Religion and Spirituality in Psychiatry

164 Pierre-Yves Brandt, Claude-Alexandre Fournier, and Sylvia Mohrcan produce strange manifestations in whichsubjects do not recognize themselves.(12)In summary, the attachment relationship is afoundation and a vector for the internalizationof the parental figures. It responds to a primaryneed. It is on the basis of this maternal function,later replaced by others, that the secondaryand the partial identifications develop, allowingaccess to the symbolization processes (communicationcodes, access to language). In this way, theinternalization of the relationship with stable andstructuring parental figures depends on attachmentand, therefore, on the subject’s capacities ofsymbolization such as employment, learning ofritual practices, and construction of social roles.8. RELIGIOUS FIGURES ANDATTACHMENTMary Ainsworth has shown how, on the pathto adulthood, the first attachment figures arereplaced by sexual partners, family members(grandparents, brothers, sisters, or other kin),and members of peer groups.(13) Therapists alsoare assigned the role of an attachment figure. Tofully benefit from psychotherapy, it is imperativethat the patient lean on a secure base.(9) Froma developmental point of view, religious figuresplay the role of attachment figures, because theyoffer a secure relational frame. Ainsworth notesthat priests or pastors are also potential attachmentfigures. In the religious field, divinitiesor saints can be used as reassuring figures. It isworth considering up to what point we can speakof attachment figures when perceptible contact isnot possible.In the psychology of religion, Granqvist andKirkpatrick have developed the idea that religiousfigures would fill a lack of attachment bonds andplay the role of “resilience tutors” by incarnatingthe parental function. In most Western religioustraditions and in attachment research, the religiousindividual’s close relationship with a personalGod is central.(14) In Bowlby’s normativeattachment conceptualization, the term attachmentrelationship does not refer to any type ofclose relationship but exclusively to those thatmeet four criteria: proximity maintenance, safehaven, secure base, and separation distress.(15)Granqvist’s and Kirkpatrick’s studies are based onthe assumption that these four criteria are reasonablymet as concerns the relationship of thebeliever with a spiritual object/figure. Hence, itis suggested that some aspects of attachment aresimilar for the believer in relation to his or herspiritual object/figure and for the child in relationto her parents, that is, they serve the function ofobtaining/maintaining a sense of perceived securitywhen in distress.(16) There are several meansavailable for the religious individual to establisha sense of proximity or closeness to a spiritualfigure/object, such as using symbols, engaging inrituals, and prayer.(14) Regarding the safe havenaspect of attachment, one of the best documentedfindings in psychology of religion is that believersturn to God in situations of distress. Such situationsare diverse and include loss through deathand divorce, (17) emotional crises, (18, 19) andrelationship problems, (20) all of which are likelyto activate the individual’s attachment system.Two different modes of psychological coherencerelated to spiritual/religious coping havebeen described. The correspondence hypothesissuggests that there is a correspondence betweenearly child-parent interactions on the one handand a person’s ability to cope in relation to a spiritualobject/figure on the other. According to thishypothesis, a secure attachment history wouldenable a person to use a spiritual/religious object/figure as an attachment figure, which proximitywould help regulate affects. The compensationhypothesis suggests that an insecure attachmenthistory would lead to a strong religiousness/spiritualityas a compensation of the lack of perceivedsecurity.(21)9. RELIGIOUS FIGURES PLAYING THEROLES OF PARENTAL FIGURESReferential religious figures can bridge the gapsbetween identification figures. In certain religioustraditions, people practicing a religious functionare called father or mother . These same denominationscan be applied to saints or to divine