The area of spirituality and health is developing as an academic field of enquiry, and this new perspective is beginning to be incorporated into training programs for medical doctors and health practitioners. A cloud of suspicion hovers over the issue of ‘spirituality’ in the health and therapy professions. Part of the problem arises from the fact that a lot of activities go on under the umbrella term spirituality, and some of these warrant a critical eye. However, as an offspring of the Intellectual Enlightenment, medicine itself has had a materialist bias toward human nature, and until recently has merely bracketed out the spiritual aspects of health and healing.
There is a new air of receptivity today that was not evident even 10 years ago, and this is due to cultural changes wrought by postmodernism, and to the sense that ‘spirit’ can be understood apart from the hegemonic forms of the church that the Enlightenment opposed. Spirit can be claimed as part of the anthropology and psychology of human nature, and understood in its own terms, apart from any institutional authority. In this paper, I review these problems and concerns, employing a perspective that derives from my professional background in Jungian depth psychology, spirituality studies and cultural studies.
Conflict of Interest: None disclosed
Financial Support/Funding: None disclosed
Recorded: Sydney, Australia, July 2008
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