Psyche and Spirit, Newsletter of the WPA Section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry 

First issue February 2012 >>> read more

Editorial

Welcome to issue 1 of Psyche and Spirit: The Newsletter of the section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry. This newsletter aims to impart information and provide a forum for discussion about conferences, research and teaching activities in the rapidly growing discipline of Religion, Spirituality and Health. Please let us introduce ourselves. Alexander Moreira-Almeida is Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Research Center in Spirituality and Health (NUPES) at Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Brazil. Simon Dein is an anthropologist and psychiatrist based at University College London and Durham University, England. Peter Verhagen is Chair of the WPA Section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry and Secretary of the Dutch Foundation for Psychiatry and Religion, Netherlands.

We begin with the Chair’s description of Section’s history, including a profile its founders and its current chair and co-chair, as well as current achievements, including a new book Religion and Psychiatry: Beyond Boundaries edited by Peter J. Verhagen, Herman M van Praag, Juan J. López-Ibor, John L. Cox and Driss Moussaoui (2010) and details of two very successful meetings in Avilla and Buenos Aires. There follows greetings from the Secretary for Sections –Afsal Javeed. John Cox reviews a recent book Spiritual Healing: Scientific and Religious perspectives edited by Fraser Watts. Harold Koenig presents details of the Centre for spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University.

In terms of teaching activities, three courses have been established recently in the UK focusing on religion, spirituality and health: MSc in Theology, Spirituality and Health at Durham University, MSc in Professional Practice in Spirituality, Health and Pastoral Care at the University of Staffordshire, and an Introduction to Whole Person Healthcare at University of Gloucestershire. We provide details below. The ‘Research Corner’ presents the abstracts of papers presented at Section’s symposia at the last World Congress of Psychiatry. We would encourage you to send us details of any teaching or research that you are involved in.

In our section ‘Meeting Point’ we will publish your letters on issues related to spirituality and psychiatry.

We look forward to two important meetings in the USA in the 2012: a workshop on the implications of spiritual experiences to mind-brain relationship in Towards a Science of Consciousness conference in Tuscon, AZ in April, and a session on Analyzing the clinical significance of spiritual/anomalous experiences in the clinical setting at the 165th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Philadelphia in May.

We finish with a section’s chair open letter to all WPA branches about the need of a WPA consensus on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry.

We wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year and hope you enjoy reading this issue.

Alexander Moreira-Almeida

Simon Dein

Peter J. Verhagen