Is mindfulness practice "at risk" of increasing spirituality? Systematic review and critical analysis of a claimed effect.

INTRODUCTION: Mindfulness meditation has gained prominence in somatic and psychiatric care in several countries including France. Studies have shown its effectiveness in various conditions, in particular the prevention of depressive relapses. However, there are criticisms and concerns about its potential links to Buddhism and spirituality, raising issues of secularism and sectarianism. This issue is particularly conflicting in France with regard its historical and political relationship with secularism. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to assess quantitative data regarding the impact of mindfulness meditation on spirituality and religiosity using quantitative validated scales. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted. PubMed was searched for relevant studies using keywords related to mindfulness and spirituality/religiosity scales. Four scales assessing spirituality were identified: FACIT-sp, INSPIRIT, DSES, and DUREL. Qualitative analysis determined if scale items pertained to spirituality or other topics considered by opponents to mindfulness as "at risk" for deviances or sectarian aberrations. Quantitative analysis assessed the effect size of changes in scale scores before and after mindfulness meditation interventions. RESULTS: Eighteen studies were analyzed, with varying scales and program durations including 1272 participants. Qualitative analysis showed that most scales contained items related to spirituality as well as "at risk" elements like religion and mysticism. Quantitative analysis revealed that a few studies reported significant increases in spirituality scores following mindfulness meditation, but the clinical relevance of these changes was questioned. In general, control groups had smaller score changes. INTERPRETATION: While some studies suggest a potential increase in spirituality due to mindfulness meditation, the clinical significance of these findings remains uncertain. Moreover, mindfulness meditation's ties to Buddhism are disputed, and its roots are intertwined with various psychotherapy traditions that incorporate spirituality. The role of secularism in psychotherapy is also debated in France, emphasizing the need for proper use and regulation policy rather than prohibition of mindfulness-based approaches. This study highlights the complexity of assessing the impact of mindfulness meditation on spirituality and religiosity. It suggests that a pragmatic approach focusing on risk and harm reduction may be more suitable than labeling the practice as "at risk". Further research is needed to clarify these issues in the specific cultural context of France.

Neither saintly nor psychotic: a narrative systematic review of the evolving Western perception of voice hearing.

We present a social-historical perspective on the evolution of the voice-hearing phenomenon in Western society. Based upon a systematic search from a selection of nine databases, we trace the way hearing voices has been understood throughout the ages. Originally, hearing voices was considered a gifted talent for accessing the divine, but the progressive influence of monotheistic religion gradually condemned the practice to social marginalization. Later, the medical and psychiatric professions of secular society were instrumental in attaching stigma to both voice hearers and the phenomenon itself, thereby reinforcing social exclusion. More recently, the re-integration of voice hearers into the community by health authorities in various countries appears to have provided a new, socially acceptable setting for the phenomenon.

Near birth experience: An exploratory study on the communication experiences with a hypothetical prenatal consciousness.

CONTEXT: Many cultures believe that the first traces of human consciousness during the incarnation may be present before birth. Practices based on this belief exist in many cultures. However, formal scientific inquiry into the possibility of communicating with prenatal consciousness has never been explored. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if it is possible to communicate with a hypothetical prenatal consciousness of the fetus during pregnancy. DESIGN: This exploratory study used mixed methods and a triple-blind design. People (i.e., mediums) who could allegedly communicate with eleven pregnant women's prenatal consciousness (N=11) collected answers to ten questions that were then verified from parental reports. Ten mediums participated, with three to eight mediums providing answers per pregnant woman. RESULTS: More than 1,500 statements were generated from attempts to communicate with the prenatal consciousness. Quantitative analysis showed higher agreement in spontaneously reported information versus responses to structured questions, 69.40%, and 17.63%, respectively. These results did not differ by the number of mediums per pregnant woman (three to five versus six to eight). Qualitative analysis suggested that some sessions resulted in verifiable communication with the prenatal consciousness, while others did not. CONCLUSION: The results, while preliminary and requiring follow-up studies, suggest the possibility to interact with a prenatal consciousness during pregnancy and the potential of novel scientific investigations into altered states of consciousness.

Sawing the branch of near-death experience research: A critical analysis of Parnia et al.'s paper.

In their recent paper, Parnia and colleagues propose a new label for the near-death experience (NDE): recalled experience of death. They claimed NDEs are "authentic" only when an objective danger is present and that authentic NDEs have a proven core phenomenology. We consider that these claims are insufficiently supported by empirical data. NDEs appear as a continuum of heterogeneous experiences of consciousness precipitated by the disjunction of processes usually combined in normal mental activity. The "core phenomenology" of NDEs is also opened to several criticisms. Closeness to "real" death does not appear to be a decisive criterion for characterizing NDEs. The author's adhesion to Raymond Moody's NDE model produces a biased partition of this field of research that is unable to provide the basis for a consensus.

Psychoanalysis and Telepathic Processes.

