Abstract:This exploratory study shows that God representation types are associated with levels of personality organization. Among two Dutch samples of psychiatric patients (n = 136) and nonpatients (n = 161), we found associations between the psychotic, borderline, and neurotic personality organizations, and passive-unemotional, negative-authoritarian, and positive-authoritative God representation types, respectively. Both patients and nonpatients reported positive God representations, but only nonpatients and higher-l… Show more
“…Patients with cluster B disorders showed the tendency to externalize (blaming God and others) and patients with cluster C to internalize (blaming oneself). This may relate to study results showing that patients with borderline personality disorders report an unstable relationship with God, experiencing Him as powerful and unreliable [37], and persons with neurotic personality disorders to feel imperfect, guilty, and insecure toward a God whom they experience as demanding, ruling, and punishing [38]. Symptoms extending to R/S issues for patients with autism were a tendency to think literally, troubles with R/S interactions, and difficulties with metaphors.…”
<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Little is known about types of religious/spiritual (R/S) struggles with regard to various diagnostic groups in mental health care. The current qualitative study aims to give an impression of R/S struggles as observed in six diagnostic groups in clinical mental health care. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Inductive thematic content analysis was applied to 34 semi-structured interviews. The interviews were performed among (day) clinical mental health care patients in two institutions. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Among patients with depression, a lack of positive R/S experiences, isolation, and feelings of guilt and shame were present. Those with cluster C and anxiety disorders reported uncertainty toward God and faith and R/S reticence. Psychotic disorders were accompanied by impressive R/S experiences, reticence to share these, and mistrust toward health professionals. Patients with bipolar disorder struggled with the interpretation of their R/S experiences and with both attraction and distance toward R/S. Cluster B patients showed ambivalence and anger toward God and others, and some reported existential tiredness. Patients with autism mentioned doubts and troubles with religious beliefs. In all groups, many patients had questions like “why?” or “where is God?” <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> R/S struggles to some extent may be the language of the illness. Mental health professionals are recommended to take this into account, taking heed of the content of individual R/S struggles and considering using R/S interventions.
“…Patients with cluster B disorders showed the tendency to externalize (blaming God and others) and patients with cluster C to internalize (blaming oneself). This may relate to study results showing that patients with borderline personality disorders report an unstable relationship with God, experiencing Him as powerful and unreliable [37], and persons with neurotic personality disorders to feel imperfect, guilty, and insecure toward a God whom they experience as demanding, ruling, and punishing [38]. Symptoms extending to R/S issues for patients with autism were a tendency to think literally, troubles with R/S interactions, and difficulties with metaphors.…”
<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Little is known about types of religious/spiritual (R/S) struggles with regard to various diagnostic groups in mental health care. The current qualitative study aims to give an impression of R/S struggles as observed in six diagnostic groups in clinical mental health care. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Inductive thematic content analysis was applied to 34 semi-structured interviews. The interviews were performed among (day) clinical mental health care patients in two institutions. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Among patients with depression, a lack of positive R/S experiences, isolation, and feelings of guilt and shame were present. Those with cluster C and anxiety disorders reported uncertainty toward God and faith and R/S reticence. Psychotic disorders were accompanied by impressive R/S experiences, reticence to share these, and mistrust toward health professionals. Patients with bipolar disorder struggled with the interpretation of their R/S experiences and with both attraction and distance toward R/S. Cluster B patients showed ambivalence and anger toward God and others, and some reported existential tiredness. Patients with autism mentioned doubts and troubles with religious beliefs. In all groups, many patients had questions like “why?” or “where is God?” <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> R/S struggles to some extent may be the language of the illness. Mental health professionals are recommended to take this into account, taking heed of the content of individual R/S struggles and considering using R/S interventions.
“…Among patients who were more stable in terms of personality organization, positive feelings toward God were associated with less psychological distress. This may suggest that the positive feelings of the former group have a compensating or even magical function (van der Velde et al, 2021).…”
In this article, we present a new version of the Questionnaire God Representations (QGR), the QGR-17. This version is particularly aimed for use in scientific studies among psychiatric patients and applications in a clinical context, such as routine outcome measurement and the monitoring of existential recovery during treatment. We calculated norm scores and examined psychometric properties of the QGR-17, for both a general population and a population of people who receive mental health care. We calculated norm scores (based on stanine scores) and analyzed internal consistency, comparative and structural validity (Study 1, N = 1,788). Convergent and divergent validity were examined with correlation analyses with psychopathology, vitality and hope/meaning in life, and identity as existential factors (Study 2, N = 1,366). The results show that internal consistencies of the QGR-17 scales are adequate to good and that it has structural validity. The average item scores of each QGR-17 scale resemble the scales of the total QGR. We found that the positively valenced aspects of God representations were predominantly related to higher levels of vitality and the existential constructs of identity and hope/meaning in life, while the negatively valenced aspects were related to higher levels of psychopathology, less hope/meaning in life, and more negative identity scores. Taken together, these findings provide support for the QGR-17 as a relatively brief measure of God representations and its potential to address the positive or negative relationships of religion/spirituality with mental health in treatment. Implications for clinical work are discussed.
ZUSAMMENFASSUNGDer Begriff „Gottesbild“ hat seine Wurzeln in der biblischen Anthropologie: Der Mensch ist der ausschließliche zælæm (lebendige Statue) des Schöpfers. Folglich sind keine Idole oder physischen Gottesbilder erlaubt. Mentale Repräsentationen der Beziehung eines Individuums zu Gott, zu einer anderen transzendenten Figur oder zum Heiligen haben eine affektive, implizite, weitgehend unbewusste Komponente (oft Gottesbild genannt) und eine kognitive, explizite, propositionale Komponente (oft Gotteskonzept genannt). Das Verständnis des Gottesbildes psychisch Kranker sollte sich nicht auf die Abweichung vom vermeintlich „guten und richtigen“ Gottesbild (normativer Bias) konzentrieren, sondern vielmehr auf die wahrgenommene Diskrepanz zwischen dem persönlichen und dem normativen Gottesbild. Bei religiösen Wahnvorstellungen und anderen Psychopathologien kann das Gottesbild Teil des Problems (z. B. in Verbindung mit Wut und Angst) oder Teil der Lösung (z. B. Bewältigung durch spirituelle Erzählungen) sein. Was die religiösen, kulturellen, sozialen und psychopathologischen Normativitäten betrifft, sollte Spiritual Care eine wohlwollende Neutralität wahren und die spirituelle Suche des Patienten und seine sich entwickelnde Gottes-Imagination begleiten.
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