Contending with Spiritual Reductionism
Demons, Shame, and Dividualising Experiences Among Evangelical Christians with Mental Distress
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20306136 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christopher E M Lloyd (0000-0001-9659-0890, University of Derby, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 2702-2727 |
| Publication date | 2021-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Religion and Health (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-4197 • E-ISSN: 1573-6571 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s10943-021-01268-9 |
| PMID | 33991287 |
| OpenAlex | W3162215879 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 24 |
| References cited | 49 |
The belief that mental distress is caused by demons, sin, or generational curses is commonplace among many evangelical Christian communities. These beliefs may have positive or negative effects for individuals and groups. Phenomenological descriptions of these experiences and the subjective meanings associated with them, however, remain somewhat neglected in the literature. The current study employed semi-structured interviews with eight evangelical Christians in order to idiographically explore their experiences of mental distress in relation to their faith and wider communities. Through an interpretative phenomenological analysis, two superordinate themes were constructed: negative spiritualisation and negotiating the dialectic between faith and the lived experience of mental distress. Participants variously experienced a climate of negative spiritualisation, whereby their mental distress was demonised and dismissed, and they were further discouraged from seeking help in secular institutions and environments. Participants often considered such dismissals of their mental distress as unhelpful and stigmatising and experienced heightened feelings of shame and suffering as a result. Such discouragement also contributed to the process of othering and relational disconnection. Alongside a rejection of church teachings, which exclusively spiritualised psychological distress, participants negotiated a nuanced personal synthesis of faith, theology, and distress, which assumed a localised and idiographic significance. This synthesis included advocating for the uptake of aetiological accounts, which contextualised mental distress in terms of the whole person and resisted de-politicised, dichotomised, and individualistic narratives. Results are discussed in relation to a broad range of literature in the field, while further research suggestions are provided
Distress · Epistemology · Faith · Interpretative phenomenological analysis · Mental health · Mental illness · Narrative · Psychotherapist · Qualitative research · Shame · Sociology · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Psychology · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology · Theological Perspectives and Practices
Pastoral Authority and Spiritual Harm
The experiences of faith and church community among Christian adults with mental illness
“Prayer Is Fine, but Don’t Then Quickly Move on, as If You’re Done and Dusted”
Clinging to Certainty
Mental Health Awareness and Counseling Practice of Jamaican Clergy
Christianity as coping mechanisms for migrants with mental health challenges in Australia
Helpful and unhelpful factors associated with secular psychotherapy amongst Christians
It's easy to dismiss it as simply a spiritual problem.” Experiences of mental distress within evangelical Christian communities
Religious Barriers to Transformative Masculinity and Femininities
Conduits or Alternative Providers? Christian Ministers’ as Gateway Providers in an Age of Polarization
Contextualising Mental Privacy in South Africa
Perceived God support as a mediator of the relationship between religiosity and psychological distress
Stigmatisation of schizophrenia and alcohol use disorder
Negotiating Faith in Therapy
Stories Matter
A Roadmap to Building Mental Health–Friendly Churches
Mad, bad, or possessed’? Perceptions of Self-Harm and Mental Illness in Evangelical Christian Communities
Narratives of Externality, Oppression, and Agency
Attributing Emotional Distress to Supernatural Causes
The Psychometric Properties of the Religious Suicide Stigma Measure
Signatures of neuroinflammation in the hippocampus and amygdala in individuals with religious or spiritual problem
Mental Health and Illness Perceptions and Experiences in Canadian Christian Congregations
Religiosity of Evangelical Patients in the Perception of Clinical and Hospital Psychologists in Brazil
How the Science-Religion Interface of Christian Religious Leaders Shape Their Perceptions of Depression
The psychology of religion and coping
APA handbook of psychology, religion, and spirituality (Vol 2)
Religion, Spirituality, and Health
Confirmation Bias
The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology
The many faces of evangelicalism
Undecided life
Religious Coping Styles and Recovery from Serious Mental Illnesses
Mental Disorders, Religion and Spirituality 1990 to 2010
Locating the Social Origins of Mental Illness
Why We Need the Demonic
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
Evangelicalism in Modern Britain
Religious attributions pertaining to the causes and cures of mental illness
The effects of mental illness on families within faith communities
Deliverance, demonic possession, and mental illness
Demon? Disorder? Or none of the above? A survey of the attitudes and experiences of evangelical Christians with mental distress
Demon or disorder
Representation of mental illness in Christian self-help bestsellers
Concerning Variations in the Application of the Phenomenological Method
Religion as problem, religion as solution
Validation in Qualitative Research
It's easy to dismiss it as simply a spiritual problem.” Experiences of mental distress within evangelical Christian communities
Managing the demonic
Dichotomous and Complex Thinking
Values and religious issues in psychotherapy and mental health
Discipline and Control
The social constructionist movement in modern psychology
Writing the Othered Self
Fundamentalism as an American Phenomenon, A Comparison with English Evangelicalism
The Brief RCOPE
Patterns of Positive and Negative Religious Coping with Major Life Stressors
Now I see it, now I don't
The Appreciation of the Spiritual in Mental Illness
Demonic Influence
Measuring Evangelicalism
Religious Fundamentalism as a Predictor of Prejudice
| Unique citing works | 24 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 6 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 22 |