Spiritual abuse as a specific form of emotional abuse: A conceptual clarification to raise awareness of psychological violence in the catholic church

The article aims to present the phenomenon of spiritual abuse as a specific manifestation of emotional abuse. Abuse is understood as the harmful instrumentalization of individuals to satisfy personal needs or to fulfill the interests of groups or institutions. In cases of emotional abuse, no physical violence is employed, yet the impact on the victims' health and well-being is proven to be comparable to experiences of physical abuse. The distress caused is primarily explained by the significant impairment of the psychological basic needs for self-efficacy and social bonding. Spiritual abuse, in turn, is a form of emotional abuse in which faith, in the broadest sense, is used as a manipulative and abusive instrument of power. Thus, spiritual abuse shares overlaps with emotional abuse but also possesses distinctive characteristics. The fact that spiritual abuse is widespread in the catholic church and often precedes sexual abuse has only been processed and addressed in theological discourse for a few years. This article seeks to enhance understanding of the prevalence of psychological violence within the Catholic Church. Employing a literature review as its methodology, it adopts an interdisciplinary approach grounded in specialized texts from both theological and psychological disciplines.