Abdu’l-Missagh Ghadirian, a professor of medicine at McGill University in Montreal and a Bahá’í, was among the mental health experts who looked at how humanity’s “quest for meaning” implicates families, faith communities, and health care systems.
That was the theme of the 3rd International Conference on Spirituality and Mental Health that took place at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Ontario, from 3 to 4 May 2007.
Sponsored by Saint Paul, the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Ottawa, and the Ontario Multifaith Council on Spiritual and Religious Care, the conference brought together over 30 mental health researchers, practitioners, and students to consider how the concept of spirituality bears on the relationship between mental health patients and providers.
In his talk, Ghadirian looked at the question of joy and suffering, and specifically how spirituality can bring meaning to a person’s suffering and point the believer towards an enduring experience of joy and gratification.
“For happiness to be lasting,” Ghadirian said in his talk, “it needs to be part of a greater framework of joy and eternity—that is, a spiritual realm of existence.”
“But suffering,” he noted, “regardless of the cause, can have an ennobling effect on our character and may make us reflect on the deeper meaning of our existence.”
The Bahá’í Faith makes an explicit connection between joy and suffering, and particularly, the deeper, spiritual joy that can come from suffering hardships with detachment from material desires.
“The mind and spirit of man advance when he is tried by suffering,” said ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, one of the central figures of the Faith. “The more the ground is ploughed the better the seed will grow, the better the harvest will be. Just as the plough furrows the earth deeply, purifying it of weeds and thistles, so suffering and tribulation free man from the petty affairs of this worldly life until he arrives at a state of complete detachment.”1
Spirituality has been gaining recognition in the field of mental health in recent years, with more and more patients turning to it as a source of healing and comfort. The conference in Ottawa spawned an organization to explore the link. Named the Association for Spirituality and Mental Health, it is perhaps the first of its kind in North America.
Ghadirian is emeritus physician at the McGill University Health Centre and has authored over 130 publications, including the books In Search of Nirvana: A New Perspective on Alcohol and Drug Dependency, Ageing: Challenges and Opportunities, and Environment and Psychopathology.
For more information about the conference, and to view a list of speakers, please visit the conference website.