ABSTRACT
SUMMARY. Historically the relationship between spirituality and mental health has been characterized by confusion in terms of what constitutes healthy spirituality (path) as opposed to psychotic states (pathology). Finding criteria to help differentiate pre-rational structures from trans-rational structures (since they are both non-rational) has been an elusi ve goal. Ken Wilber's Full Spectrum of Consciousness Model, presented in 1986, is the only transpersonal theory that offers descriptors for three general levels of consciousness (prepersonal, personal, and transpersonal), the pathologies likely to develop at each level of development, as well as preferred interventions for developmental problems at each level of consciousness. This chapter applies Wilber's model and related ideas from other transpersonal theorists in order to provide differential assessment guidelines for therapists working with the spiritual dimension of clients' experience. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: <getinfo@haworthpressinc.com> Website: <https://www.HaworthPress.com>; © 2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.}
KEYWORDS. Transpersonal practice, spiritual pathologies, path or healthy spirituality, pre-trans fallacy, Full Spectrum of Consciousness, mental health, assessment
Historically, the relationship between spirituality and mental health has been wildly erratic, ranging across a continuum of polar opposites. On one end of the continuum, Marx (1906) decried religion as the opiate of the people, and Freud (1946) viewed religiosity and mental illness as virtually synonymous. On the other end of the continuum, Jung viewed neurosis as the suffering of a soul which had not discovered its meaning (Campbell, 1971), and Emanuel Swedenborg (1872) postulated that human life depends on the relationship a person has to a hierarchy of spirits. In the 1990s, the helping professions landed somewhere between the polarized positions described on the continuum above.
