Models of health and wholeness

A church-clinic model of the neighborhood health center, developed initially in a low-income area, has now been established over the past three years in middle- and upper-income areas. The church-clinics, called Wholistic Health Centers, are primary care medical clinics located in church buildings that utilize an interdisciplinary team in the planning for patient treatment and health education. The project integrates primary medical care with pastoral counseling services. Evaluation of the two clinics in middle-to-upper-income areas indicates that the patients are middle to upper class, well educated, and are not medically disenfranchised; their presenting problems are only slightly more often medical (58%) than psychosocial (42%).This work was conducted in part when Dr. Holinger was at the Institute for Psychosomatic and Psychiatric Research and Training, Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.He is also the author ofWholistic Health.The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the Rev. Granger E. Westberg, D.D., Clinical Professor, and Edward A. Lichter, Professor and Chairman, Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, University of Illinois at the Medical Center, Abraham Lincoln School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, in the preparation of this report.     

The emergence of scholars studying christianity in mainland China

The Russian Phoenix by Francis House. London: SPCK, 1988. Paperback, 133 pp., £7.95.

Philosophy in Russia: From Herzen to Lenin and Berdyaev by Frederick C. Copleston. Tunbridge Wells: Search Press and Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986. 445 pp.

A Megbékélés Etikája (The Ethics of Reconciliation) by Géza Németh. Unpublished. Written in Budapest in 1987. 62 pp.*

Chekisty: A History of the KGB by John Dziak. Lexington, Lexington Books, 1988. 234 pp.

A Short History of Modern Bulgaria by R.J. Crampton. Cambridge University Press, 1987. 221pp.

The Chernobyl Disaster by Viktor Haynes and Marko Bojcun. London: The Hogarth Press, 1988. Paperback, 233 pp, £7.95.     

Reflection on the relationship between psychoanalysis and christianity

Coming to terms with Freud's ideas and attitudes toward religion is prerequisite to any consideration of the compatibility between psychoanalysis and Christianity. In a previous essay and in this one I have attempted to sort out Freud's ambivalence and ambiguity in the area and to point out their relevance to the issue at hand. In this paper I survey and criticize the opinions of a number of writers, as well as putting forward some of my own. I emphasize that the compatibility question is one of value, rather than of fact, and that one's answer to it depends largely on one's conception of psychoanalysis itself. The issue is not clear-cut. Some aspects of psychoanalytic theory and practice appear more reconcilable with Christian theology, ethics, and spirituality than others. A few psychoanalytic tenets seem in direct contradiction to religious ones. I close with an historical-sociological point that I believe has some bearing on the matter.     

Good feelings in christianity and buddhism: religious differences in ideal affect

Affect valuation theory (AVT) predicts cultural variation in the affective states that people ideally want to feel (i.e., "ideal affect"). National and ethnic comparisons support this prediction: For instance, European Americans (EA) value high arousal positive (HAP) states (e.g., excitement) more and low arousal positive (LAP) states (e.g., calm) less than Hong Kong Chinese. In this article, the authors examine whether religions differ in the ideal affective states they endorse. The authors predicted that Christianity values HAP more and LAP less than Buddhism. In Study 1, they compared Christian and Buddhist practitioners' ideal affect. In Studies 2 and 3, they compared the endorsement of HAP and LAP in Christian and Buddhist classical texts (e.g., Gospels, Lotus Sutra) and contemporary self-help books (e.g., Your Best Life Now, Art of Happiness). Findings supported predictions, suggesting that AVT applies to religious and to national and ethnic cultures.     

Enlarging hope for wholeness: ministry with persons in pain

The author explores the many spiritual ramifications of chronic pain on a person's faith and theology. He suggests that much of contemporary Christian religion, often preoccupied with health and wholeness, may overlook the role chronic pain plays in forming the soul. Making a plea for more cogent ways for the Christian to interrelate a vision of God with the practice of ministry, he expresses the hope that such an enlargement of vision will enhance the sustaining and healing power of pastoral ministry to persons in chronic pain.     

Abstract art and emotion: expressive form and the sense of wholeness

This paper limits itself to abstract art the better to concentrate on the relation between the emotionally expressive power of esthetic form--apart from its narrative content--and emotional responsiveness. The emotionally expressive power of art--not to be confused with the artist's own emotions--has to do with the way sensuous esthetic forms highlight the rhythmic changes of tension and release inherent in ordinary perceptual experience. Tension and release are useful terms in thinking about how the perception of an esthetic structure is transformed (transduced) into feelingful psychological meanings, and contributes to the subjective sense of wholeness. The sense of wholeness may be illusory and/or authentic depending on the mix of elements in the individual's responsiveness. It comes about through a unified organization of tension and release, as embodied in expressive forms such as rhythm and rhyme, resonating with tension and release evoked in the observer's associations to such psychological issues as separation and reunion. Having stirred the viewer's emotional responsiveness, the art work provides a reliable "container" for the objectification of latent emotions.     

