An interview realized in December 1994
by Manuela Horopciuc, M.D., and Cristina Petrea, M.D.,
for "La Vie Medicale", a Romanian journal of medicine.

http://jmmantel.net

What can be expected from "spiritual psychiatry", and what are the special conditions that contributed to the appearance of this new concept?

Spiritual psychiatry is a medicine of the human psyche that fully integrates the spiritual quest of each individual who faces psychical problems, using a therapeutic approach. Each human being seeks happiness. Initially, they think they can find it in the external world (consumerism, work, power, relationships), then once they discover that they still have not found what their looking for, they revert back to the internal realm in order to understand that this sought-for happiness is already present. This quest for fulfillment of a genuine happiness free from circumstances, is often accompanied by numerous crises and difficulties. For example, when we observe depression or anxiety under the scrutiny of an internal search, we understand better that man evolves in stages. Altogether, these steps are necessary for the emergence of a genuine maturity and a more penetrative comprehension of the self.

The psychiatrist is not exempt from this rule. If he or she has chosen psychiatry, it is indeed with good reason. Rather, there certainly has been a reasonably conscious desire to know himself, and to share with others that which he himself has understood. The observation of patients is in some way a mirror image of ourselves and subsequently teaches us to carefully discern the illusion of reality, to penetrate into the mechanisms of psychic function. He or she is therefore not only the therapist of others but also of his or herself.

Spiritual psychiatry is a psychiatry open to creation, and foresees mental pathology as an opportune junction of human spirituality with a full study of the self.

If it is the case that special conditions have facilitated the appearance of such a field, it is the excessive mechanism of what is known to us as 'modern psychiatry' that seems to forget the fundamental inspiration of human nature towards contentment. Psychology has progressed significantly in the borderline field between medicine and mysticism, with much credit being due to the current of transpersonal psychology. Despite a recent flow of transpersonal psychology emerging in the United States, psychiatry has yet to reach its full potential.

Spiritual psychiatry proposes a new model of the psychotherapist (and psychotherapy). Can you please define these for us.

Tomorrow's psychotherapist should have a deep understanding of him or herself, not based on a knowledge acquired from books, but rather on a genuine inner experience. Also, he or she should have a perfect understanding of western psychological techniques as well as more eastern corporal and spiritual therapies such as meditation, Yoga, or other serious meditative practices. They will have themselves discovered how the mind creates suffering, and the manner in which one liberates oneself from it. It is but the inner experience that gives value and guides a therapist. If not, there is but an external, bookish, and conceptual knowledge. The therapist should be at peace with him or herself; a peace that is linked to an understanding of life and to a psycho-spiritual maturity, not to his own personal existence. The healing agent - the joy and tranquillity he or she radiates - is that which the therapist emanates, not the theoretical understanding. It is this emanation that will reassure the patient that the therapist knows what he or she is talking about when he or she speaks of peace and happiness. Next, the therapy will teach the patient to observe the inner function from a neutral, not affective, point of view. This period of observation, which may indeed demand considerable time, is essential to the process of maturation. An observation free of thought, emotions and inner reactions will help the patient understand how his mental state generates a state of tension that is more or less permanent. This ability for open observation is the base for meditation. It makes room for a progressive mental appeasement of mental agitation, welcomes full liberation of psychological memory, and makes the importance of the thought-created past and future more relative. Research into the cause of suffering, such as the suggestions of today's psychotherapies are riddled with error, does not promote freeing the control of the ego from the personality. It offers palliative solutions, notably a better acceptance of oneself, but is not made up of a genuine liberating therapy. Meditation begins there where psychotherapy ends.

Do you believe that spiritual psychiatry is becoming the psychiatry of the 20th century (or more so the 21st century!)?

It seems to me that it is medicine in general that will become progressively spiritual. That is it will integrate the underlying spiritual dimension present in all physical and psychical illnesses. Once achieved, there will be little interest in separating psychiatry from the rest of the medical field, or disassociating a spiritual psychiatry from psychiatry.

