The Institute for the Study of Spirituality and Trauma
Copyright 1999.  All rights reserved.
Definition of Spirituality employed
in the research of the Institute
Towards a Comprehensive
Conceptualization of Spirituality


In research, it is best to define spirituality, at least initially, without regard of sectarian dynamics.  One of the best non-sectarian definitions of spirituality is as follows:

"Spirituality is conceptualized as the Gestalt of the total process of human life and development, the central dynamic of which is the person's search for a sense of meaning and purpose through relationships with other people, the nonhuman environment, and the ultimate reality."

   
Source:
          Canda, E. R. (1980, Win.).  Conceptualizing Spirituality for Social Work:  Insights
          From Diverse Perspectives. 
Social Thought, 14, p. 30.

It should be clearly understood by researcher and clinician alike that a non-sectarian understanding of spirituality is only applicable to the research domain.  In the world of the researchers' attempt to understand the dynamics of spirituality and spiritual expression, spirituality can be seen as non-sectarian.  However, in the real world of human experience, spirituality
never is exhibited in a non-sectarian manner.  Any given individual regardless of cultural factors exhibits his or her spirituality in sectarian ways.  Hence, in the real world of human dynamics, spirituality is always sectarian.  Only in the scientific illusions of the researcher is it non-sectarian.

Spirituality is tied to the person's view of the world -- his or her perception, belief, understanding, and wish concerning how things happen and interrelate.  What is important to understand in traumatic experiences is that within a fraction of a second during the initial experience of neuro-hyperarousal in response to perceived threat, this world view becomes fractured and collapses.  The on-going work of the traumatized person in integration is a reorganization and reconstruction of a world view that incorporates the traumatic experience as lived history, rather than revisionist history, and that reestablishes what is necessary for the individual to move from victim to survivor.
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Copyright 1999, 2002 Dr. Robert D. Parlotz
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