Asceticism: creative spiritual practice or pathological pursuit?

Asceticism in a religious context refers to a voluntary and sustained practice of self-denial in which immediate or sensual gratifications are renounced in order to attain a higher spiritual state (Kaelber 1987). Virtually all of the major world religions have within them a way in which the individual, through ascetic practices, can strive to achieve a more thorough absorption in the sacred. Although many psychiatrists might consider any ascetic or religious practice to be pathological, others take a more neutral view by emphasizing that religious or mystical practice can also be adaptive and creative (Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry 1976).