Creative Dimensions of Suffering

Creative Dimensions of Suffering PDF Author: A. M. Ghadirian
Publisher: Baha'i Publishing Trust
ISBN: 9781931847605
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Creative Dimensions of Suffering is an intriguing combination of psychiatry and spirituality that illustrates the power of creativity to treat suffering. An examination of the lives of many famous artists who suffered - including Van Gogh, Tchaikovsky, and Beethoven - gives insight into how they dealt with their adversity through creativity. Dr. Ghadirian explores how various conditions such as alcoholism, depression, bipolar disorder, and dementia can influence a person's creative impulse and how creativity and spirituality can help a person deal with trauma. He describes the courage of many other well-known figures, such as Helen Keller and Christopher Reeve, who were able to overcome their suffering and emerge victorious over daunting odds. Finally, drawing on principles found in the teachings of the Baha'i Faith, Ghadirian attempts to explain suffering, its place in human society, and how it can lead us to a closer, happier relationship with God, as well as a better relationship with ourselves and with others. Indeed, many of those who have suffered the most have found new meaning through adversity and have emerged victorious.

Creative Dimensions of Suffering

Creative Dimensions of Suffering PDF Author: A. M. Ghadirian
Publisher: Baha'i Publishing Trust
ISBN: 9781931847605
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Creative Dimensions of Suffering is an intriguing combination of psychiatry and spirituality that illustrates the power of creativity to treat suffering. An examination of the lives of many famous artists who suffered - including Van Gogh, Tchaikovsky, and Beethoven - gives insight into how they dealt with their adversity through creativity. Dr. Ghadirian explores how various conditions such as alcoholism, depression, bipolar disorder, and dementia can influence a person's creative impulse and how creativity and spirituality can help a person deal with trauma. He describes the courage of many other well-known figures, such as Helen Keller and Christopher Reeve, who were able to overcome their suffering and emerge victorious over daunting odds. Finally, drawing on principles found in the teachings of the Baha'i Faith, Ghadirian attempts to explain suffering, its place in human society, and how it can lead us to a closer, happier relationship with God, as well as a better relationship with ourselves and with others. Indeed, many of those who have suffered the most have found new meaning through adversity and have emerged victorious.

Creative Suffering and the Wounded Healer

Creative Suffering and the Wounded Healer PDF Author: Byron J. Gaist
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781933275406
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
It is frequently acknowledged that, despite Jung's disclaimers concerning the mutually exclusive boundaries between empirical science and metaphysics, analytical psychology does have important theological ramifications. Christian theology has been a historical antecedent to modern psychology, and can continue to be of relevance in this field through the scholarly exploration of its anthropological teachings in a contemporary academic and pastoral context. The primary purpose of this study is to outline a metatheoretical approach to discuss the interface between analytical psychology and Christian theology. As a secondary theme, it attempts to formulate, investigate and explore a theoretical rationale for adopting a depth-psychological approach to working with countertransference dynamics in both psychotherapy and spiritual direction, by including and valuing the spiritual dimension of experience. The concept of 'creative suffering' is utilized as a way of describing the process through which personal suffering, when experienced creatively, becomes more than the isolated pathological source of the therapist's private emotional wounds, being transformed to provide the main psychological background through which deep healing of the client's own trauma may occur on a personal and transpersonal level. It is, therefore, argued that creative use of the countertransference implies ongoing, active reflection by the therapist on the meaning and purpose of personal suffering, as occurs in some spiritual disciplines. This practice is adumbrated through a framework of conceptualisation derived from Orthodox Christian spirituality, employing the Jungian archetype of the 'Wounded Healer' in parallel to theological claims concerning the suffering of Jesus Christ, and the broader significance of suffering and evil in Christian theology. Parallels, similarities and differences between religious and psychological imagery and concepts are suggested throughout, which may prompt further exploration of areas of convergence and divergence between analytical psychology and Christian theology in particular, and between psychology and religion in general.

The Universe Within Us

The Universe Within Us PDF Author: Jane E. Harper
Publisher: Baha'i Publishing Trust
ISBN: 9781931847582
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
A provocative look at the purpose of life through a mixture of religion, science and personal experience

Materialism

Materialism PDF Author: Abduʼl-Missagh Ghadirian
Publisher: George Ronald
ISBN: 9780853985471
Category : Materialism
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
This book challenges the view that matter is the centrepiece of life - a view that denies spirituality, conscience and feeling. It advocates for a sensible balance between the spiritual and material aspects of life as two pillars of an equitable civilization.