Freud's writing on the topic of thought-transference stimulated controversy among analysts and original reflection on psychoanalytic understandings of the psyche. The notion of telepathy has also contributed significantly to the development of fundamental psychoanalytic concepts, including transference, projective identification, and primary forms of symbolization processes. The notion of telepathy, especially in light of current trends in post-Bionian and field theories, is used to outline an epistemological framework in which the clinical relevance of this notion becomes clear. Epistemological questions raised by telepathy and how this notion relates to the most originary and primary forms of the intersubjective relationship are addressed before questioning the conditions for the emergence of telepathy, its integration within contemporary psychoanalytic theory, and its ontological nature.

"Never sacrifice anything to laboratory work": The "physiological psychology" of Charles Richet (1875-1905).

Whilst best known as a Nobel laureate physiologist, Charles Robert Richet (1850-1935) was also a pioneer of scientific psychology. Starting in 1875 Richet had a leading role in the habilitation of hypnosis, in the institutionalization of psychology in France, and in the introduction of methodological innovations. Authoring several psychology books, Richet's works contributed to the recognition of the scientific nature of the discipline. This role is often underplayed by some historians and psychology textbooks in favor of his later position as a proponent of the controversial discipline he christened metapsychics in 1905, which today lies within the province of parapsychology. In this article, we show how his psychological approach guided by physiology, or physiological psychology, facilitated the reception of psychology. We hypothesize a strong continuity between his physiological psychology and his metapsychics, as he himself considered metapsychics as an advanced branch of physiology, and thus also an outpost of psychology.

Alternative or complementary attitudes toward alternative and complementary medicines.

BACKGROUND: Integrative and complementary health approaches (ICHA) are often pursued by patients facing chronic illnesses. Most of the studies that investigated the factors associated with ICHA consumption have considered that the propensity to use ICHA is a stable or fixed characteristic of an individual. However, people may prefer using ICHA in some situations and not in others, depending on the characteristics of the illness to face. Moreover, the attitude toward ICHA may differ within a single individual and between individuals so that ICHA can be used either in addition to (i.e., complementary attitude) or in place of (i.e., alternative attitude). The present study aimed at examining distinct patterns of attitudes toward ICHA in people hypothetically facing chronic illnesses that differed according to severity and clinical expression. METHODS: We conducted a web-based study including 1807 participants who were asked to imagine that they had a particular chronic illness based on clinical vignettes (mental illnesses: depression, schizophrenia; somatic illnesses: rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis). Participants were invited to rate their perceived distress and social stigma associated with each illness as well as its perceived treatability. They also rated their belief in treatment effectiveness, and their treatment preference. Four patterns of treatment choice were determined: strictly conventional, weak or strong complementary, and alternative. Bayesian methods were used for statistical analyses. RESULTS: ICHA were selected as complementary treatment option by more than 95% of people who hypothetically faced chronic illness. The complementary attitude towards ICHA (in addition to conventional treatment) was more frequent than the alternative one (in place of conventional treatment). Factors driving this preference included employment status, severity of illness, age and perceived distress, social stigma and treatability of the illness. When the label of illnesses was included in the vignettes, patterns of treatment preference were altered. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that "medical pluralism" (i.e., the integration of ICHA with conventional treatment) is likely the norm for people facing both mental or somatic illness. However, our result must be interpreted with caution due to the virtual nature of this study. We suggest that taking attitudes toward ICHA into account is crucial for a better understanding of patients' motivation to use ICHA.

Pierre Janet and the enchanted boundary of psychical research.

Among the founders of French psychology, Pierre Janet (1859-1947) is recognized for both his scientific and institutional roles. The psychology born at the turn of the 20th century was initially partly receptive to, but then engaged in, a battle with the "psychical marvelous," and Janet was no exception. He was involved in the split between psychology and parapsychology (or "metapsychics" in France), developed at that time, playing several successive roles: the pioneer, the repentant, and the gatekeeper. At first, he was involved in so-called experimental parapsychology, but quickly chose not to engage directly in this kind of research any longer. Janet seemed to become embarrassed by his reputation as psychical researcher, so he increased his efforts to side with the more conventional thought of his time. Janet's attitude, in this, is an example of how French nascent psychology has explored "marvelous phenomena" before recanting. Yet this aspect of Janet's work has been rarely commented on by his followers. In this article, we describe the highlights of his epistemological journey. (PsycINFO Database Record

From Querulous to Suicidal: Self-immolation in Public Places as a Symbolic Response to the Feeling of Injustice.

