Psychotherapy And Spirituality. The Danger Of Spiritual Flight

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Psychotherapy or Spiritual Practices? Does one replace the other? The article examines the phenomenon of spiritual escape (a concept introduced by John Welwood), which occurs quite often and represents a process when spiritual ideas and practices are used in order to escape from psychological trauma, unresolved emotional problems

Repeatedly I had to discuss (sometimes violently) on the topic of spiritual practices and psychotherapy. And more often, instead of the union "and" there was the union "or", opposing one to the other. Among my acquaintances there are people who left psychology and psychotherapy as a profession for yoga, subsequently criticizing the "Western approach" and finding that the most valuable new "discoveries" of psychology / psychotherapy have a long history in the Eastern tradition.

For some time I tried to understand, to formulate my own answer, position in relation to psychotherapy and spiritual practices. Except for the cases when spiritual practices: meditation, yoga, reiki, etc. enriched people's lives, made them stronger, wiser, healthier, both mentally and physically, I have observed many cases of "flight into spirituality."

Moreover, following the formulation of Erich Fromm, it is not so much a free striving for spirituality as an escape from psychological problems. For example, asceticism turned out to be not a conscious choice of a mature person, but deceiving oneself, devaluing the material (as a defense mechanism against the bitterness of recognizing the inability to achieve, act, be active). So, the fear of intimacy with women, avoidance of sexual relations can bashfully hide under the celibacy chosen in worldly life. Failure to make money - under the arrogant contempt of the material. The inability to make friends, love, care, be generous is replaced by the desire to get away from the worldly vanity and "negative energy".

In the 1980s, John Welwood, an innovator in the study of the relationship between Western psychotherapy and Buddhist practice, psychologist, psychotherapist, editor of the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, introduced the concept of "spiritual bypassing", describing it as a process when spiritual ideas and practices are used in order to get away from psychological trauma, unresolved emotional problems, avoid meeting with work on intermediate stages of development.

In the case when a person with the help of spirituality avoids something (usually using the goal - awakening or liberation), his desire to rise “above the chaotic side of our human nature” is premature. It takes place without direct acquaintance with one's personality: its strength and weaknesses, attractive and unattractive sides, feelings and deep feelings. “In this case, at the expense of absolute truth, we begin to belittle or completely discard relative things: ordinary needs, feelings, psychological problems, difficulties in relationships and developmental deficiencies,” says John Welwood in an interview with psychotherapist Tina Fossell.

The danger of spiritual escape is that you cannot solve psychological and emotional problems by avoiding them. “This attitude creates a painful distance between the Buddha and the person within us. In addition, it leads to a conceptual, one-sided understanding of spirituality, in which one opposite rises at the expense of the other: absolute truth is preferred over relative, impersonal - personal, empty - form, transcending - embodiment, and detachment - feelings. You can, for example, try to practice detachment by denying your need for love, but this only leads to the fact that this need is repressed underground, and it often unconsciously manifests itself in a hidden and negative way,”says John Welwood.

“It is very easy to operate with the truth about emptiness in the following one-sided way:“Thoughts and feelings are empty, only the play of samsara, and therefore do not pay attention to them. Perceive their nature as emptiness, and resolve them at the moment of arising. " This can be valuable advice regarding practice, but in life situations, these same words can also be used to suppress or deny feelings, problems that require our attention. This is a fairly common phenomenon: to speak beautifully and figuratively about the fundamental perfection of our true nature, while experiencing difficulties with trust, if only someone or something hurts psychological wounds."

(J. Welwood)

Psychological problems most often manifest themselves in relationships between people. They are also formed in them, people hurt each other, cause the greatest pain, but it is in human relations that such problems should be resolved.

“Striving to be a good spiritual practitioner can turn into what I call a compensatory personality,” Welwood says in an interview, “which hides (and protects from) a deeper, flawed personality, within which we do not have the best feelings for ourselves, we believe that we are not good enough or that we are fundamentally missing something. And then, despite the fact that we practice diligently, our spiritual practice can become a means of denial and protection."

Psychotherapy and spiritual practices do not contradict each other. They are about different things and perform different tasks. In my practice, there were several cases when people, having endured the pain of loss, did not experience it, but “preserved”, doing meditation, calming the feelings raging inside, suppressing the inner cry, the cry of a simple “earthly man”. Also with other feelings that we used to consider negative: feelings of anger, bitterness, envy. They were repressed and denied, although in reality, having realized them, accepting them, expressing them, one can more clearly, more distinctly hear the voice of your true I, your potential I, which requires realization.

“People who are prone to depression, who may have received less loving understanding in childhood, and who, as a result, find it difficult to value themselves, can use teachings about the absence of self to reinforce feelings of inadequacy. Not only do they feel bad about themselves, but they also think that focusing on this is another mistake. But in the end we get a kind of clinging to the self, and this situation is the antithesis of dharma. And it only exacerbates feelings of guilt or shame. So they are involved in a painful struggle with the very “I” that they are trying to dissolve”(J. Welwood).

Thus, spiritual practice is not an alternative to psychotherapy. Just like psychotherapy does not replace spiritual practice. Meanwhile, I am convinced that deep psychological / psychotherapeutic work promotes awareness, personal maturity and, as a result, spiritual growth and wisdom. Spirituality for me is awareness and kindness, including awareness and kindness to my own humanity: strength, weaknesses, doubts, feelings, the need for closeness and love (not only to God, but also to the people around). It is possible that manifested, and not abstract love for people and for oneself as a person is an art more difficult than love for the Highest (be it the Cosmos, God, spirit). And on the way of becoming oneself as a person (and maybe a Person with a capital letter), psychotherapy can give a lot.

The article was written based on the materials of the interview "Spiritual Flight" // Interview of psychotherapist Tina Fossell with John Welwood.

For those interested in this topic, I highly recommend reading the interview with J. Welwood in full - it is wonderful and valuable.