My dear Santosh,
If I could request you to be good enough to re- read the original post on the
Subject you just might find yourself in agreement with me that the post tried
to make the following prepositions/points:
A) That mental health professionals are subject to occupational stress
and hazard.
B) That mental health professionals may themselves be in need of
help/mechanism by which they could cope with the stress inherent in their
profession.
C) That Harvard Medical School in the U.S.A has accepted “spirituality” as
a tool/adjunct in/of psychiatry.
D) That the incidence of Murder-Suicides in Catholic priests is almost
negligible.
E) That “Spirituality” be considered as a part of Continuing education
programmes for mental health professional so as to equip them to better cope
with their occupational hazards.
F) That,Perhaps ,something in the training of Catholic priests helps them
to better cope with stress related to murder-suicides as compared to mental
health professionals.
G) That , perhaps, that something could be distilled into being put to use
in the training/continuing education of mental health professionals.
Now, to the discussion. It appears that your main reservation relates to point
F & G. I have tried to point out in subsequent responses that Spirituality
could be based on any religion/belief, contrary to your assertion that
Spirituality has no place in modern science. To set the discussion on a flight
path , I have at your insistence on “peer-reviewed” data provided you with
details of the role of”Spirituality” in mental health. Nay, I have gone so far
as to include a paper that begins with a working definition of “Spirituality”
and another paper that records the “chemical , functional and morphological
changes in the brains of Buddhist practitioners practicing medition. The said
paper also provides empirical data about Buddhist practitioners having
allegiance to different processes of meditation showing dissimar brain
imagery/EEG.
I have carried out an extensive search of murder –suicide cases reported on the
internet, and cases of murder/suicides are rarely,if any, attributed to
Catholic priests. Could this be attributable to the pro-life posture of the
Catholic faith and the Canon law as applicable in the case of Catholic Priests
that would denude them of their priestly faculties ,if they take human
life? Can this be attributable to the teaching of the Catholic faith ,that
holds HOPE as a great virtue,in such a major fashion that Suicide is loss of
Hope --a sin that is almost incapable of being forgiven. BELIEF SYSTEMS PLAY A
MAJOR ROLE IN ALL WALKS OF LIFE,AND AS SUCH ALSO IN PSYCHIATRY. I have in my
response also shown the role of beliefs in underpinning various systems of
Psychiatry like Freudian,Jungian and Rogerian. The role of beliefs in Jainism
in this context would also be interesting to study.
I am told that in the Science and Art of Management a tool called
“bench-marking” is very often utilized to understand an Organisation in a
particular critical parameter of success. Other Organisations then learn from
the studies and” benchmark” themselves to make a gap analysis in their own
performance ,and then try to implement ‘practices” of successful Organisations.
Concepts like "continous improvement" are also part of Management.
The Catholic Church is organized. It is also ,perhaps ,the longest surviving
Organisation till date in human history. It has weathered personages ,
events, disease,revolutions,governments,internal schism but “magically’ still
continues to exist and function as an Organisation. There appears to be
nothing wrong from learning provided by such Organisational dynamics, just as
much as there is nothing objectionale to learning from other relevant open
sources.
Should you find yourself in concurrence with the Summary and “frame of
reference” I have provided ,do let me know or else do let me know your
reservations/points of departure. We could then discuss fruitfully. I believe
that discussion and dissent should provide “light” for our way, rather than
“heat’ to warm the cockles of extremists.
With every good wish,
Gerry