Aim: This paper sheds light on the context that leads some querulous patients to self-immolate in front of, or into, public buildings (e.g., tribunals, city halls, and employment agencies). Method: The author defines paranoid querulousness. A psychoanalytic perspective, but also a judicial and a psychiatric point of view, over querulous claimants is presented. The links between political or social claims and self-immolation are studied. The expression of suicidal thoughts voiced by four querulous subjects is analyzed. Eight examples of self-immolation are presented. Results: The querulous subjects' self-aggressive behaviors seem to be caused by a loss of hope to obtain compensation for a prejudice they allegedly suffered. Querulous individuals tend to self-immolate in front of, or into, public buildings when no answer is given to their claims. These gestures may be both a consequence of some personal distress and triggered by a difficult social or professional context. Discussion: Five sets of assumptions derived from Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic theories are advanced. The status of the object over which the querulous claimants wish to assert their rights is clarified. The meaning of self-aggressive gestures is outlined by making reference to the concepts of instinct for mastery, symbolic other, chain of signifiers, masochism, pleasure principle, and reality principle. Conclusion: Prevention of self-immolation could involve that members of the legal professions, social workers, civil servants, and mental health professionals in contact with querulous subjects openly show their will to listen to these claimants' voice: self-aggressive gestures might be avoided by supporting the querulous person's hope to obtain compensation for the prejudice allegedly suffered.

From catalepsy to psychical research: The itinerary of Timothée Puel (1812-1890).

The physician and botanist Timothée Puel (1812-1890) lived through a pivotal period of psychology (1848-1878), between the academic prohibition of the study of animal magnetism to its disjointed recovery in hypnotism and psychical research. One of his cases of "catalepsy complicated with somnambulism" triggered a lively debate on "extraordinary neuroses" within the young Société médico-psychologique [Medico-psychological Society]. In 1874, Puel founded the Revue de psychologie expérimentale [Journal of Experimental Psychology], the first of its kind in French, which he intended as the vehicle of international interest in psychical research, the scholarly and institutionalized study of "psychism" that prepared the way for the recognition of academic psychology. Puel circulated between these different currents by taking advantage of the polysemy of concepts like "sleep," "experimental psychology," and "psychism." This article discusses his role in the context of emerging French psychology in the mid- to late 19th century. (PsycINFO Database Record

Characteristics of memories of delusion-like experiences within the psychosis continuum: Pilot studies providing new insight on the relationship between self and delusions.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Delusions are usually anchored in past events associated with abnormal experiences or delusional interpretations of personal events. The characteristics of the memory of these experiences may contribute to maintain delusional beliefs by providing confirmatory evidence for the delusions. However, these aspects have not been investigated properly. METHOD: Seventeen patients with schizophrenia were examined in study 1 during a face-to-face interview. The second study used a web-based design and included 83 participants without a psychotic disorder. Participants were asked to rate the vividness, emotional intensity and valence, and the centrality to the self of memories of delusion-like experiences (that were cued by means of the Peters et al. Delusional Inventory, PDI; Peters, Joseph, Day, & Garety, 2004) and positive and negative memories used as comparators. RESULTS: In both studies, the memories of delusion-like experiences were less vivid, less emotionally intense than positive (but not negative) memories and emotionally neutral. Their centrality to the self did not differ from that of positive and negative memories. Moreover, the severity of delusions in study 1 and delusion-proneness in study 2 were significantly correlated with vividness, emotional intensity, and centrality of memories of delusion-like experiences. LIMITATIONS: The accuracy of memories of delusion-like experiences could not be checked making it difficult to distinguish them from delusional memories. The sample size was small in study 1. CONCLUSIONS: Our results point to reciprocal relationships between delusions, self, and autobiographical memories of delusion-like experiences that are similar within the psychosis continuum and that may be involved in the maintenance of delusions.

Child Sexual Abuse, Baby Gender, and Intergenerational Psychic Transmission: An Exploratory, Projective Psychoanalytic Approach.

The aim of this article is to present a French psychoanalytic model of how and to what extent the sequellae of sexual abuse by a male during a girl's childhood are transmitted to the next generation, as a function of the gender of the abused mother's children. The authors conducted a qualitative exploratory study based on the longitudinal follow-up of a woman who had two boys and a girl. They focused on the impact of two general sequellae: separation anxiety and negativity-disqualification of the paternal and/or male figures. From the methodological standpoint, they used a clinical interview to assess the mother, and a projective tool, a storytelling test, to assess the child's personality using content analysis. The results confirm both the merits of the theoretical framework and the relevance of the projective methodology for grasping sequellae transmitted to the child. The sequellae turned out to be markedly different for the two baby genders: rejection for the male, overprotection and ghostly encryption for the female. Avenues for using this tool and model in future quantitative, comparative studies are suggested.

Spiritist delusions and spiritism in the nosography of French psychiatry (1850-1950).

At the turn of the twentieth century there was a wave of delusions which had a direct link to spiritism in their form and content. These so-called spiritist or mediumistic delusions were the object of detailed study, and clinicians assigned them a place in nosography, especially in France. This work of classification was carried out as a function of the convictions and paradoxes that these delusions aroused; it also made it possible to question the relationship between pathology and belief. It is therefore important to emphasize certain ideological views of psychiatry on para-normality. We observed both a reductionist discourse concerning these domains, and at the same time their utilization in the construction of psychiatric knowledge.