Suffering & Healing

Obejctives

• The meaning of suffering in its individualized sense

• The meaning of healing and its relationship with curing and suffering

• To understand how narratives can make a bridge between suffering and healing– returning us to health once more but perhaps as a ‘new’ body/self

Content

Personal Dimensions of suffering

  • The primary experience of suffering is alienation in 3 phases

  • You become alienated from yourself even hatred

  • Alienated from others (rips aside the social self, need to speak, unsure of reception)

  • Makes strangers out of those you know well

What is suffering?

  • suffering is a state of distress brought about by an actual or perceived threat to the integrity or continued existence of the whole person ie body/self which includes cultural and social dimensions

  • It occurs in relation to any aspect of the person, their social

    roles, group identification, the relation with the body and the

    self and the family, our own purpose in living, our relationship

    with a higher being.

  • It involves a sense of submitting to a set of circumstances (loss of

    autonomy/function)

  • An anguish (mental/physical pain from suffering) experienced as a pressure to change and a threat to our composure, integrity and the fulfilment of our intentions.

  • Suffering destroys the ability to communicate

Why Pain & Suffering are not the same?

  • when pain has a purpose (eg ballerina to dance with grace and beauty) then it

    is not suffering and thus requires no healing it is not something we avoid

  • It is only when pain serves no useful purpose and appears to be unending

    then we suffer, become demoralised, and seek relief.

  • examples of the complexity of su=ering - expressing suffering is part of a maturity of life – ie in the Tangihanga the period of crying can last for many days and helps to express the sorrow of the loss. It is encouraged as an important element of the healing from grief. The conclusion of the death rituals includes a feast which is shared by the community where elder folk can help younger folk to process these feelings and remember the relative with happiness as the whole group returns its attention once more to the world of the living.

  • For Christians, to suffer is in some ways to reflect on the suffering of Jesus

    on the Cross and so this helps us to make sense of the experience and

    recognize that temporary distress may serve a higher purpose.

  • These deeper meanings mark the pathway from su=ering towards healing

    because within the deepest experiences of su=ering there is also hope -

    the task of healing is to find this pathway outwards

Healing of Suffering

  • If we can find some way to regain our voice this is the basis of the mastery of suffering. In regaining a voice this is where the role of narrative can appear.

  • The regaining of voice has 3 phases (for Younger)

    • mute suffering (won’t make sense as screaming/crying is a sign of emotional distress)

    • Expressive suffering/the narrative (seen/justify experience)

    • Finding an authentc voice (find yourself/new voice)

  • Narratives help with healing – the ‘chaos narrative’ is often associated with

    suffering, quest and witness narratives help us move forward, restitution

    helps with curing

  • “Healing relates to notions of transformation, restoration, resolution, being made whole”

Healing in a faith based setting

  • Health = not so much a physical attribute but rather a quality linked to the person’s spiritual resources and personal attitudes ie outgoingness, inner vision, tenderness, willingness to listen to people, patience, courage, tenacity, often called “the fruits of the spirit”

  • Outward sign of health – be able to face each trial, drawing on God for support, to be whole in body spirit soul and mind

  • Being healthy can mean having a good relationship with God

  • Pure health was holiness with Jesus as its perfect manifestation, and death was the ultimate healing

Differences between healing & curing for health?

  • Given the high standard of pure health, Church members saw health as a process of growth and mending which brought one closer to God, and took repeated opportunities for healing

  • If one did not receive the healing one prayed for but a friend or kin did; if praying for a condition to be averted and the medical tests revealed no condition existed; for the tiniest increases in movement or diminution of pain; if the supplicant received no external healing at all but died

  • Healing in biomedicine sometimes refers to resolving emotional difficulties – as patients recover from traumas, or via referrals to lay support groups for raising self esteem

  • Biomedical healing can occur in a very muted spiritual sense – registrars singing hymns at 2 am; closing surgery with an internal prayer

  • Healing of Communities – through community outreach in enlightened public health programmes

    • eg Healthy Maraes Movement

      • transforms marae into hubs for health and wellbeing, focusing on "by Māori, for Māori" solutions. By integrating tikanga (customs) and mātauranga Māori (ancestral knowledge), these initiatives address chronic diseases, improve nutrition, increase physical activity, and foster cultural connection

  • Curing and healing may intertwine; but healing goes beyond; curing ≠ healing

    • healing surpasses curing

  • Physician/healers use placebo effects to instil hope and improve psychological healing

  • Anthropologists observe the placebo effect in all health care systems and argue it is a powerful symbolic component of all healing rituals

How Healing might work?

  • through language, ritual and the manipulation of powerful cultural symbols

  • healing has 3 stages

    • labeling the sickness with a culturally appropriate category,

    • the label is ritually manipulated to culturally transform it

    • this creates a new potent cultural symbol of ‘well’ that is applied independently of behavioral or social change

  • psychotherapy works by helping us to create stories or myths, these stories make our demoralisation less painful, healing emerges from the depth of the meanings we create for our suffering through these culturally specific stories we learn to tell

  • Healing can be described as making sound or whole, journeying both forwards and backwards, hard work and transformation, connection, finding meaning, transcending suffering, blooming and contentment, exploration, gaining wisdom

  • Using healing could assist in de-stigmatizing psychiatric care, ensuring patients rights are met, removing the burden that there is something wrong with you when you seek treatment that you must overcome.

Conclusion

  • Narratives, healing rituals and symbols help build a bridge from our current suffering into a future place of healing by giving us a reason for our suffering which is culturally congruent (in agreement) with our own beliefs and values.

    • Restitution

  • Suffering is more than the experience of physical pain

  • What suffering tears apart, healing can restore and make whole (not in specific time but through a process)

  • Story telling is key to the processes or journey of healing

  • Curing is the removal of disease