The paper strives to elucidate the complex yet intimate relation between spirituality and mental health from contemporary perspectives. The diverse and constantly evolving views that spiritualists and mental health professionals have held toward each other over last century are discussed with special accent on the transpersonal spiritual framework within psychology. The role of spirituality in promoting mental health and alleviating mental illness is highlighted. The paper is concluded with an increasing need to integrate spirituality within the mental health field albeit there are several impediments in achieving the same, which need to be worked through circumspectly.
The present study compared the use of defense mechanisms in ten bipolar manic, ten bipolar depressed and ten unipolar depressed patients. The defense mechanisms were assessed by two methods: TAT stories scored by Defense Mechanism Manual and Defense Mechanism Rating Scale ratings of psychodynamic interviews. The severity of symptoms was assessed by Beck Depression Inventory for depressed patients and Young's Manic Rating Scale for manic patients. Both bipolar manic and depressed groups used the defense mechanism of denial, borderline level defenses and immature defenses significantly more than the unipolar depression group. The manic group showed greater dependence on narcissistic level defenses as compared to the other two groups. Positive relationships were found between severity of manic symptoms and the defense mechanisms of denial as well as the narcissistic level defenses. The bipolar depression group also used more action level defenses as compared to the unipolar depression group. The unipolar depression group scored higher on the defense mechanism of identification and adaptive level defenses as compared to the manic group. A negative correlation was found between the severity of depressive symptoms for unipolar depression group and the defense mechanism of identification. The neurotic level defenses were used most frequently by unipolar depression group, followed by the bipolar depression group and manic group. Some of these findings are in consonance with the psychoanalytic understanding of mania and depression.
The role played by socio-cultural factors in psychoanalytic psychotherapy from the vantage point of both the client and the therapist is elucidated. The position conferred upon culture throughout the history of psychoanalysis from classical to contemporary perspectives is briefly reviewed with special reference to the practice of psychoanalysis in India. A case study having relevance to the present theme is discussed where ignorance of factors salient to Indian culture adversely affected the outcome. Attention is given to internal and external pressures that prompted the therapist to take the stand. It is argued that the therapist may tread the difficult path between cultural universalism and cultural relativism rather than committing to either of them in order to do justice to psychoanalytical clinical work.Keywords Psychoanalysis . Culture . Rethinking . Dependency . Bonding Given the recent demographic trend of increasing cultural diversity, in order to effectively carry out psychoanalytic psychotherapeutic work one needs to be sensitive and empathic to the cultural background of the patient. The rise of postmodernism in social sciences also emphasizes this need as the discourse now is seen as relentlessly embedded in its socio-cultural and historical contexts, voicing a particular value system and relative in its understanding of human processes. Within these contexts the role of culture in psychoanalysis i.e. its function in formation of individual psyche, psychopathology, and governing the standards of mental health, goals and techniques of treatment is increasingly considered. The Place of 'Culture' in PsychoanalysisHistorically, the view of culture held by classical psychoanalysis can be summarized in three ways: the way psychoanalysis has interacted with sociology, anthropology and interpreted the concept of culture; the role that it ascribes to culture in development of self, and positioning of cultural factors in the psychoanalytic clinical theory and practice.Classical psychoanalytic forays into culture (Freud 1908; Marcuse 1955;Lasch 1979;1984) have held culture responsible for incarceration of individual desire, causing profound alienation, culminating in repression, neurosis and various other pathologies. A radical transformation of culture by subverting its domination and releasing unconscious forces has been called for.These psychoanalytic forays into culture were quite insightful and have potential for social change but the interaction has been "inside-out", i.e. how the psychodynamic processes and concepts unique to individual psyche are reflected in and shape up cultural processes. Most of these works (Roheim 1945(Roheim , 1950Stephens 1962;Spiro 1983) were based on conviction of psychoanalytic unity of mankind. It was believed that deep down the unconscious is the same wherever we go and the differences we see across cultures are superficial (Devereux 1978.) Of late, some attention has been paid to the complementary process of "outside-in", i.e. how social, cultural and historical processes ...
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