Anglican Taonga

A ‘personal breakdown’ has been defined historically in numerous ways: pyschological, medical, a condition affecting ‘the nerves’, or as a religious experience in terms of ‘the dark night of the soul’. This article by Iain Gow, Senior Chaplain at Kristin School, starts with a reflection on the meaning of health and how this has developed in recent years. He then discusses whether a theological account of health can offer some understanding of a breakdown. Finally, he asks: can a breakdown sometimes be seen as a ‘summum bonum’ (greater good) for the individual, allowing self-understanding and well-being to develop?

Nietzsche once summed up a discussion of health: “All attempts to define anything have been miserable failures.”1 So a purely medical approach was proposed, suggesting that health should be defined purely as a biological state, not in terms of happiness or even salvation. The inverse of this is disease, which is “a deviation from a biological norm … which doctors should be able to see, touch, measure, smell.”2

In 1948 the World Health Organization argued that this definition was not adequate and tried to move the discussion to a more holistic plane. It stated: “Health (is) not merely the absence of disease and infirmity. It (is) a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.”3 This was welcomed as a helpful addition to the debate, but for many it still did not go far enough because there was no recognition of spirituality.

So what might spirituality add to an understanding of health?

A theological account, which accepts that spirituality is vital, recommends a degree of caution. As Jurgen Moltmann, the 20th century theologian, wrote: “The understanding of health in any given society will reflect that society's values ... and those ideas of health are not necessarily healthy because, from a theological point of view, they are not God's.”4

It may be unusual to bring God into a discussion of health, but Moltmann's quote (written with reference to Nazism) may still be apt for the 21st century as it questions the increasingly popular perception that health is related to productivity or to the image of the model on the catwalk, or to sporting prowess.

A theological account says such perceptions give rise to a warped image of health that is seductive yet superficial. Such an image of health is also at odds with the Old Testament concept of Shalom, or the New Testament understanding (John 10:10) which talks of finding life in fullness. It weighs the good of health against other goods.

I suggest, then, that a personal breakdown does not have to be seen in purely negative terms. Instead, it challenges our perception of good health by helping us to recognize that there may actually be no real health in us as defined by 21st century culture.

Could then a personal breakdown be a breakthrough to new understanding of health? I’m reminded of the story of the noble who saw Michaelangelo chipping away at a huge, shapeless piece of rock and who asked, “What are you doing?” To which the sculptor replied: “I am releasing the angel imprisoned inside.”5

John Breck, a writer in the Orthodox tradition, reminds us that 'sanctification' (which shares the root word for wholeness) is as much a part of life's purpose as the popular understanding of health. It is equally as important 'a good'.

Karl Barth, a theologian from a more Protestant stance, concurs with Breck that our moments of ill-health may therefore be keys to greater health than originally was known. He understands disease or sickness in negative terms, “a sign of the power of chaos threatening creation”6. Yet, like C.S. Lewis, he can also see moments of crisis as “God's megaphone to a deaf world.”7 He asks: “What then if sickness ... the impairing of strength and powers is the hard actuality which ushers in this genuinely liberating insight? What if concealed under this form is the witness of God's creative goodness?”8

Could a theological account then offer narrative, metaphor and meaning to facilitate an understanding of one's plight, in the same way that it enabled Jesus to see his own brokenness on the cross? Jesus drew on Scripture to understand disintegration, loss of hope and despair; St John of the Cross, Martin Luther, Francis Schaeffer and A.W. Tozer did the same. In their own Golgotha moments they seized on the hope of Resurrection that lies through the Cross.

A theological account that uses the symbols of Good Friday and Easter Day can help us to recognise that all experience the suffering and confusion of Good Friday, and sometimes the joy of Easter Day.

We may need to go through prolonged suffering before we find any hint of Easter Sunday, but we can still hold fast to the knowledge that the God who brought healing out of brokenness on the cross for Jesus is the same God who stands with us today. There’s a theological tension here but it can allow deeper understanding if used wisely.

What a theological account must not do, however, is use theology as an excuse to browbeat someone who is already distressed. Theology must acknowledge that the pain of a breakdown is very real and that it completely distorts our sense of direction, our awareness of a ‘true North.’

As co-founder of the St Martin’s Centre for Health and Healing in Birmingham, England and also as someone who has experienced a breakdown, I have come to several important conclusions.

First, a theological perspective on breakdown can be vital to the process of healing. It can question whether perceived health in oneself is real health. Second, it can use biblical narrative, metaphor and meaning to facilitate understanding. Third, it demands 'a whole-person-centred integrated healthcare response' because God sees the human being as a matrix of complex and interwoven spiritual, emotional, physical and social needs.

Medication, therapy, friends and family are all important for restoration of health. Equally important is the realisation that God may be calling the new person to a new future through the experience of breakdown.

As David Adams suggests, “The edges of one's experience, where brokenness, failure and disappointment are experienced, may be healing pathways on the way to greater wholeness.”9 It may take time; there may be periods of invisibility, silence and darkness, but as St John of the Cross once said, the light is not the opposite of the darkness – the light is what you come to when you have gone through the darkness and met God and yourself.10
For thou art with me, I thank thee Sire,
What thou hast done and doest, thou knowest well;
And I will help thee; gently in thy fire
I will lie burning on the potter's wheel
I will whirl patient, though my brain should reel;
Thy Grace shall be enough my grief to quell,
And growing strength perfect through weakness dire.12
Definition:

For the purposes of this paper, I define 'a breakdown' as :
a collapse in well-being which is often sudden, even though the process towards it is not. The person no longer feels in control and their capacity to function normally in social situations is diminished. Their image and self worth are negative which has repercussions for both the individual and society, and this may last for several months or become chronic and last years.
Endnotes
1 Kenneth Boyd, Disease, Illness, Sickness, Health, Healing and Wholeness: Exploring Elusive Concepts, in Neil Messer (ed), Christian Theology and Bioethics (University of Wales, Lampeter), Extract 7, p.14.
2 Daniel Callahan in Lammers and Alan Verhey (eds), On Moral Medicine – Theological Perspectives in Medical Ethics (2nd Edn, Grand Rapids Michigan: William Erdmanns, 1988), Extract 36, p.253.
3 Stephen Lammers and Allen Verhey (eds), On Moral Medicine, Extract 36, p.253.
4 Jurgen Moltmann, in Messer (ed), Theological Issues in Bioethics (London,: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2002), p.104.
5 Origin unknown
6 Karl Barth, in Messer (ed) Theological Issues, p.104.
7 C.S Lewis, The Problem of Pain (San Francisco: Harper, 2001), p.
8 Karl Barth, in Messer (ed), Theological Issues, p.114.
9 David Adams, Walking the Edges – Living in the Presence of God (London SPCK, 2003), p.1.
10 St John of the Cross, Unknown.
11 Hymn by Faber, “My Freedom is they Grand Control”.