by Alastriona Ametza

Created on: September 23, 2009   Last Updated: September 27, 2009

The pursuit of spirituality is critical component in the development of a healthy psyche and thus a topic of interest for any responsible therapist or clinical theorist. The interlacing of psychiatry and matters of the spirit have been a subject of debate since the founding of modern psychiatry though. Sigmund Freud dismissed it as fantasy or 'obsess ional neurosis'. For many years now there has been a severing of the relationship between psychology and spirituality, there are several schools of thought as to why that occurs.

There has been a recent upswing though in psychological circles though and many conferences, seminars, workshops, books, and special issues in major professional journals on spirituality and psychology integration in the last few years. It was Freud's student Carl Jung that ran with the ideas of spirituality within psychiatry. He never publicly proclaimed himself a spiritual man, but the links he created was a foundation for modern psychiatry. This essay will attempt to address the link between spirituality and psychiatry as well as why a link should be established and concreted between the psychiatrist and their client.

A significant portion of the world population believes in a higher power in some form. For many that leads to deep emotional connections that cannot be ignored, but regrettably have been noticeably absent in the study of psychology.

In his Modern Man in Search of a Soul, Carl Jung tells us that, "there are some people whose attitude is essentially spiritual and others whose attitude is essentially materialistic. It must not be assumed that such an attitude is accidentally acquired or springs from some misunderstanding. These attitudes show themselves as ingrained passions which no criticism or persuasion can stamp out...." (59-60). Many feel that integrating the two components is dangerous ethically and should be left to individual clergy. That leaves out an important facet of a clients life from examination that is necessary in making the whole.

It is possible to discuss spirituality without falling into debating religious dogma with the client. Value neutrality is necessary to adhere to when dealing with this realm of phenomena with a client. When one separates individual values from client evaluation there can be a 'happy balance' met. Responsible psychiatry must include the most important components of a clients life and spirituality is very often part of that core. Therefore the evolution of psychology to embrace this is necessary and expected as we move towards a more positive focus in psychiatric study.

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