Psychologies of Distress
This workshop was part of a set of five on Cultural Wisdoms around Death and Beyond. Members of staff from NELFT Chaplaincy offered case studies during each session to discuss from their work. The topic of that day was Suicide Ideation, Triggers and Support. During that workshop we explored plural explanations of distress: isolation, poor relationships; actual trauma and trauma triggers; consuming substances; spontaneous with no apparent cause, and normal human function; past life memories which reminded us of spiritual traumas; diseases of the brain.
Certain themes from that event presented examples of human inhumanity towards humans. We explored the question of whether human distress came feeling ‘being wrong’ or wronged . Examples were given of different kinds of causes including: ‘Wrong’ ethnicity, body, skin, sexuality; Stolen generations and the resulting deep despair. I gave case studies from my fieldwork in India of potential psychic imprint caused of a death witnessed. We also explored shame and honour killings, and the work of the UK Forced Marriage Unit. Topics included the role of reincarnation and plural interpretations of mental health and wellbeing. The explanatory models for mental distress are like liquorice Allsorts, we choose whichever models fits with our current beliefs..!
