Cultural Values, Religion and Psychosis: Five Short Stories

Abstract

The impact of cultural values and religion on the experience, expression and perception of psychosis and serious mental illness is examined through five case narratives that involve patients of diverse illness experience and personal, cultural, religious and spiritual backgrounds. A recurrent theme among these five case narratives is that in all these respects, there is a complex interplay of values between Anglo-European religion, Māori spirituality and secular psychiatry. Within this clinical context, the health and well-being of patients living with psychosis and serious mental illness are more than the control of symptoms and behaviour and instead involves a perspective of meaning and significance which impacts on how patients recover their identity, roles, capacity and relationships.