Exorcism! The future for mental health services?

[dalriada]

I posted this on UK Skeptics a little while ago, but I thought it was worth raising from the dead to astound and bemuse the badpsychics.

Recently I was trying to collate a list of online resources on ethical and philosophical issues in mental health care for use in an undergraduate course for student nurses. I was particularly looking for stuff on the personal and spiritual dimensions of people who may be experiencing mental health difficulties. The ability to "Undertake and document a comprehensive, systematic and accurate nursing assessment of the physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs of patients, clients and communities" is one of the competencies required for professional registration. Anyway, there I was web-browsing away and lo-and-behold I came across:

A Resource List for the Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group of the Royal College of Psychiatrists:

Please note this is the ROYAL COLLEGE, the professional and educational body for psychiatrists in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, this is not some bloke in a shed with crystals and broadband. They have helpfully included a resource list:

www.rcpsych.ac.uk/college/specialinterestgroups/spirituality/resources/organisations.aspx

Check out the top named resource, SPIRIT RELEASE!

www.spiritrelease.com/

You too can do a course for just £225:00 (non-residential) and become today's cuddlier kind of exorcist. The course is experientially based and lays the foundation for both the intuitive and interactive methods for freeing trapped or earthbound souls (really!) They have case studies too:

www.spiritrelease.com/cases/index.htm

[ogre]

Oh Dear Oh Dear Oh Dear.

Interesting post, thanks. (I'm taking a bit more time to read things through before commenting since last night).

[Meercat]

ogre said:

Oh Dear Oh Dear Oh Dear.

Interesting post, thanks. (I'm taking a bit more time to read things through before commenting since last night).

And get those shoes swapped over so they wear a bit more evenly Ogre, you're starting to lean.....

[Meercat]

The various methods used include:-

1. Silent, psychic healing. I contact and communicate with any entities, find and disconnect attachments, cut cords, stop psychic attack, reverse/remove curses. This method includes the use of dowsing.

What the F..........

[loulou777]

That's really quite worrying

I just took a look at the Spirit Release book page

www.spiritrelease.com/books_spiritrelease.htm#entityposs

hmmmmm

A closer look at their practitioner list is also cause for concern IMO

Thing is, I think it's important for mental health professionals to have some knowledge and understanding of different religious and cultural beliefs so as to better understand their patients.

If they are going to recommend this kind of new age stuff then they should also recommend that their members read up on a broad range of different religions and beliefs that they might reasonably encounter.

I'm shocked that they just have a list of quite barmy "resources"

I think that the press might be interested in this. Ben Goldacre at the Grauniad might be a good person to contact re this OP

[bobdezon]

Royal patronage is usually a sure sign of woo of monsterous carbuncle proportions

[wrongun]

The Spirit Release website might be bad enough with its 'case studies' (including proof from spirits coming thro in trance!) You could excuse one oddball psychiatrist's website and even think the Royal college just hasnt checked the site BUT IT'S WORSE THAN THAT...

If you are into reading heavy articles go to the royal college's website :

www.rcpsych.ac.uk/college/specialinterestgroups/spirituality.aspxSpirituality

scroll down to newsletters and have a read.
There are psychiatrist pieces on why Disassociate Disorder is really possession, quoting Djwhal Khul (a Tibetan 'Master' who 'talked' via Theosophist Alice Bailey!) :

www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/Laura%20Harrison%20Multiple%20Personality%20Disorder;%20an%20Alternative%20Theory%201.5.06.pdf;

how mediums help you realise you are also a medium (surprise surprise):

www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/A%20personal%20experience%20of%20Kundalini%20%20Sarah%20Sourial%20EDITED.pdf;

and gems such as this:

These days, science is so bent on the impersonal credibility of normothetic statistics that case studies are seriously out of fashion. Although many parapsychological experiments have now been shown to stand up to statistical scrutiny, the phenomena associated with Mediumship are more elusive and highly individual. Perhaps this is the quantum effect. I remember talking with a medical colleague whose wife had a tumour. They went to the Philippines to see a psychic surgeon and my friend described standing next to his wife and seeing the healer’s hand disappear right into her abdomen, and re-emerge, without leaving a mark.

www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/APowellReviewDFontana.pdf

this has to be one of the best phrases of nonsense I have read in ages and I love how he uses quantum!
There is a goldmine of fun reading here. The credulity in some of these articles in a psychiatrists journal is breathtaking, hilarious and then pretty worrying!