[Spirituality and existential well-being as topics of research in medical psychology and psychiatry].
Spirituality is introduced as a notion referring to a personal dimension of life sense donating self-reflection and includes religious thinking in this respect but, however, is by no means limited to religiousness. Different studies point out that there may be relevant connections between aspects of subjective life sense and variables like "neuroticism" and "negative" emotionality. In the Anglo-American psychological and even psychiatric literature this spiritual dimension is a topic of empirical research; programs of psychological treatment for chronical and terminal ill patients had been created and are mainly founded on aspects of spirituality as a relevant dimension in remaining life. Referring to the presented literature the hypothesis can be formed that a sense-donating contingency is related to different psychological and psychiatric topics not limited to aged people or those suffering from severe illness. Further research is needed; culture-dependent differences in the content and expression of spiritual dimensions may exist. The question becomes actualized by migration movements (fundamentalistic philosophies), a greater proportion of patients might be influenced by other religions and life sense-donating philosophies. In the existing psychotherapy literature indications are hardly found how these patients' characteristic features can be adequately integrated in design and execution of the psychotherapeutic process.
Möller
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Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg. arnulf.moeller@medizin.uni-halle.de
Reimann
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S
D006801:Humans; D011570:Psychiatry; D011591:Psychology, Medical; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012106:Research; D029181:Spirituality