Taking the spiritual dimension of patient's and offering them the possibility of appeasement by meditative techniques does not suggest that we can continue without the use of medication. Medication will always play a role, notably to soothe a patient's suffering once it reaches an unbearable paroxysm that may put a patients' life at risk. Yet it will consist of short-term medical therapies that will be quickly substituted by more profound therapies aimed at transforming the interior perspective and lightening the suffering by means of comprehension, acceptance and meditation.

In March you founded the International Association of Spiritual Psychiatry. What are the association's accomplishments until now, and what are its goals for the future?

It was the first conference held in Lyon, France, in March 1994, on the theme "The Spiritual Approach in Psychiatry: Meditation and Psychotherapy", initiated the debut of the International Association of Spiritual Psychiatry. This first conference dealt with the integration of meditation in psychotherapeutic treatment. In the past, psychology had been separated from spirituality leaving the patient to choose from contradictory means. The participants at Lyon were all psychotherapists and "meditators", and were able to share with the public both their personal and professional experiences.

As I mentioned earlier, this association was established as a reaction to excessive mechanization and materialism of present day psychiatry that seems to have forgotten the essential. When the moment arrives, it will fully incorporate the spiritual dimension in psychopathology and in therapeutics.

Currently, the International Association of Spiritual Psychiatry is made up of approximately 140 members from five continents. They are for the most part psychiatrists, psychotherapists, doctors or specialists in alternative medicine. Many are native French speakers as the association was founded in France, yet the number of participants and their geographic diversity is rapidly increasing. This expansion is due to the fact that a general need exists for the public, and therapists themselves, to introduce a psycho-spiritual medicine of merit.

A second conference will take place in Paris from April 7-9, 1995 on the topic "Psychotherapy and Self Realization - The Ego, the Suffering, the End of Suffering". It will demonstrate the manner in which psychological suffering is related to the image of the self, the ego and the personality, and to draw nearer to the possibility of liberating personality restraints. The participants will, each and every one, have a deep understanding in the field of spiritual fulfillment and, for the most part, in the field of traditional therapy. During 1996-97, follow up conferences are in the works on the topics: "A Spiritual Approach to Depression - Depression, Suicide, the Death of the Ego", "Medicine, Psychology and Self Realization", and "A Spiritual Approach to Anxiety".

The association's journal, published in both French and English, plays just as great a role. It allows members to share their reflections and research, and to participate in the ongoing elaboration of psycho-spiritual medicine. A complete list of members is included to facilitate national and international contacts.

The International Association of Spiritual Psychiatry is directly related with the Rambana Institute for Self Realization. This center was created in Israel with the goal of promoting instruction in wisdom teachings and self-understanding. It later organized the first conference on "Meditation and Spiritual Tradition - Towards the Essence of Religion", in November, 1994, and currently is planning a second from November 8-10, 1995 in Israel as well on the topic: "Ego's death and Inner Peace in Spiritual Tradition". As we can see, the proposed topics are closely tied to the main interests of the International Association of Spiritual Psychiatry, and welcomes into modern religion the inclusion of teachings in self-knowledge from both spiritual tradition and modern psychology.

You are certainly familiar with the special status of psychiatry in Eastern Europe. Do you see the possibility of it opening itself to spirituality? From your point of view, what are the necessary steps to be taken?

The most essential element in the transformation of a discipline is that of human beings. That is to say that psychiatry will again naturally transform when psychiatrists and others in the field of health care are aware of the limited understanding in this field today, and for the need for a new field. Each individual already on the route to self understanding, meditation or constant spiritual practice will change his perspective of mental disease and those who suffer from it. A personal transformation is then demanded to allow for a larger transformation. At this level, a country such as Romania with its cultural and human wealth, is a good candidate. In the psychological field, financial aid is of little help. Rather it is the inner wealth that is important as it is the foundation for all. Each therapist should ask him or herself: "What am I really looking for? What do I really want? Apart from all the superficiality, who is the real me?".

Once profoundly and intensely formulated, these questions bring forth, with certainty, a transformation in the inner attitude towards the self and towards life, and will inevitably lead to a change in the way of care. The road is paved, it has but to be followed.