Spiritual Bypassing: A Brief Overview
Religious belief as a strategy for coping with painful life events has been shown to be both helpful and harmful. Positive religious coping has generally been found to support healthful outcomes, while the negative form has been linked to increased distress. The subject of this paper -- spiritual bypassing -- describes a form of negative religious coping in which religion or spirituality is used as a psychological defense mechanism to avoid facing painful situations, particularly how this mechanism might be used to cope with loss and grief.
The term “spiritual bypassing” was coined in the mid-1980s by John Welwood, a Buddhist teacher and psychotherapist who described it as a coping device through which people use spirituality as a defense mechanism (Welwood 2000, p. 12). Since then, the subject has been eagerly studied by a handful of competent researchers, but despite a growing interest in the intersection of religion and psychology, and the addition of a DSM category in 1994 called “spiritual or religious problem” (Lukoff et al, 2011, pp. 171–198), literature specifically on spiritual bypass has only recently begun to emerge (Piccoloto & Fox, 2018, p. 1).
Pargament, Smith, and Perez showed in 1998 that while many research subjects relied on a negative form of religious coping that included belief in divine punishment or demonic intervention as the source of their suffering, the majority found comfort in a benevolent God when facing stressful events, trauma or loss (p. 720). In general, positive religious coping was found to support healthful outcomes with fewer symptoms of depression or distress, while the negative form was linked to increased spiritual crisis, distress and difficulty (p. 721).
As a form of negative religious coping, Cashwell et al. described spiritual bypassing as a response that “occurs when a person attempts to heal psychological wounds at the spiritual level only, and avoids the important (albeit often difficult and painful) work at the other levels, including the cognitive, physical, emotional, and interpersonal” (2007). A decade later, in their study of the causes, consequences, and implications of spiritual bypassing, Picciotto et al. described it as “a defensive psychological posture cultivated by a tendency to privilege spiritual beliefs or experiences over and against psychological needs, creating a means of avoiding or bypassing difficult emotions or experiences” (2017. p. 333).
Some examples of spiritual bypassing:
Spiritual Bypassing Examples
To learn more about spiritual by passing, see these articles:
Effects of Spiritual Bypass on Depression, Anxiety, and Stress
Experts Perspectives on Spiritual Bypass
How religious and spiritual beliefs explain prolonged grief disorder symptoms
Inventory of Complicated Spiritual Grief 2.0
Measuring spiritual bypass
The Only Way Out Is Through - The Peril of Spiritual Bypass
And consult these references:
Appel, J. E., Park, C. L., Wortmann, J. H., & van Schie, H. T. (2019). Meaning Violations, Religious/Spiritual Struggles, and Meaning in Life in the Face of Stressful Life Events. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 30(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2019.1611127
Apple, R. (2020) The parents of Aberfan and the problem of suffering. ABC Religion & Ethics. https://www.abc.net.au/religion/the-parents-of-aberfan-and-the-problem-of-suffering/12678038
Burke, L. A., Crunk, A. E., Neimeyer, R. A., & Bai, H. (2021). Inventory of Complicated Spiritual Grief 2.0. Death Studies, 45(4), 249–265. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2019.1627031
Cashwell, C. (2023a) Presentation at the 2023 Conference on Death, Grief and Belief. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywdP_Y-fO2o
Cashwell, C. S., Bentley, D. P., and Yarborough, P. (2007). The only way out is through: The peril of spiritual bypass. Counseling and Values, 51, 139-148.
Christian K. M., Aoun S. M., Breen L. J. (2018) How religious and spiritual beliefs explain prolonged grief disorder symptoms. Death Studies 43(5): 316–323.
Daniel, T. (2019). Toxic Theology as a Contributing Factor in Complicated Mourning: Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling. https://doi.org/10.1177/1542305019858289
Davies, I. 2013. "God: Buried in the Rubble." Fieldwork in Religion 8, no. 2. 199-208.
Exline, J. J., Pargament, K. I., Grubbs, J. B., & Yali, A. M. (2014). The Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale: Development and initial validation. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 6(3), 208.
Faith Through Suffering: The Aberfan Disaster. (2016). https://prophecytoday.uk/comment/society-politics/item/526-faith-through-suffering-the-aberfan-disaster.html
Fox, J., Cashwell, C. S., & Picciotto, G. (2017). The opiate of the masses: Measuring spiritual bypass and its relationship to spirituality, religion, mindfulness, psychological distress, and personality. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 4, 274-287. doi:10.1037/scp0000141
Fox, J., & Picciotto, G. (2018). The Mediating Effects of Spiritual Bypass on Depression, Anxiety, and Stress. Counseling and Values, 64(2), 227-245. https://doi.org/10.1002/cvj.12116
Lee, S. & Neimeyer, R. (2023) Grief Impairment Scale: A biopsychosocial measure of grief-related functional impairment, Death Studies, 47:5, 519-530, DOI: 10.1080/07481187.2022.2113605
Lukoff, D., Lu, F. G., & Yang, C. P. (2011). DSM-IV religious and spiritual problems. In J. R. Peteet, F. G. Lu, & W. E Narrow (Eds.), Religious and spiritual issues in psychiatric diagnosis: A research agenda for DSM-V (pp. 171–198). American Psychiatric Association.
Pargament, K. I., Smith, B. W., Koenig, H. G., & Perez, and L. (1998). Patterns of Positive and Negative Religious Coping with Major Life Stressors. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 37(4), 710–724. https://doi.org/doi:10.2307/1388152
Pargament, K., Feuille, M., & Burdzy, D. (2011). The Brief RCOPE: Current Psychometric Status of a Short Measure of Religious Coping. Religions, 2(1), 51–76. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel2010051
Pargament, K. I., Koenig, H. G., & Perez, L. M. (2000). The Many Methods of Religious Coping: Development and Initial Validation of the RCOPE. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 25.
Picciotto, G., Fox, J., & Neto, F. (2017). A phenomenology of spiritual bypass: Causes, consequences, and implications. Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health, 20(4), 333–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/19349637.2017.1417756
Picciotto, G., & Fox, J. (2018). Exploring experts’ perspectives on spiritual bypass: A conventional content analysis. Pastoral Psychology, 67, 65-84.
Rousselet, M., Duretete, O., Hardouin, J. B., & Grall-Bronnec, M. (2017). Cult membership: What factors contribute to joining or leaving? Psychiatry Research, 257, 27-33.
Stone, M. (2013). Thou Shalt Not: Treating Religious Trauma and Spiritual Harm With Combined Therapy. Group, 37(4), 323–337. https://doi.org/10.13186/group.37.4.0323
Vieten, C., & Lukoff, D. (2022). Spiritual and religious competencies in psychology. The American Psychologist, 77(1), 26. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000821
Wells-Derbigny, T. (2023). Psychological after-effects of ex-cult members socially and academically limited while in school: A qualitative phenomenological study (Order No. 30525236). Retrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.grace.gtu.edu/dissertations-theses/psychological-after-effects-ex-cult-members/docview/2845359161/se-2
Welwood, J. (2002). Toward a psychology of awakening: Buddhism, psychotherapy, and the path of personal and spiritual transformation. Boston: Shambhala.