Deliverance From the “Dark Night of the Soul”

Abstract

The “dark night” perspective describes the journey to spiritual enlightenment as entailing a crisis in which individuals confront the possibility that life is meaningless. In the study presented in this article, 85% of the participants rejected the dark night view. The authors discuss how counselors can help clients cope with a dark night crisis.

Depression and mysticism: Case report and literature review.

“…This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Kinnier et al, 2009).…”

“…Reflections on the relationship between depression and mysticism invariably invoke the concept of the Dark Night of the Soul (DNS; Durà-Vilà & Dein, 2009; Durà-Vilà et al, 2010; Goretzki, 2007; Kinnier et al, 2009). DNS has often been equated with depression due to the sense of hopelessness, loneliness, desolation, existential struggle, feelings of abandonment (by God/Goddess or Spirit), crisis of faith, and empathic feelings of the suffering of others (Durà-Vilà & Dein, 2009; Durà-Vilà et al, 2010; Kinnier et al, 2009; Meadow, 1984). However, most authors working within the fields of spirituality and psychology, or transpersonal psychology, have clearly differentiated the two.…”

“…Thus, the nuns were not demonstrating the hopelessness or helplessness commonly found within clinical depression. Additionally, O’Connor (2002, as cited in Kinnier et al, 2009) noted that “clinical depression is often alleviated by interventions such as physical exercise and diet change. These interventions have little effect on the individual’s experience of the dark night” (p. 111).…”

“…These interventions have little effect on the individual’s experience of the dark night” (p. 111). Indeed, the most common intervention for DNS is a maintenance of spiritual practices, contextualizing the experience within one’s larger spiritual beliefs, and relinquishing of the egoic self (Durà-Vilà et al, 2010; Kinnier et al, 2009).…”

“…Durà-Vilà et al ( 2010) studied 10 contemplative Augustinian nuns at the Spanish monastery Santa Mo ´nica (a pseudonym) and found that symptoms which may be considered depression were instead conceptualized within the DNS framework. The sisters described the DNS as an "experience of profound spiritual suffering and Kinnier et al, 2009).…”