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Over recent years, there have been a number of calls for an
approach encompassing mind, body and spirit. The College was urged
to do so by its patron, HRH the Prince of Wales in 1991. Professor
Andrew Sims raised the issue again in 1993 in his Presidential
Valedictory Lecture, as did Professor John Cox, the incumbent
president of the College, at the Annual College meeting of that
same year.
In 1997, the Archbishop of Canterbury addressed the Joint
Conference of the College and the Association of European
Psychiatrists. There was widespread interest in a groundbreaking
series of Religion and Psychiatry Conferences held at the Institute
of Psychiatry and many other regional initiatives have followed. A
landmark survey in 1998 by the Mental Health Foundation revealed
that over fifty per cent of service users hold religious or
spiritual beliefs, which they see as important in helping them cope
with mental illness, and highlighted the need expressed by many
patients for encouragement in discussing such concerns with their
psychiatrists.Spirituality can be as broad as 'the essentially
human, personal and interpersonal dimension, which integrates and
transcends the cultural, religious, psychological, social and
emotional aspects of the person' or more specifically 'concerned
with soul or spirit (the term 'spiritual' is now included in DSM IV
under the heading of 'other conditions that may be a focus of
clinical attention'). The Special Interest Group has a
correspondingly varied and wide-ranging agenda, including
consideration of protective factors that spiritually sustain the
patient in crisis and otherwise contribute to mental health.
Spiritual values have a universality which brings together all
involved in mental health care. The Special Interest Group supports
the exploration of such fundamental questions as the purpose and
meaning of life, which are so important for mental health, as well
as the problem of good and evil and a wide range of specific
experiences invested with spiritual meaning including birth, death
and near-death, mystical and trance states and varieties of
religious experience. Both pathological and normal human
experiences are considered in order to understand better the
overlap and difference between the two.
The membership of the group now stands at 3000.
The next SPSIG programme is a one-day
conference to be held at the SCI, 15 Belgrave
Square, on Furthering
Kindness and Kinship in Mental
Healthcare on Friday 26 April 2013. The
full programme is available in the latest issue of the Newsletter (No. 34). This meeting will be
open to all members and associates of the College and their
invited guests.
Membership of Special Interest
Groups is open to all Members of or Associates of the College.
Non-college membership and guest attendance is by invitation
only.
To join, please complete our online application form or email the
College Membership
office.
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One-day meetings include:
- 'What do we mean by spirituality and its relation to
psychiatry?' (January 2000)
- 'Fear and Faith - the quandary of the psyche under threat'.
(April 2000)
- 'Avenues to peace of mind'. (October 2000)
- 'Forgiveness and reconciliation'. (January 2001)
- 'Engaging the spiritual mind'. (May 2001)
- 'The healing power of love'. (November 2001)
- 'Good and Evil - the challenge for Psychiatry'. (February
2002)
- 'Integrating Mind and Body: psycho-spiritual therapeutics'.
(July 2002)
- 'Pathways to Peace - East meets West'. (November 2002)
- 'Invited or Not, God is Here: spiritual aspects of the
therapeutic encounter'. (January 2003)
- 'Minds within Minds: the case for Spirit Release Therapy'. (May
2003)
- 'Spiritual issues in child psychiatry'. (October 2003)
- 'Prayer in the service of mental health'. (January 2004)
- ‘A Fatal Wound? Who and what does suicide destroy’. (October
2004)
- ‘What inspires the psychiatrist? Personal; beliefs, attitudes
and values’. (January 2005)
- '‘Special needs, special gifts - learning disability and
spirituality’. (October 2005)
- ‘Spirituality and religion in later Life’. (December 2005)
- 'Psychosis, psychedelics and the transpersonal Journey'. (March
2006)
- 'Sanity, Sex and the Sacred: exploring intersecting realms'.
(November 2006)
- 'Suffering - what is the point of it all?' (March 2007)
- 'Body and Spirit'. Joint meeting with the philosophy SIG. (May
2007)
- 'Spirituality and Psychopathology', held in association with
the Dutch Foundation for Psychiatry and Religion. (November
2007)
- 'Researching Spirituality: paradigms and empirical findings'.
(February 2008)
- 'Mindfulness, Meditation and Mental Health'. (November
2008)
- 'Consciousness and the Extended Mind'. (April 2009)
- 'Spirituality and Religion - Friends or Foes?' (November
2009)
- 'Spiritual and Religious Healing: Implications for Mental
Healthcare' (April 2010)
- 'Intolerant Secularisation' (October 2010)
- 'Spirituality and the Divided Brain' (March 2011)
- ‘Spirituality in the Forensic Context: Offending, Reparation
and Repair’ (April 2012)
- 'Belief or Delusion?' (October 2012)
Open conferences include:
- ‘The Place of Spirituality in Psychiatry’ held jointly with the
Royal Society of Medicine (2002)
- ‘Beyond Death – Does Consciousness Survive?’ at Kings College
Hospital, London (2004)
- ‘Healing from Within and Beyond – the Therapeutic Power of
Altered States’ held jointly with the RSM (2005)
- 'Doctors, Clergy and the Troubled Soul: two professions, one
vocation?' held jointly with the Guild of Health, London
(2011)
- Spirituality and Clinical Psychiatry: Training and Practical
Issues for Mental Health Practitioners, London (2013)
In 2011, the College published the
Position Paper Recommendations for Psychiatrists on
Spirituality and Religion which can be downloaded
from the link on the SPSIG homepage.
The SPSIG supports an important
educational initiative launched by the Janki Foundation on
Values in Healthcare. Full details can be
found in Newsletter No. 15. Email for enquiries on ordering the
pack. The Janki Foundation for Global Health Care, Values in
Healthcare, 449/451 High Road, London NW10 2JJ, UK. Tel: 0208 459
1400 / 9090
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