Eckhard Frick

Spiritual Care aims at supporting the spiritual needs of patients. From a secular view, Spiritual Care can be interpreted with the help of central notions of Karl Jaspers, such as "boundary situation" and "existential elucidation". Jaspers' concept of the "boundary situation" refers to the fundamental boundaries of action and life, such as struggle, guilt, suffering and death. Human life always remains within these boundaries, but this is experienced in a special way in particular situations. According to Jaspers, such situations are experienced as boundary situations if this experience leads to "existential elucidation", namely to an attitude that comprehends and acknowledges life's fundamental boundaries. Boundary situations can occur in the context of the health-care sector. Patients, for example, who have to endure severe physical or emotional suffering or are confronted with their own death due to a terminal illness can experience their situation as a boundary situation in the sense of Jaspers. The contributions of this volume discuss the notion of boundary situation from philosophical, literary, and psychological perspectives and explore the question of how to support patients in boundary situations against this background.

Viele Menschen suchen nach Authentizität und Wahrhaftigkeit spiritueller Erfahrungen. Dabei werden Konfessions- und Religionsgrenzen überschritten, um der persönlich-existenziellen Innenseite von Religion auf die Spur zu kommen. Dieses Werk nimmt in einem interdisziplinären Austausch zwischen Spiritual Care und Philosophie diesen „Spiritual Turn“ wahr. Der Fokus liegt darauf, spirituelles Erleben aus philosophischen Perspektiven zu beschreiben und nach der Alltagspräsenz und -relevanz von Spiritualität zu fragen. Jedes Nachdenken über Spiritualität thematisiert die Zusammenhänge von Selbsterkenntnis und Selbsttranszendenz. Es geht somit bei der Spiritualität auch um Ethik, um die Anerkennung von Grenzen, um die Bereitschaft zur Grenzüberschreitung und um Spiritualität als Element der Leiberfahrung in Gesundheit und Krankheit. Sowohl von spiritueller als auch von philosophischer Seite öffnet sich ein therapeutischer Horizont – besonders dann, wenn die Sinnfrage in Lebenskrisen aufbricht. Daraus können Impulse für Spiritual Care in Wissenschaft, Praxis und in den jeweiligen Kontexten der Organisationen und Institutionen des Gesundheitswesens erwachsen.

Niklas Luhmann kritisiert die Definition des Menschen durch ein Bedürfnis, seinem Leben einen Sinn zu geben, ein Bedürfnis, das von Religion und Spiritualität erfüllt wird. Das Religionssystem bezieht sich auf die der Differenz zwischen immanent (markiert, beobachtbar, positiv) und transzendent (unmarkiert, unbeobachtbar, negativ) zu Grunde liegende Einheit. Das Unmarkierte („Schatten“ nach C.G. Jung) wird für gewöhnlich aus der aktiven Sinngebung ausgeschlossen, weil fälschlicherweise angenommen wird, dass Sinn immer Wohlbefinden hervorrufen sollte. Christlicher Glaube widersteht der Versuchung der aktiven Sinnerzeugung in der Auseinandersetzung mit der scheinbaren Absurdität von Leiden und Sterben. Niklas Luhmann criticises the definition of the human being by reference to a need to give one’s life meaning, a need responded to by religion and spirituality. The religious system refers to the unity of the difference between immanent (marked, observable, positive) and transcendent (unmarked, unobservable, negative). The unmarked (“shadow” according to C.G. Jung) is commonly excluded from active meaning-making, due to the bias that meaning should always provide well-being. Christian faith resists the temptation of meaning-making when facing the apparent absurdity of suffering and dying.

This systematic review synthesises the available evidence regarding the European understanding of workplace spirituality (definitions), the importance of spirituality and religion (evidence) as well as spiritual leadership (meaning and practice) in for-profitorganizations. The search for eligible studies was conducted in OPAC Plus, SCOPUS, Science Direct, JSTOR, EBSCO, and Google Scholar from 2007/01 to 2017/07. Three independent scholars extracted the data. Twenty studies were included (two mixed-methods, eight quantitative, ten qualitative) for the final quality assessment. A study quality assessment and thematic analysis was conducted. This review gives suggestions for study quality improvement and reporting. Thematically, two different approaches to religion and spirituality (R/S) were detected: a) work has a spiritual dimension and b) religious and spiritual orientation as “spiritual capital”. Studies demonstrated positive effect on job satisfaction, health, commitment, company productivity and sustainability; Christian leadership does not address personal religious orientation; the spiritual dimension may lead to a change of perspective; workplace spirituality may exploit people for profit-oriented business goals; non-white Muslims experience discrimination. This systematic review provides robust evidence and findings for evidence-informed policymaking and encourages a more rigorous research in this field of study.