God and Human Suffering

God and Human Suffering PDF Author: Douglas John Hall
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 9781451407174
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Professor Hall has written a major work on an agonizing subject, at once brilliant, comprehensive, and thought provoking.In contrast to many writers who gloss over one or the other, Dr. Hall is true both to the reality of suffering and to the affirmation that God creates, sustains, and redeems.Creative is his view that certain aspects of what we call suffering -- loneliness, experience of limits, temptation, anxiety -- are necessary parts of God's good creation. These he distinguishes from suffering after the fall, the tragic dimension of life.Unique is his structure: creation-suffering as becomingthe fall--suffering as a burdenredemption--conquest from within.Professor Hall succeeds in moving the reader beyond the customary way of stating the problem: "How can undeserved suffering coexist with a just and almighty God?" He also evaluates five popular, leading thinkers on suffering: Harold Kushner, C.S. Lewis, Diogenes Allen, George Buttrick, and Leslie Weatherhead.

State of Suffering

State of Suffering PDF Author: Susanna Trnka
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801474989
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
How do ordinary people respond when their lives are irrevocably altered by terror and violence? Susanna Trnka was residing in an Indo-Fijian village in the year 2000 during the Fijian nationalist coup. The overthrow of the elected multiethnic party led to six months of nationalist aggression, much of which was directed toward Indo-Fijians. In State of Suffering, Trnka shows how Indo-Fijians' lives were overturned as waves of turmoil and destruction swept across Fiji. Describing the myriad social processes through which violence is articulated and ascribed meaning-including expressions of incredulity, circulation of rumors, narratives, and exchanges of laughter and jokes-Trnka reveals the ways in which the community engages in these practices as individuals experience, and try to understand, the consequences of the coup. She then considers different kinds of pain caused by political chaos and social turbulence, including pain resulting from bodily harm, shared terror, and the distress precipitated by economic crisis and social dislocation. Throughout this book, Trnka focuses on the collective social process through which violence is embodied, articulated, and silenced by those it targets. Her sensitive ethnography is a valuable addition to the global conversation about the impact of political violence on community life.

Illumine My Family

Illumine My Family PDF Author:
Publisher: Baha'i Publishing Trust
ISBN: 9781931847629
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Illumine My Family is a collection of prayers and meditative passages from the writings of the Baha'i Faith that will help any family wishing to incorporate spirituality into their daily lives. The passages included offer guidance and prayers on subjects relevant to any family regardless of their background or current circumstances. Subjects covered include marriage, parents, motherhood, children, love, healing, the loss of a loved one, and more. The book has been put together with the hope that it will assist families to grow together and to foster strong relationships with each other and God.

Solidarity and Suffering

Solidarity and Suffering PDF Author: Douglas Sturm
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791438701
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Developing a concept of justice as solidarity, this work addresses a range of urgent social issues--from the meaning of human rights and the character of corporate governance to the resolution of social conflict and the moral status of the environment.

The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine

The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine PDF Author: Eric J. Cassell
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199748004
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
This is a revised and expanded edtion of a classic in palliative medicine, originally published in 1991. With three added chapters and a new preface summarizing our progress in the area of pain management, this is a must-hve for those in palliative medicine and hospice care. The obligation of physicians to relieve human suffering stretches back into antiquity. But what exactly, is suffering? One patient with metastic cancer of the stomach, from which he knew he would shortly die, said he was not suffering. Another, someone who had been operated on for a mior problem--in little pain and not seemingly distressed--said that even coming into the hospital had been a source of pain and not suffering. With such varied responses to the problem of suffering, inevitable questions arise. Is it the doctor's responsibility to treat the disease or the patient? And what is the relationship between suffering and the goals of medicine? According to Dr. Eric Cassell, these are crucial questions, but unfortunately, have remained only queries void of adequate solutions. It is time for the sick person, Cassell believes, to be not merely an important concern for physicians but the central focus of medicine. With this in mind, Cassell argues for an understanding of what changes should be made in order to successfully treat the sick while alleviating suffering, and how to actually go about making these changes with the methods and training techniques firmly rooted in the doctor's relationship with the patient. Dr. Cassell offers an incisive critique of the approach of modern medicine. Drawing on a number of evocative patient narratives, he writes that the goal of medicine must be to treat an individual's suffering, and not just the disease. In addition, Cassell's thoughtful and incisive argument will appeal to psychologists and psychiatrists interested in the nature of pain and suffering.

Life at First Sight

Life at First Sight PDF Author: Phyllis Edgerly Ring
Publisher: Baha'i Publishing Trust
ISBN: 9781931847674
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Phyllis Ring divulges in this collection of personal essays how to "see the spiritual" in everyday moments and everyday life. Like love at first sight, "life at first sight" focuses on instant recognition and irresistible attraction, a sense of something mysteriously familiar, and a sense of spiritual connection. The essays show how to develop a new sense of being during daily activities and everyday interactions, as well as through engagement with the natural world. As a jumping-off point for spiritual conversation, these compositions offer food for thought on how to lead a more spiritual life. Book jacket.