Event featured British and American specialists who stressed the popularity of this area
Miguel Farias
Photo: Bruno Todeschini
The 11th International Seminar on Psychology & Sense of Religion: Religious, Spiritual and Anomalous Experiences – Challenges for Mental Health brought together specialists from several countries from Nov 21 – 23 at PUCRS. Coventry University (UK) Professor, Dr Miguel Farias, stressed the popularity of the area today, as he said that 17 years ago he had to leave Portugal because nobody wanted to advise him in graduate school. Farias anticipated the role of Brazilian psychologists all over the world in the re-emergence of the Psychology of Religion.
The opening ceremony was headed by Farias as he addressed the religion of scientists and the science of the religious. Professor Marta Helena de Freitas, from Universidade Católica de Brasília, presented a study involving 102 professionals from different hospitals from the Federal District, Palmas, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre. All of them admit to the existence of religion in these environments, be it represented by indigenous rituals, prayers or sacred objects. They also add that faith improves patients’ acceptance of the treatment and makes them feel comfortable, but also breaks the routines. 95% of respondents claimed that this issue was never discussed during their undergraduate training and remains largely unaddressed. “Some psychologists cried compulsively when they discussed the conflicts between their beliefs and their professionals protocols”, claims she.
René Hefti, from the Research Institute for Spirituality and Health RISH/SWI, talked about Integrating Spirituality/Religiosity into Mental Health Care and Psychotherapy. The event also featured psychiatrist and geneticist Robert Cloninger, Professor at the University of Washington in Saint Louis/USA, with a closing talk on the relationship between personality and religious / spiritual experiences, as well as meditation and self-transcendence.
