Skip to content
EDIV
  • Home
  • Spirituality & Psychology
  • Contact
  • Links
  • Misc/Diverse
  • Search Icon

EDIV

Spirituality, Society & Psychology | Clinical Psychologist | Stockholm

Spirituality & Psychology

Spirituality & Psychology

“We’re going to evolve to become like Jesus. When we’re at the goal, we’re like him.”

Religion and mental health have been researched and thought about a lot. Sigmund Freud was out early. He was negative about people’s religiosity, he saw this generally as an escape from responsibility and adulthood. Over time the picture has become more complex. Within his own moment, not the least. Modern research (which is mainly done in the US) usually points to that people who are active in a church is feeling better than average.

On contemporary, “newer” spirituality, and mental health, research also has been done. Above all on the organized type: “cults”. Here, the general perception is more negative. Peer pressure, mind control, manipulative leadership, etc. Such spirituality is relatively easy to get into, hard to get out of.

I myself have been most interested in unorganized so-called “holistic” spirituality, “new age spirituality” and the like. It is spirituality that one engage in more on one’s own. (Sometimes it’s pictured as “a smorgasbord” from which you pick up an individual mix. But I think that’s an exaggeration. Some beliefs are more or less mandatory within such belief systems.)

But the world of imagination need not be so different from that of the more organized modern spirituality. My thesis to become a psychologist was about this world of thought. (The full article + some extras are posted here on the website.)

I have continued to be fascinated by and pondering on psychological aspects of such unorganized spirituality in particular. What it can “do with one”, so to speak? Modern holistic spirituality holds a lot that is worth thinking about. (And there are similarities with how many people think about themselves and life today. The “zeitgeist”. As an example 25-30% of people in the West these days believe in reincarnation.)

It can be argued that Freud’s criticism of religion could apply even more to this modern type of spirituality. But – and this is important – this is unrelated to whether this modern world of imagination is actually true or not. Perhaps it is true? In that case, the more interesting.

  • EnglishEnglish
  • SvenskaSvenska

Latest posts in “Misc/Diverse”

  • Atheistic spirituality?
    I wanted to write down some thoughts on “spirituality”… What do I think about with that? What attracts me? I don’t think I’m really interested in the subject in general. […]
  • A healthy faith in God?
    It’s such a big subject, that perhaps you shouldn’t even bother with. A mystery you just should leave behind? It easily gets into an emotional war of positions between for or against. […]
  • Live life
    “The acceptance or interest in things like reincarnation, omen, telepathy, communication with deceased relatives, etc., is big. While several of the beliefs and phenomena addressed in these […]
  • Freud and Atheism
    This is very thoughtful. I myself have great respect for Sigmund Freud, his thoughts on when religion can get problematic, but I do think Jones has an interesting point. […]
  • Spiritual confusion
    Why is it that so many people within “New Age spirituality” end up wrong & at odds with consensus on – in short – all the burning issues? 😳 First there was the climate […]
  • How to be on the right side of history?
    What does it mean to “be on the wrong side of history”? And what does it look like when you are? Is it the Left Party [former Communist party in Sweden] that does not want to agree to […]
  • Conflictualities
    I sat and thought about something. Because of things I’m reading too, of course. How fair, ethical is it to diagnose presidents from afar? And to what extent is it useful? Attempts are of […]

Most popular in “Misc/Diverse”

  • Teal Swan (podcast)

Categories in “Misc/Diverse”

  • 1-This & that (462)
  • 3-Workshop (1)
  • 5-A study on New Age Spirituality (56)
  • 6-Leftovers from study (253)
  • 8-Old stuff (3)
  • 9-My journey (6)

Tags in “Misc/Diverse”

animal rights astrology atheism Awe Carl Gustav Jung conspiracy theories conspirituality cults Deepak Chopra developmental psychology Elitism envy God graphology Gurus Hoax Image of God Irvin Yalom James W. Fowler Jeffrey Masson Jiddu Krishnamurti Jules Evans Magical thinking Martinus Cosmology Martinus Thomsen M D Faber mindfulness Non-duality personal development popular psychology Psychoanalysis Psychology of Religion R D Laing Rituals Science Sigmund Freud spiritual development spirituality Spiritual Narcissism The unconscious Third Testament Vaccine veganism Western esotericism Zeitgeist

Share

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.
Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
stefan.hellsten@edivpsych.com
+46 (0)76-190 63 63
Kyndelsmässogränd 5, NB
Hägersten, Stockholm
Sweden
© 2022   All Rights Reserved.