Spiritist Psychiatric Hospitals in Brazil: Integration of Conventional Psychiatric Treatment and Spiritual Complementary Therapy

Abstract

In Brazil, during the XX century, dozens of Spiritist psychiatric hospitals emerged seeking to integrate conventional medical treatment with complementary spiritual therapy. This combined inpatient treatment is largely found in Brazil, where many psychiatric hospitals stem from the Spiritist movement. The present report describes the use of these spiritual practices, their operating structure, health professionals involved, modalities of care, and institutional difficulties in integrating spiritual practices with conventional treatment in six leading Brazilian Spiritist psychiatric hospitals. These hospitals combine conventional psychiatric treatment with voluntary-based spiritual approaches such as laying on of hands ("fluidotherapy"), lectures regarding spiritual and ethical issues, intercessory prayer, spirit release therapy ("disobsession") and "fraternal dialogue". The non-indoctrination and optional nature of these spiritual complementary therapies seem to increase acceptance among patients and their family members. In conclusion, the Spiritist psychiatric hospitals in Brazil have, for more than half a century, provided an integrative approach in the treatment of psychiatric disorders, associating conventional and spiritual treatments, more specifically Spiritist therapy. The lack of standardized treatment protocols and scientific studies remain a barrier to assessing the impact of this integrative approach on patients' mental health, quality of life, adherence, and perceived quality of treatment.

Mediumship: review of quantitatives studies published in the 21st century

“…Psychography and psychopictography (allegedly painting under the influence of a spirit) may adapt more easily to an experimental protocol employing functional neuroimaging. In regard of psychophony, although it may represent a larger universe of potential research participants (great prevalence of "spirit release therapy" sessions employing psychophonic mediums in countries such as Brazil 70,71 and Puerto Rico 72 ), it offers obstacles to neuroimaging studies as it usually requires team work. In these cases, protocols involving EEG and ECG may be preferred as they allow researchers to record the event "in loco" using portable equipment.…”

Perfil sociodemográfico e de experiências anômalas em indivíduos com vivências psicóticas e dissociativas em grupos religiosos

“…These AEs may be indicative of mental disorder or constitute non-pathological and even beneficial experiences [10][11][12][13][14][15] . Given the individuals studied sought help to deal with psychic experiences, it is useful to compare the profile of this sample against patients of community-based mental health units.…”

“…Mediumship can be defined as a group of experiences in which an individual (the medium) claims to be in contact with or under the control of a personality of a deceased individual or other immaterial entity 10 . Spiritism, akin to other religions worldwide, represents an important yet understudied provider of mental healthcare 11,12 .…”

The Interdisciplinary Spiritual Care Model – A holistic Approach to Patient Care

“…Both studies that exemplify health institutions that integrate spirituality into their care practices refer to institutions kept and managed by Spiritualist groups (LUCCHETTI et al 2012a;AURELIANO, 2013). These studies classify spiritual care practices offered in these institutions as alternative and complementary therapies.…”

“…These studies classify spiritual care practices offered in these institutions as alternative and complementary therapies. One study (LUCCHETTI et al 2012a) makes an historical analysis of the contribution of dozens of psychiatric hospitals founded by Spiritualism followers and collects data from 6 spiritualist psychiatric hospitals, aiming to determine the offered spiritual practices, the working structure, health professionals involved, modalities of care, and institutional difficulties in integrating spiritual practices with conventional treatment (LUCCHETTI et al, 2012a, p.128). It is worth mentioning that Spiritualists believe that diseases, especially mental illness, can be caused by the harmful influence of discarnated minds (spirits), and if they are not the cause of the disease, they can be one of the factors associated with worse health outcomes.…”