4/ Editorial introductions

'Only out of chaos may there be born a dancing star', argued Nietzsche. Such an event may be manifest in the sort of breakthrough where an individual's psychic reality shatters the convention of a false self, also, by implication, the breakthrough, in the sense of moral triumph, of their spirit. Section two of the book will offer accounts of clients' and clinicians' experience where turmoil, uncertainty and chaos could be used as an opportunity for change and growth. Here in chapter seven Eileen Inglesby explores in more detail this process of growth and development in general, symbolised as a spiritual journey or pilgrimage. She discusses the use of creative symbolism and religious imagery as an aid to facilitating such growth, emphasising the religious perspective rather than any one manifestation of it. She then focuses on two specific religious frameworks and urges us to remain alive to the hazards of imposing beliefs on those already vulnerable, also to take frameworks such as these seriously as a means to facilitate the creative use of crisis to effect growth.