DOCSLIB.ORG

Bangor University DOCTOR of PHILOSOPHY a Revised Epistemology for an Understanding of Spirit Release Therapy Developed in Accord

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Bangor University DOCTOR of PHILOSOPHY a Revised Epistemology for an Understanding of Spirit Release Therapy Developed in Accord Bangor University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY A revised epistemology for an understanding of spirit release therapy developed in accordance with the conceptual framework of F. W. H. Myers Palmer, Terence Award date: 2012 Awarding institution: Bangor University Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 30. Sep. 2021 A REVISED EPISTEMOLOGY FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF SPIRIT RELEASE THERAPY DEVELOPED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF F.W.H. MYERS By Terence James Palmer A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Theology and Religious Studies College of Arts and Humanities University of Wales, Bangor. 2012 i Abstract In this thesis I argue the case for a revised epistemology that will enable medical practice to understand more fully the relevance and validity of Spirit Release Therapy (SRT), as a clinical approach to releasing alleged discarnate spirits from the living, in its application for the treatment of a wide range of psychological and physiological disorders. SRT is a modern clinical alternative to religious exorcism for the release of spirit entities from patients that has been emerging in psychiatry and clinical psychology since the early part of the twentieth century, especially in North and South America and in Western Europe. In contrast to positivist scientific assumptions that spirits are created in the minds of the superstitious or the mentally ill, SRT finds earthbound spirits of the deceased that are found to be attached in some way to the living. It treats these spirits with equal compassion to those presenting patients who are unwilling hosts to them. This compassionate approach of SRT contrasts with that of the Roman Catholic tradition which casts out spirits deemed to be ‘evil’ using its Rite of Exorcism. The general reaction from modern medicine to the proposition that spirits exist, is to reject it because there is no scientific framework that can accommodate it. Although there is no consensus within the Christian tradition that affirms the existence of autonomous spirits (with many believing in the reality of spirits and evil as symbolic and not metaphysical truths), the Catholic tradition relies on faith and non-rational beliefs in its justification for the eradication of what it consequently regards as inherently diabolical entities. There is therefore a dichotomy between modern medicine and religious belief, but I shall argue that the gulf between these opposing positions can be bridged through an epistemological approach that is both grounded in subjective experience and validated by scientific enquiry. In this thesis I examine the relevance of this epistemological approach to the reality of spirit possession (and the practical procedures adopted in SRT for the possible dispossession of spirits) through an analysis of the conceptual framework and scientific methods of Frederic Myers (1843-1901), the 19th century researcher and co-founder of the Society for Psychical Research. In Part I of this thesis I place spirit possession in a Western social and cultural context where I discuss the contemporary attitudes to spirit possession, which are themselves expressed and reinforced by an epistemology that is grounded in the empiricism of the ii social sciences, anthropology, psychiatry and the scientific study of beliefs. Part II explains Myers’ 19th century methods and theories that challenge positivistic empiricism and Part III seeks to update these methods and theories within a 21st century context where they are applied to various enigmatic case studies that challenge modern psychiatry and clinical psychology. I have adopted this structure in order first to highlight some of the deficiencies of current scientific methods in making sense of spirit possession and second to raise important questions that remain unanswered by mainstream psychology, thereby further illuminating the limitations of the epistemological grounding of this discipline. iii Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................... ii Contents .................................................................................................................................. iv Illustrations ............................................................................................................................. ix Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 2 Declaration and Consent .......................................................................................................... 3 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 6 Possession, Exorcism and Spirit Release Therapy ................................................................ 6 Bridging the gap between religious experience and scientific enquiry and the need for a revised epistemology .................................................................................................... 6 Perceptual Differences between Science and Religion ....................................................... 6 What is Possession and Exorcism? ....................................................................................... 