Return of the Soul: The Role of Spirituality in Mental Health

Helen Lavretsky, MD, MS;

Most of the US population—nearly 80%—endorse spiritual and/or religious beliefs. How can these beliefs be applied to psychiatry?

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COMMENTARY

“Who looks outside, dreams, who looks inside, awakes.” —Carl Jung

We are in the middle of multiple seemingly never-ending existential crises. We are struggling to find balance in any given moment that urges us to seek new resilience-building interventions. Old tricks no longer work. Psychotropic drugs have limited success in alleviating symptoms of mental health disorders, and they generally fail to help individuals feel happy or in control of their lives. Psychotherapy offers some help, but very few can afford it or even find qualified providers. Brain stimulation devices like electroconvulsive therapy or repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation also offer limited and short-lived success in improving long-term mental health outcomes. Clearly, something is missing from our approach to mental and emotional well-being. Although the interest in psychedelics turned minds toward mystical spiritual experiences, even the enthusiasts do not think that anybody can be on a perpetual mind-altering psychedelic intravenous drip to escape the reality of today.

Read the CME Article

Psychiatry and Spirituality: Exploring the Intersections of Meaning and Mental Health

Marieta Pehlivanova, PhD; Marina Weiler, PhD; J. Kim Penberthy, PhD, ABPP; and Philip J. Cozzolino, PhD

Here, we present an article that reminds us all of a long-forgotten good friend of every human: our soul. Could we argue that many problems we experience in modern times are due to this disorienting disconnection? Our patients confirm.

Most of the US population—nearly 80%—endorse spiritual and/or religious beliefs.¹ Our patients want their physicians and mental health providers to understand their spiritual beliefs in relationship to their health and well-being. A brief assessment of spirituality and a basic cultural competence should be a part of our routine clinical assessment, as it connects us to our patients on a deeper level. Clinicians in the past were concerned with their patients’ overall well-being, including spiritual domain. A healthy spiritual life was an essential pillar of the overall well-being construct—on par with mental, emotional, physical, environmental, and social aspects.

But along the way, we forgot that psyche from psychology translates from the Greek roots as the “study of the soul” and psychiatry translates as “healing of the soul.” As logic took over, medical providers shifted their attention to the brain, hormones, and the chemicals that play a role in mood regulation. Drugs, brain stimulation, and neuroscience took over. Spirituality and the soul were relegated to the periphery, mostly chaplaincy, or removed entirely. And we have suffered for it by being disconnected from our souls and the souls of our patients.

Meanwhile, individuals are desperate to attain some control over their stressful lives and reduce their reactivity to the increasingly unsafe and unstable world around us and to feel connected to a higher consciousness that helps them navigate the challenges of life. Instead of looking out for help, it is time to look within ourselves and empower our ability to heal through our connection with our soul. Even better, our souls can connect on that other etheric and heart level: heart to heart, soul to soul. This feels different, more meaningful, deep, personal, respectful, desirable, and peaceful.

In this issue of Psychiatric Times, we present part 1 of a CME article devoted to spirituality and mental health. The remarkable team of authors consists of consciousness researchers from diverse fields who have been hidden from the mainstream but continued their unorthodox work as a part of the Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS) in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences of the University of Virginia, which was founded in 1967 by Ian Stevenson, MD. This is a research group devoted to the rigorous scientific evaluation of empirical evidence for extraordinary human experiences and psychic capacities. The primary focus of DOPS is investigating the mind’s relationship to the body and the possibility of consciousness surviving physical death. In general, this process involves studying phenomena that challenge mainstream scientific paradigms regarding the nature of human consciousness. DOPS also studies the impact of these experiences on individuals, explores the implications for scientific theory, and disseminates this information broadly to both the public and scientific communities.² All that is needed is an open mind to accept the accounts of recovered memories from these individuals that healed their psychological and physical disorders by making them more awake and aware by turning unconscious into conscious. Part 1 introduces the concepts of spirituality in relationship to mental health. Part 2 will describe their unique research into experiences of past lives, near-death experiences, and other psychic phenomena.

Dr Lavretsky is a professor in residence in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a past president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, and a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. She is also on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.

References

1. 8 in 10 Americans say religion is losing influence in public life. Pew Research Center. March 15, 2024. Accessed June 16, 2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2024/03/15/8-in-10-americans-say-religion-is-losing-influence-in-public-life/

2. Division of Perceptual Studies. University of Virginia School of Medicine. Accessed June 16, 2025. https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/