdown is a common human experience

Comes from a combination of Individual vulnerability/sensitivity Life circumstances – losses, trauma etc. Times of transition Leading to unmanageable feelings

Important relationships are vital to hold us together – including the one with ourselves.

These can suffer in breakdown – or breakdown can occur because they have suffered

Therapy is about healing that crucial relationship between you and you!

Self asexperienced

in relationshipwith primary

caregiver

Sense ofvalue comes

from rel. withthe spiritual

primarycare-giver

In Rel. with wider

group etc.

In Rel. withearth:

non humansetc.

As people, we make sense only within our context of relationship –we are held in a web of relationship

Important others; our family; our social group; ethnic group etc.

Spirituality is about relationship with that which is beyond; with the whole – the widest circle of the web

At times of change, transition - and breakdown - that wider context becomes important

Emotional knowledge tells us about relationship – not reasoning – we can feel more than we can precisely know

Relationship operates across the boundaries of the self and across time – bereavement encounters.

Beyond certainty!

In a small way, in ‘spiritual’ etc. moments. Seriously across the threshold:Times of transitionTrauma loosens the boundary, softens the wallsIllness and lossPhysical privation – lack of food, sleep, isolationMind altering substancesAll apply equally to spiritual practice, the saints, and vulnerability to psychosis!

Ordinary Clear limits Access to full

memory and learning Precise meanings

available Separation between

people Clear sense of self Emotions moderated

and grounded A logic of ‘Either/Or

Numinous Boundaries dissolve Access to

propositional knowledge/memory is patchy

Suffused with meaning or meaningless

Self: lost in the whole or supremely important

Emotions: swing between extremes or absent

A logic of ‘Both/And’

Times of transition and loss ‘wake up’ earlier trauma

People find ways to cope when things are unbearable – for some that coping is to cross the threshold – into another dimension.

This is easier for some people than for others – the ‘schizotypy’ spectrum - openness to anomalous experience – on a continuum with normality

People high on the schizotypy spectrum are more sensitive and “open”.

Leading to the need to regulate stimulation. This can lead into an avoidance cycle; social

isolation and withdrawal = the other ‘reality’ takes over – helped by stigma.

Positive side as well as vulnerability

Loss of boundaries = openness both to other parts within the self and perhaps to other minds

Loss of time dimension – pre-cognition Interchangeability of psychic contents –

past lives, telepathy etc. Voices. Possession – invasion from within

or without ? Distinctions lose their meaning

Richard Bentall, Mary Boyle and others: questioning the validity of the construct of Schizophrenia

Questioning of the biological illness idea – evidence for the role of trauma and past adversity

Read, Mosher etc. Stigma and an illness conceptualization

Whittaker and others: overselling of medication

Joanna Moncrieff: misselling of medication

isabel@scispirit.com Isabel.Clarke@nhs.net

Clarke, I. (Ed.) (2010) Psychosis and Spirituality: consolidating the new paradigm. Chichester: Wiley

Clarke, I. ( 2008) Madness, Mystery and the Survival of God. Winchester:'O'Books.

Clarke, I. & Wilson, H.Eds. (2008) Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Acute Inpatient Mental Health Units; working with clients, staff and the milieu. London: Routledge.

www.isabelclarke.org www.SpiritualCrisisNetwork.uk