9 Treatment Approaches to Spirit Possession ...................................................................... 11 What is Spirit Release Therapy (SRT)? ............................................................................... 13 Definitions of Autonomous Spirit Entities ......................................................................... 14 The Use of ‘Spirit’ in Therapy ............................................................................................. 15 Differences Between SRT and Exorcism ............................................................................ 16 Methods of Consultation and Intervention ....................................................................... 17 Historical Development of SRT .......................................................................................... 19 Discovering an Earthbound ................................................................................................ 20 Psychosis or Spirit Attachment? ........................................................................................ 20 Dissociative Disorders and SRT .......................................................................................... 21 Dissociation and Paranoia .................................................................................................. 22 Multiple Personality or Spirit Possession? ......................................................................... 23 SRT, Hypnosis and Secondary Selves ................................................................................. 23 The Hidden Observer or Higher Self .................................................................................. 25 Continued Scepticism from SRT Practitioners ................................................................... 28 From Scepticism to Conversion ......................................................................................... 30 Spirit Release Today and the Future .................................................................................. 31 So Who Was F.W.H. Myers? .............................................................................................. 33 Competing Theories of Possession and Myers’ Contribution ............................................ 35 An Expanded Epistemology ............................................................................................... 36 F.W.H. Myers Theories and a Comprehensive Model of Mind .......................................... 37 Myers’ Conceptual Framework and Modern Science ........................................................ 39 iv Purpose of this Thesis ........................................................................................................ 41 PART I ..................................................................................................................................... 43 Possession and Exorcism – Methods and Theories ............................................................... 43 CHAPTER 1 ............................................................................................................................. 44 Social Science Observation and Interviewing in the UK and USA .......................................... 44 Methodological Agnosticism .......................................................................................... 45 Disproving the Non-empirical .......................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Paranormal and Dissociative Experiences in Middle-Eastern Jews in Israel: Diagnostic and Treatment Dilemmas
    PARANORMAL AND DISSOCIATIVE EXPERIENCES IN MIDDLE-EASTERN JEWS IN ISRAEL: DIAGNOSTIC AND TREATMENT DILEMMAS Eli Somer, Ph.D. Eli Somer, Ph.D., is Director of tlle Israel Institute for involve involuntary behavior or influences by forces that are Treatment and Prevention of SU'ess and a Senior Lecturer notconsidered partofthe self. Persons manifesting both phe­ at the School ofSocial Work at the niversity ofHaifa, both nomena are usually good hypnotic subjects (Ackstein, 1982; in Haifa, Israel Putnam, 1989); amnesia is a central element in both cases (Ellenberger, 1970), and these two types ofexperience can For reprintswrite to Eli Somer, Ph.D., School ofSocial Work, be reproduced expel;mentally in hypnosis (Putnam, 1986; University ofHaifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel Richeport, 1992). Castillo (1994) reported that it appears that there are ABSTRACT two factors determining how a particular episode of posses­ Four Israelijewish persons ofMiddle Eastern cultural heritage pre­ sion will be perceived in the South Asian (Indian and Sri sentedfor consultationfollowing unsuccessful helpingattlmlpts deliv­ Lankan) cultural context. First, if the possessing entity is a ered by variousfolk and spiritual healers. Thefour patients suffered human personality, the episode will be perceived as a rare from the following DSM-IV defined problems: Post-traumatic Stress mental illness, and psychiau'ic treaunent will be sought. In Disorder, Dissociative Disordernot Othe>wise Specified, Schizophrenia most possession cases in South Asia, the possessing agent is - paranoid type, and Histrionic Personality Disorder coupled with manifested as a ghost, a demon, or a god. In the case ofbene­ a Conversion Disorder with Seizures. The patients construed their volent possession by a god or a goddess, treatment is usual­ suffering in cultural idioms implicating supernatural experiences.
