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Inner Night and Inner Light: A Quaker Model of Pastoral Care for the Mentally Ill

Journal of Religion and Health volume 49, pages 547–559 (2010)Cite this article

Walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone; whereby in them ye may be a blessing, and make the witness of God in them to bless you.- George Fox (Fox 1831, p. 289)

Abstract

The same theological principles that motivated Quakers in institutional reform work continue to influence uniquely Quaker approaches to pastoral care for the mentally ill today. This unity of psychological and spiritual care, inspired by George Fox, was first apparent in the work of the Religious Society of Friends asylum reforms in the nineteenth century. These principles matured during the early twentieth century as they entered into dialogue with Jung and Jungian psychology and continue to inspire Quaker pastoral care models today. This paper will examine how theological concepts affect the way Friends approach mental health care, historically and in contemporary times.

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Notes

  1. Cherry's book A Quiet Haven: Quakers, Moral Treatment, and Asylum Reform (London and Toronto: Associated Presses, 1989) offers a brief intellectual history of the eighteenth century, highlighting those factors that contributed to the shift in the care of the mentally ill. Similarly, while Tuke’s reforms were revolutionary, it is important to recognize that similar ideas of institutional reform were beginning to arise (at least experimentally) in at least one other place. Philippe Pinel, in Paris, France, also made attempts to limit the use of restraints and pharmaceuticals when treating insane women at Hôpital de la Salpetrière (Cherry 1989, 84–86).

  2. Both the York Retreat and other mental hospitals opened under the guidance of Friends in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries began as wholly Quaker institutions. As Digby postulates in Madness, Morality, and Medicine, this was likely largely due to the fact that Quakers retained “peculiar forms of archaic dress and language” and believed that keeping the environment of mentally disturbed Friends wholly within religious norms was beneficial to their recovery (88–89). This is consistent with the ‘quietist’ movement within Friend communities at the time, as discussed later in this paper.

  3. The principle of “that of God within everyone” certainly influenced the initial re-humanizing view Jepson and Tuke took toward their patients. The Quaker value of non-violence also influenced the development of Tuke’s moral treatment. Moral treatment itself, however, did not include any overt religious education or practice.

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    Janelle Stanley

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  1. Janelle Stanley
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Correspondence to Janelle Stanley.

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Stanley, J. Inner Night and Inner Light: A Quaker Model of Pastoral Care for the Mentally Ill. J Relig Health 49, 547–559 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-009-9312-4

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Keywords

  • Religious Society of Friends
  • Quaker
  • Tuke
  • Jung
  • Psychology
  • Pastoral care
  • Mentally ill