* It’s okay to go bald and throw-up in context of chemotherapy
* It’s okay to scream and writhe in context of exorcism

I find this point highly interesting. In the context of hospitalization for mental illness, it seems to me that patients are indeed held accountable for their actions in the hospital — in particular, there is little to no time allowed for real “healing” (honestly, how much crisis therapy is involved in a psychiatric hospitalization aside from figuring out which DSM label to apply) and drugs are used to shut down any behavior deemed sufficiently deviant.

In other words, it’s okay to scream and writhe in the context of exorcism, but in the context of a psychiatric hospitalization, for some reason it is disallowed that one exhibit the exact same behavior, regardless of the depth of psychic distress one is experiencing.

Certainly such behaviors can be disruptive other patients and even to staff, but to me this simply means that a locale “designated” by society as a place of healing in reality simply is not such a place. Instead it seems to be a place to get a quick-fix (to quickly shut down distressing thoughts with no investigation as to why they arose in the first place), and to be on one’s way.

Very glad to see a Pagan therapist blogging!