Abstract | While an extensive body of psychosocial research attests to the positiveeffects of the church community and faith on mental illness, this com-munity can also be a place of stigma, othering, and relational rejection.In the context of post-COVID Britain in particular, as society adapts tonew forms and norms of social connection, we may cling onto the needfor certainty during times of crisis and social upheaval. Yet, how and whenmight the quest for certainty lead to reductive or destructive conceptual-isations of ourselves and others? In this paper, I will draw upon socialand cognitive psychology to explicate some of the processes involved whenour very sense of identity is threatened and we are faced with uncertainty,particularly with reference to social and group identity, binary and reduc-tionistic thinking. I draw upon qualitative research undertaken duringCOVID-19 which explores the lived experiences of Christians with mentalillness, the aim being to demonstrate the potential dangers of dualisticthinking. I argue that Christian communities must move beyond reductiveanthropologies of mental illness (spiritual versus biopsychosocial) towardmodels of thinking which resist de-politicised, dichotomized, and individ-ualistic narratives; instead, these communities must promote holistic andreligiously syntonic anthropologies of the person. |
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