Spiritual, Religious and Ethical Values in a Suicidal Individual

Abstract

AbstractReligious and spiritual experiences can appear in mental health practice as far as they often structure what aspects of psychopathological phenomena are present, sometimes making it difficult to determine whether some experiences should be classified as symptoms of a psychiatric disorder or crises within spiritual life.We present a clinical vignette of a 62-year-old sacristan who was admitted to the Psychiatric Emergency Room for suicidal thoughts in the context of physical sequelae of a cardiac episode. He confessed that, in the process of coping with his illness, he had a distressing experience of guilt and of losing his religious faith and shared the intention to take his own life by hanging himself.Themes that emerge in the discussion include issues related to the boundaries of psychiatric diagnosis, the spiritual dimension of mental health and the values that underlie clinical decision-making regarding a suicidal individual.Incorporating religious and spiritual perspectives in the clinical assessment of patients is essential to understand individual’s framework of cultural values and social attitudes on disease.