We are one: Grief,weeping, and other deep emotions in response to nature as a path toward wholeness

Abstract

Using his own experience of grief in nature as a starting point, the researcher conducted an intuitive inquiry (Anderson, 2004) into experiences of grief, weeping, and other deep emotions in response to the natural world. Written stories of 40 people, told in the style of embodied writing (Anderson, 2001), were gathered and studied. The primary interpretation framed by the researcher was that experiences of grief, weeping, and other deep emotions in response to nature represent moments in a process of psycho‐spiritual transformation capable of healing the splits between mind and body, and between humanity and nature, that are prevalent in contemporary industrial and post‐industrial societies. Additional interpretations, focusing on the role of the body and embodiment, grief and weeping, and nature and spirituality, are offered. Interpretations are fleshed out with excerpts from participants’ stories.     

Transmigration,liminality, and spiritualist healing

Observations made in an urban spiritualist organization in western New York led to the following conclusions. A symbolic event basic to this total belief system is the creation of a liminal state that allows church members to transcend the earth plane and experience an alternate reality, the spiritual world. The creation of this symbolic suspension serves to reinforce the basic belief system and legitimize the healing and message rituals. This paper will explore the church service as the symbolic event that serves to take church members into the liminal state. The transition occurs as a collective experience, culminating in the healing and message services.This is an expended version of a paper, Spiritual Liminality: Mechanisms of Transmigration in Spiritual Ritual, read at the 77th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, November 14–19, 1978.He thanks Robert Blakely, Ina Jane Wundram, and Robert A. Rubinstein for their helpful comments and criticisms.     

Balance,agreement, and attraction in hypothetical social situations

Sixty subjects rated hypothetical P-O-X situations involving two persons and an unspecified but important “thing” for pleasantness, tension, and consistency. The situations varied in terms of whether P and O liked or disliked each other and whether P and O agreed or disagreed regarding X. Half of the subjects rated eight situations used by Gutman and Knox (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1972, 24, 351–357) in which a unit relation was induced between P and O by describing them as necessarily having to continue interacting with one another in the future. The other half of the subjects rated situations that were identical to those of the unit condition, except that stipulation of continued interaction was omitted, so that no unit relation was specifically induced. Results showed that preferences for agreement and attraction were stronger for pleasantness and tension ratings than for consistency ratings, while the preference for balance was stronger for consistency ratings than for pleasantness and tension ratings. When no unit relation was specified, the balance preference increased, whereas the attraction preference decreased. Moreover, the effect of attraction decreased more from the unit to the no unit condition for pleasantness than for tension ratings and more for tension than for consistency ratings. The results underscore the need to consider the influence of both the described characteristics of hypothetical social situations and the type of dependent measure employed on the weighting of preferences for balance, agreement, and attraction.     

Personal wholeness and political creativity: The theology of liberation and pastoral care

The writer questions whether it is legitimate to take the institutional, ecclesiastical, and ecclesiological settings of pastoral care as a starting point for understanding it. He responds negatively since the struggle for liberation is a social, economic, and political one and mental distress reflects the individual's relation to this world. Thus the relation between the institutional church and the sociopolitical realities is ambiguous and it sometimes obscures the conflict between the rich and the poor, the powerless and the powerful, and so on. There follows an analysis of the institutional setting of pastoral care as it functions to mediate grace, provide interpretations, and give moral advice, with an attempt to discern to whom this care is offered. Several observations are made on the ways a theology of liberation might delineate the problems of pastoral care. The area must be understood politically as communal creative activity, aiming, in the midst of shared suffering, to transfigure the world.He is an acknowledged spokesman for the theology of liberation and has publishedA Theology of Human Hope andTomorrow's Child (Harper, 1972).     

Exchange,Balance, and Formal Organization in Psychotherapeutic Interactions*

ABSTRACT: Psychotherapeutic interactions in crisis situations are analyzed in terms of the “sociodynamic” concepts of exchange, balance, and formal organization. It is argued that psychodynamic interpretations of crisis intervention therapy tend to be incomplete and nonsystematic and, thus, fail to produce adequate predictions, explanations, and control of psychotherapeutic outcomes. Small-group principles and methods are applied to selected crisis cases to illustrate gains in prediction and control over psychiatric approaches.     

Integrating counselling, psychotherapy and healing: An inquiry into counsellors and psychotherapists whose work includes healing

A qualitative study of 30 counsellors or psychotherapists whose work also includes healing was conducted using semi-structured interviews. Seven of the participants then joined the researcher in a human inquiry group. Participants in the research had been practitioners for a mean of over 10 years. The main themes that emerged were: the transition by the practitioner towards the use of healing; the taboo concerning talking about spiritual and healing experiences reported by the participants; the nature of healing as distinct from therapy; the supervision difficulties that arose when participants engaged in both counselling/psychotherapy and healing with their clients; and the concept of spiritual space. Some very experienced psychotherapists and counsellors are now including healing in their work. This raises a number of important issues, particularly relating to supervision.