Saúde mental e relações familiares: experiências de convívio com a mediunidade espírita

Abstract

The general objective of this qualitative research is to study the challenges in family relationships faced by spiritist mediums, especially those whose relatives do not share their beliefs. Through two case studies carried out with mediums experienced in the exercise of their faculties, inhabitants of the city of Salvador, Bahia, and volunteer workers of a traditional Spiritist Center in the city, we collected, through semi-structured interviews, information about family life with relatives who do not share the same faith. The study proposes to address everything from the domestic reception of the mediums' first spiritual experiences, to the conflicts, perceptions and possibilities of interpreting them through the spiritual, theological and mental health paths. In this research we seek to study mediumship looking both at the ways of managing the spiritual experience of the mediums themselves and at the meanings attributed by the family to such experience. For this, we use not only current research in the area of ​​Mental Health that seeks to better understand the phenomenon of mediumship / anomalous experiences, but also bibliographical references in the area of ​​Psychology and the Family to understand the role of the family core belief system. about the medium and its consequences. After the meetings held with the mediums, there was a broad parental perspective that involves not only those with whom they have descendant bonds, but also with invisible beings, the spirits, who, according to the interviewees, would have blood ties with them in past reincarnations, which also became an important aspect of the work. The lack of family embracement of the spiritual experiences lived brought conflict and mental suffering to the participants, which was solved only when they found meaning for the phenomena in Spiritism. Domestic ruptures were also observed, with the consequent separation of its members. In addition, attempts to seek an understanding of mediumship in the biomedical field, in psychopathology and in other religious approaches were abandoned.