Delusion and spiritual experience: a role for cultural values in mental health?

Mental health, like other areas of medicine, is set to benefit from dramatic advances in the biological and medical sciences – yet values (what matters or is important to those concerned) are key to the differentiation between pathological delusions and positive spiritual experiences. The discussion will explore, from both philosophical and medical perspectives, how values and science come together in mental health indicating, in particular, the role of cultural values in how delusions are experienced and hence how they impact on the lives of those concerned.