Understanding the Encounter between Christianity, Psychotherapy and Spirituality in Scotland (1945-2000) in Theory and Practice

This project aims to understand the ways in which psychotherapy, Christianity and a new language of 'spirituality' intertwined in the period after 1945, focusing primarily on Scotland, but also drawing out connections to developments elsewhere in the UK. Why did the Christian religion and the talking cure, 'the church and the couch', find common ground in a post-war era of secularisation? The answer will contribute to scholarly debates in theology, religious studies, and the history and theory of psychotherapy. The project's results will also inform a professional audience of psychotherapists, counsellors, clergy, and pastoral workers. Furthermore, by engaging in a dialogue with this audience, the project's results will have an additional wider relevance to policy. Psychotherapy is facing a contested process of state regulation in which a medical model of therapy has so far been central. By recovering other ways of understanding psychotherapy - such as the interpersonal pastoral relation - the project will inform this ongoing debate.
The project asks three questions. First, how did psychotherapy in post-war Scotland borrow and adapt Christian ideas and practices? A number of figures and organisations will be investigated: the radical psychiatrist R.D. Laing's involvement with the Iona community; the network of psychotherapists associated with the philosopher John Macmurray in Edinburgh; and the activities of the psychoanalysts W.R.D. Fairbairn and John D. Sutherland. This is followed by a second complementary question: how did Christianity in post-war Scotland adopt and translate psychotherapeutic ideas and practices? As well as investigating the ideas of theologians such as Ronald Gregor Smith, this part of the project will examine the ways in which the Scottish churches promoted counselling and pastoral care through organisations such as the Scottish Pastoral Association. The project then proceeds to a third, limited and exploratory question: how was this Scottish fusion of Christianity and psychotherapy exported to England? This will focus on the psychotherapist Harry Guntrip, the 'clinical theologian' Brian Lake, and the Clinical Theology Association (the organisation which Lake founded).
Two main sources of evidence are investigated: documents and oral-history testimony. The documentary analysis will examine published and unpublished material, including discursive works, personal documents, and institutional records. It will be guided by the interpretive position that even our recent culture is in need of careful expert reconstruction and will explore the underlying rhetoric and metaphors that quietly moulded ideas about religion and psychotherapy. The oral-history testimony will be collected from around fifteen figures who have been selected because of their expertise, commitment and leading institutional roles during this time. Their testimony will be used primarily to understand the personal networks of the time, how the ideas of this period were lived and experienced, and how these led to a certain understanding of the value of the 'examined life'.
The project will produce several academic articles, as well as presentations at scholarly conferences, while pursuing other strategies in order to disseminate results more widely. A professional audience of psychotherapists, counsellors, clergy and pastoral workers will be addressed through two conferences hosted at the University of Edinburgh. The project team will also reach their professional audience through events organised with bodies such as The Sutherland Trust, COSCA (Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland), the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, and Scottish Churches House, as well as through training of ordinands, a web-site, a project summary, a plain-language report, and articles in practitioner newsletters or journals. Wider impact will be attempted through the website, popular articles and production of a radio programme.

Who will benefit?
The research focus on Christianity, psychotherapy, counselling and spirituality has an obvious relevance to several stakeholder groups. These include pastoral workers, clergy, professional counsellors, psychotherapists and healthcare chaplains whose work is increasingly articulated by the discourse of spirituality as opposed to the more specific categories of institutional religion.

How will they benefit?
The genealogical study at the heart of the project will provide a clearer historical account of those recent developments which have profoundly shaped the self-understanding and practices of these professional groups. Although the historical focus lies within Scottish academic and professional life, it is believed that the relevance of this for developments elsewhere in the UK and overseas can be demonstrated. This will enable a stronger self-awareness of current theories and practice in the aforementioned professional groups, especially where these cohere or conflict with the more holistic, religiously-open, humanistic and inter-personal accounts that were developed in the crucial mid-20th century period. It is anticipated that the project will stimulate further self-reflection amongst a range of practitioners, particularly in the way they understand their relationship to other professions and discourses.

What will ensure the benefits?
The research team aims to disseminate its findings through several media, contacts, conferences and networks. These include conferences for professional groups which will be organised in conjunction with church-based groups, counselling organisations and psychotherapeutic bodies. Several of these agencies will be directly involved in the research through the interviewing of key office-bearers thus facilitating contact.

The School of Divinity in Edinburgh has a longstanding collaborative relationship with the Scottish churches. In particular, the Council of Ministries of the Church of Scotland is willing to participate with the University in KT activity with its academic providers. This will ensure ready access to clergy and healthcare chaplains. It is anticipated that the Board of Social Responsibility in the Church of England would have a similar interest in the potential significance of the project its clergy and pastoral workers.

The project will also enrich the academic content of several undergraduate and postgraduate courses delivered to ordinands and clergy. These include modules on religious history, Scottish theology, ministry, missiology and patterns of spirituality in contemporary society.

Other outlets that will be developed include the provision of a website providing free electronic access to the work of the project, the offering of articles to the popular religious press, and a documentary programme offered to the Religious Broadcasting Department of BBC Radio Scotland.