The therapeutic process in the religious context

Author: Borgen, Berit

Source: Archive for the Psychology of Religion / Archiv für Religionspychologie, Volume 24, Number 1, 2003 , pp. 234-250(17)

Publisher: BRILL

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Abstract:

The article is based on selected findings from a study in the field of rehabilitation in a religious context viewed from the perspective of cognitive psychology and psychology of religion. The study shows how a therapeutic process can be facilitated in cases where the psychotherapeutic intervention is co-ordinated with a creative, sound religious activity. One central phenomenon that emerged from the study was the experience of a therapeutic dialogue with the divine person God and/ or Jesus being apprehended as a crucial therapeutic agent. The material is analysed focusing on criteria for creative persons and products. A basic mechanism of creativity is hypothesised by Martindale (1991) to be defocused attention. The greater the spread of the attention capacity, the more likely the combinational leap, giving the rich possibility of combining elements in new ways. Religion can extend the perspective and thereby increase the possibilities of finding new and appropriate emotional and cognitive combinations. The analysis shows significant creative qualities in the treatment model studied.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157361203X00345

Publication date: 2003-01-01