A Critical Psychology of Spirituality

Spirituality, often defined as separate from organised religions, is popular in Western culture; bookshops display sections on mind, body, spirit or popular spirituality, and seminars, workshops and exhibitions take place throughout the Western world. In critiquing scientific and individualist approaches in psychology, this thesis attends to socio-cultural and historical context as it maps out how these forms of spirituality are constructed in psychology, mind- body-spirit, and commonsense understanding. The author draws selectively from Sociology, Cultural Studies and Religion to develop a critique of psychology in its tendency to exclude, demean or individualize spirituality. Moreover, discourse analysis is used to examine the use of discourse and rhetoric in constructing spirituality. A further concern is the implications these constructions of spirituality have for a change-orientated politics. This thesis should be useful to students and researchers of spirituality, but also, for anyone interested in developing understanding of social constructionism, discourse analysis and critical psychology.