Optional Track I: Integration of Faith and Spirituality with Standard Psychiatric Treatment
Optional Track I is designed for those who desire that their psychiatric treatment be integrated into their faith and spirituality. Although some figures early in the history of psychiatry, such as Sigmund Freud, and some in modern psychiatry have believed religious faith to be detrimental to
St. Paul Preaching in Ephesus, painting by Eustache Le Sueur
psychological health and even to induce neurosis, this view is certainly not held monolithically today in psychiatry.
In fact, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatry (DSM-IV) now has a diagnostic category, “V62.89 Religious or Spiritual Problem,” for conflicts in this area. This was created in order to indicate that religion has its legitimate domain or sphere of knowledge apart from psychiatric considerations.
Integrating faith or spirituality into one’s psychiatric care is something which must be chosen by the client or patient and verbalized to the clinician — it is unethical for the psychiatrist to attempt to force this upon an unwilling client.
Topics reviewed include:
a) how faulty psychology can adversely influence one’s theology and faith;
b) conversely, how faulty theology can adversely affect one’s psychology;
c) how to marshall the legitimate resources of one’s faith to augment one’s psychological growth.
d) how faulty personal relationships in development can distort one’s view of God.