This paper provides a closely observed account of Sonia – a young white, working-class woman – and her pathway through from early object loss, neglect, abandonment and trauma, into serious crime and violence. Focusing on specific guilt-inducing experiences and persistent chronic social deprivation, it traces the connective tissue between those experiences and her religious conversion and subsequent desistance from crime as an adult. After setting out a detailed pen portrait compiled via in depth Free Association Narrative Interviewing, it presents a psychosocial analysis of the case, deploying ideas from classic object relations thinkers (Winnicott, Klein and Bollas) to show how her religious belief may have functioned as a containing and transitional object, decontaminating her feelings of guilt. The paper concludes that for Sonia, and possibly others like her, religious conversion, can provide the symbolic means to expel and displace unwanted objects and offer a recourse to omnipotent help and protection, thereby facilitating a reparative shift in identity.

The polycrisis of our times includes the pervasive seductions of religious fundamentalism, or more ideological manifestations of fundamentalism, like fascism. Fundamentalism, religious or ideological involves a psychosocial, deeply emotional adoption of rigid, defended ways of seeing and aversion to alternatives. Fundamentalism, including radicalization and forms of violence are phenomena requiring serious in-depth study. What for instance distinguishes radicalization from other kinds of more positive transformative experience, including religious and educational? One distinguishing feature is a kind of psychological closure to experience, and otherness, in contrast to an openness to, and learning from experience. An openness of heart, spirit as well as mind, including to the other and otherness. I draw on auto/biographical narrative research in distressed urban communities in the United Kingdom to illustrate these distinctions. The research illuminates the experiences, for instance, young working-class British South Asian men attracted to Islamic fundamentalism. Their narratives can be read by reference to race, religion and the perceived wars against Islam by ‘the armies of Rome’. But they also suggest class, economic, cultural and deeply personal precarity too. As in a case study of someone I called Raafe (a pseudonym) encompassing troubled family history, violence, imprisonment and drug abuse. He embraced a violent form of Islam – partly because of disdain towards established structures of authority in local mosques. His relationship with his father had earlier fractured partly as the opportunity structures of traditional male working-class life shattered and the formerly ritualised father/son transitional spaces of industrial life disappeared. Raafe travelled to Syria, fought in religious wars, returned and was feted among disaffected young working-class Muslims. Here lies a form of recognition in Axel Honneth’ s language but accompanied by experiential denial and psychosocial defensiveness in the mantra of there is only one truth….

Twelve Steps programs are often depicted as foregrounding faith or spirituality as a central tenet of their approach, particularly through its core texts like the 'Big Book,' which highlights the acceptance of a 'higher power' as a foundational step. However, the actual role of spirituality in the program is debated. Some authors interpret it as a secular or existential form of spirituality, attributing its success to its focus on self-forgiveness, self-compassion, and personal responsibility. Others emphasise the program's ability to foster community and shared purpose, advocating for a relativistic approach to belief that de-emphasises the notion of a 'Higher Power' in favour of meaningful spiritual community models. This paper will present findings from participatory research exploring the nuanced ways that a group of 'fellowship' members conceptualise spirituality in their recovery.