Abstract
Mental illness within evangelical Christian communities is frequently stigmatised, with many attributing it exclusively to demonic possession, lack of faith, personal sin, or other negative spiritual influences. This study explores perceptions of self-harm in the context of evangelical Christian faith communities using the novel qualitative story completion task. A convenience sample of 101 UK-based evangelical Christians completed a third-person fictional story stem featuring a devout female Christian who self-harms. A contextualist informed thematic analysis was carried out focusing on perceptions of cause, cure, and treatment. Most stories positioned spiritual causes of mental illness (that is, demonic possession or personal sin) as harmful to the individual by rendering individuals as stigmatised objects or as socially displaced. The stories also provided insight into negative perceptions of females experiencing mental illness within evangelical communities. The stories suggested that these views often led to stigma and shame, which ultimately exacerbated illness and led to reduced help-seeking. Conversely, stories depicting the integration of relational care alongside spiritual resources frequently led to recovery. That the stories represented the need for relational support, within a spiritually syntonic framework, for recovery from mental illness highlights the limitations of a dichotomised approach to pastoral care. Methodologically, the study demonstrates the usefulness of a seldom-used tool within the pastoral psychology context – the story completion task – for accessing sociocultural discourses and wider representations surrounding stigmatised topics or populations.
Highlights
The Western Judeo-Christian framing of mental illness as exclusively the result of sin, demonic infiltration, lack of prayer, or other negative spiritual influences works to situate mental suffering somewhat negatively as the fault of the individual or as a consequence of spiritual or demonic forces which can be remedied by spiritual means (Scrutton, 2020a; Webb, 2015)
This study suggests that a potential mechanism exists through which spiritual aetiologies of mental illness as caused by demons, personal sin, or lack of faith may lead to a perception of diminished or inauthentic Christian faith – the collision of a social understanding that Christian living should embody health, with negative social understandings of self-harm as solely indicative of spiritual ill health
Our study contributes to an understanding of perceptions of self-harm in evangelical communities in three principal ways
Summary
The Western Judeo-Christian framing of mental illness as exclusively the result of sin, demonic infiltration, lack of prayer, or other negative spiritual influences works to situate mental suffering somewhat negatively as the fault of the individual or as a consequence of spiritual or demonic forces which can be remedied by spiritual means (Scrutton, 2020a; Webb, 2015). While the role of Christianity and religion more broadly for supporting psychological wellbeing has been identified (Lloyd & Waller, 2020; Stanford, 2007), scholars have found a prevalence of stigmatised beliefs and negative perceptions about mental illness within a Christian setting (Hartog & Gow, 2005; Lloyd & Hutchinson, 2022; Lloyd, 2021a). The effects of such negative perceptions are direct and appear to influence greater avoidance, devaluation, and social distancing from individuals with mental illness.
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