Visions or Hallucinations? Lacan on Mysticism and Psychosis Reconsidered: The Case of St George of Malta

Abstract

Mysticism has long featured in discussions among psychoanalysts and mental health practitioners, anthropologists and scholars of religion. In this paper I analyse the life and visions of a twentieth century mystic in the Catholic Mediterranean. Through this case study I seek to compare the psychoanalytic and to a lesser extent the psychiatric discussions of ‘hallucinations’ with the theological explanations of visions. Via a Lacanian discussion of the case of the first Maltese saint I argue that there are interesting points of convergence between the two. An adequate understanding of the cultural context within which visions are articulated as meaningful experiences is essential to our understanding and clinical treatment of people presenting symptoms associated with religious content. A psychoanalytical understanding can serve to enrich and enliven theological discussions on madness as a path to sanctity.

Pivotal mental states

“…Here we apply this principle to a classic controversy in psychology and psychiatry: namely, the relationship between spiritual experiences and psychosis. It has long been noted that certain spiritual and early and acute psychotic experiences exhibit similar features such as anomalous self-experience, magical thinking and perceptual aberrations ( Baldacchino, 2016 ; Buckley, 1981 ; Cangas et al, 2008 ; Crespi et al, 2019 ; Grof and Grof, 1989 ; Hunt, 2000 , 2007 ; Jackson, 1997 ; Jaynes, 1976 ; Luhrmann, 2017 ; Lukoff, 1985 , 2007 , 2018 ; Murray et al, 2012 ; Parnas and Henriksen, 2016 ; Perry, 1977 ; Polimeni, 2018 ; Powers and Corlett, 2018 ; Ross and McKay, 2018 ; Willard and Norenzayan, 2017 ). All three phenomena are reliably induced by 5-HT2AR agonist psychedelics ( Carhart-Harris, 2007 ; Carhart-Harris and Friston, 2010 ; Kraehenmann et al., 2017 ; Letheby, 2016 ; Millière, 2017 ; Nour et al, 2016 ), thus implying their relationship to a more fundamental state – the 5-HT2ARR-mediated PiMS.…”

Hearing voices as a feature of typical and psychopathological experience

“…Its emphasis on positive acceptance and individual meaning-making denotes significant departures from, but also some overlaps with, conventional views espoused in psychiatry and psychology. Other examples of subcultural or religious influences on voice-hearing include the repositioning of the hallucinatory experiences of historical figures 141,142 , or studying their attribution to jinn (invisible spirits) within Islam 143 .…”

The anthropologist’s last bow: Ontology and mysticism in pursuit of the sacred

“…In my own work I have tried to look at the phenomenology of visions, applying both a Catholic theological understanding and a psychoanalytic/psychiatric perspective and arguing that they are not as irreconcilable as one would think (Baldacchino, 2016). Drawing upon ‘native theologies’ in order to engage and correct our own secularist ontological biases has been a main task of the new ontologists with a marked emphasis on animistic, shamanic and pagan ontologies.…”