    [Show full text]
  • A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife
    A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife Victor James Zammit 2 Acknowledgements: My special thanks to my sister, Carmen, for her portrait of William and to Dmitri Svetlov for his very kind assistance in editing and formatting this edition. My other special thanks goes to the many afterlife researchers, empiricists and scientists, gifted mediums and the many others – too many to mention – who gave me, inspiration, support, suggestions and feedback about the book. 3 Contents 1. Opening statement............................................................................7 2. Respected scientists who investigated...........................................12 3. My materialization experiences....................................................25 4. Voices on Tape (EVP).................................................................... 34 5. Instrumental Trans-communication (ITC)..................................43 6. Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) ..................................................52 7. Out-of-Body Experiences ..............................................................66 8. The Scole Experiment proves the Afterlife ................................. 71 9. Einstein's E = mc2 and materialization.........................................77 10. Materialization Mediumship.......................................................80 11. Helen Duncan................................................................................90 12. Psychic laboratory experiments..................................................98 13. Observation
    [Show full text]
  • Seances with Tibetan Spirit-Mediums in Nepal by PER-ARNE BERGLIE
    Spirit-possession in Theory and Practice— Seances with Tibetan Spirit-mediums in Nepal By PER-ARNE BERGLIE This paper is a short study of the séances and trance-performances of three Tibetan spirit-mediums (dpa' bo) from a refugee-community in Nepal. For each dpa' bo a summary of personal thoughts and beliefs concerning possession is provided, followed by an example of how a séance was structured. In a concluding section the inner experiences of the mediums during the séance will be related and a few comments given. For further details on this type of spirit-mediumship and for relevant background-material, the reader is referred to some previous studies by the present author (Berglie 1976, 1978, 1980). The field-work on which this study is based was carried out in a Tibetan refugee-village in Nepal during 1970 and 1971. dBang phyug He was a man about forty years old. He was married and had one son. He was suffering from tuberculosis, but worked as a porter or doing various odd jobs. He was born in Eastern Tibet. Before he let himself be possessed at a séance, he had to send away his rnam shes, "consciousness". This had to be effected immediately before possession took place, as the moment when the body was "empty", i.e. without rnam shes and before it was possessed by a god, was considered extremely dangerous. Evil spirits and demons of various kinds were always thought to be trying to disturb the séances. In this case a demon could very well seize the opportunity to enter the spirit-medium's "empty" body, pose as a god and thereby create great dangers for the spirit-medium as well as for those seeking help.
    [Show full text]
  • THE INTELLIGENT PLANT Scientists Debate a New Way of Understanding Flora
    Michael Pollan: How Smart Are Plants? : The New Yorker Page 1 of 21 A REPORTER AT LARGE THE INTELLIGENT PLANT Scientists debate a new way of understanding flora. by Michael Pollan DECEMBER 23, 2013 •Print •More Share Close ◦ ◦ Reddit ◦ Linked In ◦ Email ◦ ◦ StumbleUpon n 1973, a book claiming that plants were sentient Ibeings that feel emotions, prefer classical music to rock and roll, and can respond to the unspoken thoughts of humans hundreds of miles away landed on the New York Times best-seller list for nonfiction. “The Secret Life of Plants,” by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, presented a beguiling mashup of legitimate plant science, quack experiments, and mystical nature worship that captured the public imagination at a time when New Age thinking was seeping into the mainstream. The most memorable passages described the experiments of a former C.I.A. polygraph expert named Cleve Backster, who, in Plants have electrical and chemical 1966, on a whim, hooked up a galvanometer to the signalling systems, may possess memory, and exhibit brainy behavior in the absence of leaf of a dracaena, a houseplant that he kept in his brains. Construction by Stephen Doyle. office. To his astonishment, Backster found that simply by imagining the dracaena being set on fire he could make it rouse the needle of the http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/12/23/131223fa_fact_pollan?printable=true&... 09/01/2014 Michael Pollan: How Smart Are Plants? : The New Yorker Page 2 of 21 polygraph machine, registering a surge of electrical activity suggesting that the plant felt stress. “Could the plant have been reading his mind?” the authors ask.
