Kundalini Syndrome - DSM-IV: Related Categories

DSM-IV: Related Categories

While kundalini problems are not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, through the efforts of David Lukoff, Francis G. Lu and Robert P. Turner, a new diagnostic category called "Religious or Spiritual Problem" was included in the fourth edition, DSM-IV published in 1994. This category was proposed to offset the tendency of mental health professionals to ignore or pathologize religious and spiritual issues brought into treatment. While acknowledging the consensus within transpersonal psychology that kundalini awakening is a form of spiritual emergence, or emergency, and should not be diagnosed or treated as a mental disorder, some psychologists note it could precipitate forms of mental disorders or exacerbate preexisting conditions.

DSM-IV does include in its "Glossary of culture-bound syndromes" the diagnostic category "Qi-gong Psychotic Reaction", described as "an acute, time-limited episode characterized by disassociative, paranoid or other psychotic or non-psychotic symptoms Especially vulnerable are individuals who become overly involved in the practice." As such, some practitioners believe it to be a case of kundalini energy in disarray. Over-zealous practitioners of Kundalini, Qigong or Buddhist meditation, without proper guidance or restraint, were observed to lose touch with reality.

Sovatsky has commented upon the apparent similarities between kundalini syndrome, or "pranotthana manifestation" as he prefers to call it, and Qi-gong Psychotic Reaction. He acknowledges the qi-gong psychotic reaction as an experience of nonordinary consciousness not unlike what Americans involved in qi-gong, meditation or yoga have experienced. He cautions those who would pathologize this kind of emergency: "That some problems arise as a result of the most auspicious of spiritual experiences, long documented in diverse religions, must, in such cases, also be considered."