Religion and Spirituality in Psychiatry

Self-Identity and Religion/Spirituality 167a process of construction of this identity. Theydirect the roles to be played.(27) In anticipation ofexperiences that patients could perceive as threateningthe cohesion of the self, rites and stories proposeinterpretation models of these experiencesas social roles one must assume. Psychotherapyoperates in the same way. In a therapeutic settingmarked by a certain rituality, it allows playing variousroles through interactive sequences integratingnarrative aspects.12. CASES WITH RELIGIOUS/SPIRITUALASPECTSThe case descriptions provided here have beenchosen to show how various aspects of what constitutesa religious tradition can be invoked by anindividual during the process of constructing hisor her identity. The first case refers to a personof Christian tradition, while the second and thethird cases concern individuals of Muslim tradition.What these case studies highlight is notrestricted to these particular traditions. The firstcase illustrates how a girl’s difficult time in distancingherself from her mother is accomplishedin late adolescence and then in young adulthoodwith the help of a community structure and ofattachment and identification figures of religiousnature. The second case highlights the nature ofidentification potentially contained in the practiceof a rite, but also the extent of the contactthat can be established with a secure foundationrelationship. The third case demonstrates howreligious traditions furnish social roles.12.1. Case 1Sister B. is a nun in a Benedictine monastery.She says she has been suffering from asthma eversince she was a child. She thus describes the relationshipbetween her and her mother as stifling.Her parents were bakers and she was allergic toflour. In adolescence, she managed to distanceherself by going abroad for her professionaltraining. She reports that her asthma attacksstopped after a prayer with a charismatic group,where she experienced the Spirit of Peace. Froma charismatic perspective, the Spirit of Peaceis considered to be a divine gift. The body collapses.If the person is standing, she falls withoutbeing hurt and remains like this for a while.Those who have experienced this describe it as adeep relaxation in which all internal tension disappears.A feeling of well-being takes its place,providing reassurance of being accompanied bya kindly presence. Sister B. was 23 when she hadthis experience. She attributes it as the result of ajourney of several years, made after several successivesteps. At the age of 33, she entered themonastery. A few months later, while still a novice,she was sent with a group of nuns to a fieldto collect stones and throw them into a tractor.They were supposed to clear the field of stonesbefore plowing. This was dusty work, which setoff an asthma attack. Reinterpreting what happenedat this specific moment, Sister B. believesthat the attack was triggered by fear. “It plungedme back into a situation in which I could onlysuffocate and I was in complete crisis.” Ten yearsbefore, she had been healed in a miraculous way,she recounts, and then wonders if she ought todoubt this healing. Her superior again sent her togather stones, thus confronting Sister B. with animpossible task, as she describes it. She recounts,“I prayed a lot and then asked the Virgin Mary toaccompany me, as I realized I had experienced alot and could do a lot of impossible things withoutsuffering an asthma attack. I thought thiswas a step I had to take.” During this new shiftof stone collecting, she didn’t have an asthmaattack. “I came back with a stone; I took the mostbeautiful one, I didn’t throw it in the tractor, butput it in my garden apron; I took it with me to themonastery and put it in a small sanctuary in thegarden, where there is a statue of Saint Mary, andsaid: here, this is the stone of victory.” She laughsand continues, “So, through an Impossible Task,as Saint Benedict describes it, I had really overcomesomething.” This account illustrates wellhow attachment coordinates with identification.First, charismatic prayer, with its lullaby-likesongs, built a maternal setting in which Sister B.experienced profound security. The account wasnot detailed enough to tell if a specific member