Diagnostic: Introduction to Spiritual Emergency
Spiritual emergencies are crises during which the process of growth and change becomes chaotic and overwhelming. In such episodes, individuals often suddenly and dramatically enter into new realms of mystical and spiritual experience. However, they may also become fearful and confused and have difficulty coping with their daily lives, jobs and relationships The term Spiritual Emergency was first used by Stan and Christina Grof at the founding of the Spiritual Emergency Network in 1978. They describe:
Individuals experiencing such episodes may feel that their sense of identity is breaking down and that the very ground beneath their personal realities is radically shifting...and may even fear for their own sanity.
Two other definitons
Its clinical features have been documented in many articles and books on this topic. These are summarized on this web site in the section on Diagnosis and Treatment.
Spiritual emergencies are included in the new diagnostic category of Religious or Spiritual Problem in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-Fourth Edition (APA, 1994). The acceptance of this new category was based on a proposal documenting the extensive literature on the frequent occurrence of many types of religious and spiritual problems in clinical practice (e.g., loss of faith, changing denominational membership, near death experience) (Lukoff, Lu, and Turner, 1992).
See the history of the proposal
However the impetus for the proposal came from transpersonal clinicians in the Spiritual Emergence Network (then called the Spiritual Emergency Network) who were concerned with the mental health system's pathologizing approach to intense spiritual crises, especially distress associated with spiritual practices and experiences. The proposal for a new diagnostic category grew out of the ongoing work of the Spiritual Emergence Network to increase the competence and sensitivity of mental health professionals regarding spiritual issues. |
