Relations among typical contemporary anomalous experiences, mental disorders and spiritual experiences

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The anomalous experiences are often an explanatory challenge for psychiatry and psychology about how and why they occur, in addition to signaling gaps in knowledge about human psychological functioning, as hallucinations in non-clinical populations. OBJECTIVE: It aims to investigate possible psychopathological dimensions of Brazilian samples of persons who claim distinctively contemporary anomalous experiences. METHODS: It was used the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, detailed version (MINI PLUS) and the nine diagnostic criteria for the distinction between spiritual experiences and mental disorders with religious content developed by Menezes Junior and Moreira-Almeida. RESULTS: There was evidence that the experiences are typically healthy, although there are indicators of pre-morbid characteristics in the childhood and adolescence of the protagonists of the more complex experiments. There is profitable intersections with healthy squizotype profile, which is still poorly understood. DISCUSSION: The absence of formal mental disorders does not exhaust the possible relations between contemporary anomalous experiences and the mental health field, but reveals complexities that characterize the everyday culture.