    [Show full text]
  • William Baldwin
    CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE POSSESSION KIND As you read this volume, be prepared to meet otherworldly beings in a form never before imagined. There are alien colonists, alien scientists, alien castaways, alien/human hybrids, and many others. There are many nonphysical, unearthly beings who impose mind control at a whole new level, revealing a sinister side of the UFO phenomenon previously regarded as absurd and only hinted at in other books. In acknowledgment of his pioneering exploration of science and spirit in his groundbreaking work, Spirit Releasement Therapy: A Technique Manual, Dr. William j. Baldwin was honored with the 1994 Franklin Loehr Memorial Award by the International Association for New Science in Ft. Collins, Colorado. He has received other awards for lifetime achievement and contribution to the transpersonal field in the tradition of bridging Mind, Body, and Spirit. Now Dr. Baldwin further expands his fascinating explorations into consciousness and documents what many hundreds of clients have discovered in clinical session. CE-Vl: Close Encounters of the Possession Kind catapults the reader into the many-layered realms of human consciousness and experience, revealing unwanted intrusions by alien "others." This kind of ET/UFO encounter appears to be nonphysical yet every bit as intrusive as the well-known abduction scenario. Addressing the heart of the matter, CE-Vl illuminates a path for overcoming fear, and embracing the fresh, eternal, indestructible light of human freedom. CE-VI CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE POSSESSION KIND By William J. Baldwin, Ph.D. CE-VI: Close Encounters of the Possession Kind by William J. Baldwin, Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Category Title Author Pub ISBN Weblink Modern Christian Teaching That Includes Reincarnation the Corner Stone Hinz, Walter 1977
    Category Title Author Pub ISBN Weblink Modern Christian teaching that includes Reincarnation The Corner Stone Hinz, Walter 1977 85435-124-8 Communication with the Spirit World God Johannes Greber 1987 97480-730-3 http://www.brentandrachel.com/holyspirita nswers/images/intro.pdf The Lowlands of Heaven Rev. G. Vale Owen 1922 The Highlands of Heaven Rev. G. Vale Owen 1922 0-900413-33-6 The Ministry of Heaven Rev. G. Vale Owen 1922 0-900413-34-4 The Battalions of Heaven Rev. G. Vale Owen 1922 0-900413-35-2 The Outlands of Heaven (a combined Rev. G. Vale Owen 1971 0-900413-36-0 continuous narrative of ‘The Children of Heaven’ and ‘The Outlands of Heaven’) The Zodiac messages, Reference Addition 1965 http://www.greaterworld.com/ The Gospel Explained by the Spiritist Doctrine Allan Kardec 2003 0964990768 Book on Mediums; Or, Guide for Mediums and Allan Kardec 1989 0877283826 Invocators The Spirits’ Book Allan Kardec, Anna 1989 0914732250 Blackwell Angela of Foligno: Complete Works (The Paul Lachance, Angela of 1993 0809104601 Classics of Western Spirituality) Foligno Early Christian teaching that includes Reincarnation Origen Henri Crouzel, A.S. 1999 0567086399 Worrall Origin (Orthodoxies and Heresies in the Early Walter Mitchell, Jean 1955 0404623816 Church Series) Danielou Origen Joseph W. Trigg 1998 0415118360 Allegory & Event: A study of the Sources and R. P. C. Hanson 1959 0-664-22444-X Significance of Origen’s Interpretation of Scripture Origen, Commentary on the Gospel of John Translated by Ronald E. 1990 0-8132-1029-1 http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1015.ht Books 1-10 Heine m Origen, Commentary on the Gospel of John Translated by Ronald E.
    [Show full text]
  • From Demonic Possession to Conversion Disorder: a Historical Comparison Laura Hatchman University of Connecticut - Storrs, [email protected]
    University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn Honors Scholar Theses Honors Scholar Program Spring 5-12-2013 From Demonic Possession to Conversion Disorder: A Historical Comparison Laura Hatchman University of Connecticut - Storrs, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/srhonors_theses Part of the History of Religion Commons, and the Social History Commons Recommended Citation Hatchman, Laura, "From Demonic Possession to Conversion Disorder: A Historical Comparison" (2013). Honors Scholar Theses. 302. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/srhonors_theses/302 FROM DEMONIC POSSESSION TO CONVERSION DISORDER: A HISTORICAL COMPARISON By LAURA E. HATCHMAN HONORS THESIS Department of History University of Connecticut Advisor: PROFESSOR CORNELIA DAYTON MAY 3, 2013 Hatchman 1 Contents Introduction…………………..……………………………………………………………………2 Chapter 1: Early Modern Encounters with the Devil…..……………...…………….……….……5 Chapter 2: Modern Contact with Mass Conversion Disorder………….……………..……..…...27 Chapter 3: Social Patterns…………………………………………………………..……………48 Endnotes …………………………………………………...…………………….…………...….56 Works Cited…………………………………….……………………………….…….…………63 I would like to thank Professor Cornelia Dayton for her support, patience, and guidance throughout this project. Also, I would like to thank the University of Connecticut Honors Program for providing a stimulating academic career and home away from home. Hatchman 2 Introduction The privilege of hindsight bestows on historians the ability not only to detail history, but to create the world and culture of their subjects in the eyes of modern-day scholars. Oftentimes, historians inadvertently use this hindsight to give historical figures specific voices and motivations that are confirmed by the mores of present-day society. For instance, many primary school textbooks focus almost exclusively on the evils of the American slavery system or the righteousness of the women’s suffrage movement, in each case imprinting the biases of the current world on the past.