Das Begriffspaar immanent vs. transzendent charakterisiert N. Luhmann zufolge das Religionssystem und unterscheidet es von anderen gesellschaftlichen Teilsystemen, z. B. von der Medizin (Binary gesund vs. krank). Die abrahamitischen Religionen Judentum, Christentum, Islam denken Gott transzendent, verschieden von der Immanenz. E. Levinas wählt den christlichen Begriff „Kenosis“, um die Demut Gottes zu denken und damit auch die Verborgenheit Gottes in Sprache, Alltagserfahrung und spiritueller Suche. Theophore Interjektionen sind sprachliche Spuren dieser Verborgenheit.

Jung trata do problema do mal enquanto médico-analista que utilize métodos empíricos. O seu ponto de partida consiste básicamente na tomada de consciência da sombra, ou seja, dessa parte essencialmente inconsciente da psique e recalcada pelo eu consciente. Ampliando o conceito de sombra até ao arquetípico e transpessoal, Jung propõe conceitos de índole transcendental. Ele atreve-se igualmente a criticar a imagem de Deus na tradição judaico-cristá. A sua linguagem metafísica reduz-se por vezes a certas formas de explicar o conceito do arquétipo do Si-mesmo, o que por vezes não sepode distinguirde uma tomada de posição filosófico-teológica. O exemplo do seu diólogo com o dominicano Victor White mostra a importância de distinguir categorias ejogos de linguagem na reconstrução filosófica do pensamento junguiano. /// Jung deals with the problem of evil as an analyst-physician who makes use of empirical methods. His starting point is basically the awareness of the shadow, that is, from the essentially unconscious part of the psyche and rejected by the conscious I. Extending the concept of shadow to the archetype, transpersonal, Jung proposes concepts of transcendental nature. He also dares to criticize the image of God in the Judaic-Christian tradition. His metaphysical language sometimes comes to some ways ofexplainig the concept of the Oneself archetype, and sometimes cannot be distinguished from the taking of a philosophical-theological position. The example of his dialogue with the Dominican Victor White points out the importance of distinguishing categories and language games in the philosophical reconstruction of the Jungian thought.

Arguing that the times of scientistic criticism of psychoanalysis are past and that psychoanalysis is now open to new intellectual and scientific horizons, the article aims at showing how the recent developments of neurobiology, cognitive psychology, as well as new theories of therapeutic change in psychoanalysis support a reformulation of the psychoanalytic unconscious. The author defends that the obvious terminological confusion between the neurobiological and cognitive non-conscious on the one hand and the dynamic unconscious, on the other, require clear definitions of differences and of commonalities. Furthermore, the author also develops the idea that the dimensions of awareness and of selfascription (avowal/disavowal) help to determine what is the core of the dynamic unconscious, even though the cognitive non-conscious and the psychoanalytic unconscious overlap to a great extent. The article shows, finally, how a new interdisciplinary consensus offers now a chance for us to recognize the shortcomings of a rationalistic philosophy of mind. /// Argumentando que os tempos de uma crítica da psicanálise a partir do cientismo já passaram e que a psicanálise está agora aberta a novos horizontes intelectuais e científicos, o artigo pretende mostrar até que ponto os desenvolvimentos mais recentes da neurobiologia, da psicologia cognitiva bem como das novas teorias da mudança terapêutica em psicanálise suportam uma reformulação do inconsciente psicanalítico. O autor defende que a óbvia confusão terminológica entre o não-consciente neurobiológico e cognitivo por um lado e o inconsciente dinâmico por outro requerem definições claras das diferenças e dos aspectos comuns. Além disso, o autor desenvolve também a ideia de que as dimensões de conhecimento e de auto-atribuição (reconhecimento/nãoreconhecimento) ajudam a determinar aquilo que constitui o cerne do inconsciente dinâmico, mesmo que o não-consciente cognitivo e o inconsciente psicanalítico se sobreponham em grande medida. O artigo mostra ainda, finalmente, até que ponto um novo consenso interdisciplinar nos oferece agora uma oportunidade para reconhecer as limitações do racionalismo emfilosofia da mente.

Sigmund Freuds 1927 erschienene "Zukunft einer Illusion" und die kurz darauf verfasste Erwiderung des reformierten Pfarrers und Psychoanalytikers Oskar Pfister ("Die Illusion einer Zukunft") eroffnen einen spannungsreichen Dialog zwischen dem Denken, der Praxis, den verschiedenen Schulen und Institutionen der Psychoanalyse einerseits und Theologie, Philosophie und Religionsgemeinschaften andererseits. Der aktuelle "Spiritual Turn" zeichnet sich durch die Hinwendung zu vielgestaltigen spirituellen Suchbewegungen des religiosen Subjekts aus, sowohl innerhalb religioser Institutionen als auch unabhangig von diesen. Dieser "Spiritual Turn" lost eine Demokratisierung der Spiritualitat, aber auch der klassischen psychoanalytischen Religionskritik und ihres Dialogs mit ihren Gesprachspartnern aus.