    [Show full text]
  • Unit 18 Paper 001 Part I Liberal Catholic Institute of Studies
    LIBERAL CATHOLIC INSTITUTE OF STUDIES Unit 18 THE LIBERAL CATHOLIC CHURCH : LITURGY Paper 1 PARAPSYCHOLOGY: A BRIEF REVIEW by the Rev Richard W. Brooks APPENDIX by the Rev Dr Brian Harding 180.001. Printed in Australia UNIT 18 PAPER 001 PART I LIBERAL CATHOLIC INSTITUTE OF STUDIES UNIT 18 PSYCHOLOGY by the Rev Richard W. Brooks APENDIX by the Rev Dr Brian Harding CONTENT FOREWORD ............................................................................................................................................ 6 General Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 7 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................... 8 Recommended Reading ..................................................................................................................... 8 CLASSIFICATION OF PHENOMENA ................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 1: PRELUDE AND BEGINNINGS ............................................................................................. 11 Recommended Reading ................................................................................................................... 11 The Ancient World ....................................................................................................................... 11 Psi and Christianity .....................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Witchcraft, Sorcery and Spirit Possession - Pastoral Responses in Africa
    LENY LAGERWERF WITCHCRAFT, SORCERY AND SPIRIT POSSESSION - PASTORAL RESPONSES IN AFRICA A symposium participant cited the case of a Protestant pastor whose son was seriously ill. On the quiet his wife consulted a diviner. The latter prescribed that a sacrifice be offered on the tomb of the child's grandfather. She then . urged her husband that they act on the diviner's advice. But he angrily refused, and left the healing of their child to God's will. The boy died. The relatives of the wife then accused the pastor of being the sorcerer of his own son. Heroic as the pastor may have been, the pathos of this case consists in having defined his dilemma from the fundamentalist viewpoint: either yield back to paganism, or remain unswerving in the faith. But Fr. Hermann Hochegger_expressed his conviction . that, guided by the sound principles of "Incultura- tion Theology", Christianity in the Bandundu region still needs to equal the ritual creativity of the native religion (P. Estepa, When Medicine Man Met Missionary, in : Verbum SVD, 1982/3, 319). In spite of all the endeavours of the Missions sorcery and witchcraft are a reality in the lives of many Christians in sub-Saharan Africa. Unfortunately the churches did not always seem to take their members' fears seriously. In - fact they often made it impossible to speak about these matters at all. During the 1960's, however, the first signs of a new attitude among pastors became visible. Rev. H. Edjengu6l6, Principal of the Theological College at Ndoungue Cameroon, in his thesis "La puissance de 1'Evangile face au paganisme Minieh des Mbo" (1966) reports on a regional Pastors' conference of the Evan- gelical Church of Cameroon in 1962, during which some young pastors, includ- ing himself, protested against the other pastors' assertion that witchcraft does not exist or is dying out, and in this wise unknowingly inviting wizards to hide in the Christian congregations.
    [Show full text]
  • 412-72A1a72d76c3b72b
    1 PARAPSYCOLOGY TODAY AND TOMORROW JOSÉ HERCULANO PIRES 8th edition PUBLISHER SPIRITIST CULTURAL LTDA. 01316 Street Geneva, 122 - Phone: 362273 São Paulo - SP - Brazil 2 NOVELTIES IN THIS EDITION: 1. Overview of the researches about reincarnation. 2. The recordings of voices and of inaudible sounds. 3. The Physics discovers the bioplasmatic body. 4 – Biophysics researches of the phenomenon of the death 3 TO MY STUDENTS of the First Course of Introduction to Parapsychology given in São Paulo in the course of 1963. TO MY COLLEAGUES of the Paulist Institute of Parapsychology, the first scientific institution of this activity to appear in Brazil. 4 INDEX What is the man?..............................................................................................................5 First part – Parapsychology today I - What is Parapsychology...............................................................................................8 II - The story of PSI.........................................................................................................11 III - Cv -The vision without eyes.....................................................................................15 IV - Tp - The language of the mind .......................................... .....................................20 V - Peg - The time domain .......................................... .............................................. ...26 VI - Pk - The mechanical o the life ...............................................................................33 VII - Tt
    [Show full text]
  • FRANCI PROWSE WIT a Kind of Paradigm Shift in My Own Awareness.At the Time I Had Been Involved for 18 Years in the Tuse of Polygraph Testing on Humans
    he wake-up call: “On February 2, 1966, an event occurred that expanded the entire focus of my research through FRANCI PROWSE WIT a kind of paradigm shift in my own awareness.At the time I had been involved for 18 years in the Tuse of polygraph testing on humans. I was taking an early morning coffee break and decided to water the dracaena cane plant that my secretary had brought into the laboratory. After pouring water into the pot of soil Exploring a S at its base, I wondered if I could measure the rate of moisture as it ascended. I attached the end of a large leaf to the galvanic-skin-response section of the polygraph instrument.The plant leaf was successfully balanced into the polygraph’s Wheatstone bridge circuitry, which I planned to use as a means of reflecting the rate of moisture ascent.The relative increase in the leaf’s electrical conductivity—due to the expected change in its moisture content—would be indicated by an upward trending of the ink tracing on the chart recording.To my surprise, the plant leaf tracing initially exhibited a downward trending, which would ordinarily indicate increasing resistance. Then, about one minute into the chart recording, the tracing exhibited a contour similar to the reaction pattern of a human subject attached to a polygraph who might have been briefly experiencing the fear of detection. I thought: Well, if this plant wants to show me some people-like reactions, I’ve got to use some people-like rules on it and see if I can get this to happen again.
    [Show full text]
  • La Scienza Che Ha Dimostrato L'aldila'
    FRANCESCA SCARRICA LA SCIENZA CHE HA DIMOSTRATO L’ALDILA’ 87 fra scienziati e brillanti ricercatori che hanno dimostrato la realtà della sopravvivenza dell’anima alla morte fisica 2008 © 2008 Francesca Scarrica E' vietata la riproduzione totale o parziale dei testi senza il consenso scritto dell'autore. ISBN 978-1-4092-0493-0 2 A tutti quegli scienziati coraggiosi e ai ricercatori appassionati che hanno dato il loro prezioso contributo alla ricerca delle prove dell’esistenza dell’aldilà 3 4 Introduzione Questo libro nasce da un apparente paradosso che, “nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita”, mi sono ritrovata a dover affrontare e risolvere per poter continuare a vivere un’esistenza nella quale ci fosse ancora spazio per concetti fondamentali quali la speranza e la gioia. Sono consapevole che questo tipo di percorso sia comune a tutti gli esseri umani che, prima o poi, si trovano a doversi porre le eterne questioni che riguardano la morte ed il modo di inquadrarla in una prospettiva che la possa rendere in qualche modo accettabile nella nostra concezione della vita e del mondo. Difatti quando perdiamo una persona cara tutti noi siamo costretti, volenti o nolenti, ad intraprendere quella fase incerta e dolorosa che gli psicologi chiamano “elaborazione del lutto”, un percorso difficile che la maggioranza di noi compie nella solitudine del proprio intimo, spesso senza riuscire a trovare il giusto supporto per alleviare il doloroso senso di perdita e affidandosi per lo più al tempo che passa considerandolo, come recita un vecchio detto, “un gran dottore”. Ma il rischio reale è che, col tempo, oltre al dolore, passi anche la voglia di vivere e di riamare.
    [Show full text]