The Spiritual Gift of Madness

The Spiritual Gift of Madness PDF Author: Seth Farber
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594777039
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 439

Get Book Here

Book Description
A bold call for the “insane” to reclaim their rightful role as prophets of spiritual and cultural transformation • Explains how many of those diagnosed as schizophrenic, bipolar, and other forms of “madness” are not ill but experiencing a spiritual awakening • Explores the rise of Mad Pride and the mental patients’ liberation movement • Reveals how those seen as “mad” must embrace their spiritual gifts to help the coming global spiritual transition Many of the great prophets of the past experienced madness--a breakdown followed by a breakthrough, spiritual death followed by rebirth. With the advent of modern psychiatry, the budding prophets of today are captured and transformed into chronic mental patients before they can flower into the visionaries and mystics they were intended to become. As we approach the tipping point between extinction and global spiritual awakening, there is a deep need for these prophets to embrace their spiritual gifts. To make this happen, we must learn to respect the sanctity of madness. We need to cultivate Mad Pride. Exploring the rise of Mad Pride and the mental patients’ liberation movement as well as building upon psychiatrist R. D. Laing’s revolutionary theories, Seth Farber, Ph.D., explains that diagnosing people as mad has more to do with social control than therapy. Many of those labeled as schizophrenic, bipolar, and other kinds of “mad” are not ill but simply experiencing different forms of spiritual awakening: they are seeing and feeling what is wrong with society and what needs to be done to change it. Farber shares his interviews with former schizophrenics who now lead successful and inspiring lives. He shows that it is impossible for society to change as long as the mad are suppressed because they are our catalysts of social change. By reclaiming their rightful role as prophets of spiritual and cultural revitalization, the mad--by seeding new visions for our future--can help humanity overcome the spiritual crisis that endangers our survival and lead us to a higher and long-awaited stage of spiritual development.

The Spiritual Gift of Madness

The Spiritual Gift of Madness PDF Author: Seth Farber
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1594777039
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 439

Get Book Here

Book Description
A bold call for the “insane” to reclaim their rightful role as prophets of spiritual and cultural transformation • Explains how many of those diagnosed as schizophrenic, bipolar, and other forms of “madness” are not ill but experiencing a spiritual awakening • Explores the rise of Mad Pride and the mental patients’ liberation movement • Reveals how those seen as “mad” must embrace their spiritual gifts to help the coming global spiritual transition Many of the great prophets of the past experienced madness--a breakdown followed by a breakthrough, spiritual death followed by rebirth. With the advent of modern psychiatry, the budding prophets of today are captured and transformed into chronic mental patients before they can flower into the visionaries and mystics they were intended to become. As we approach the tipping point between extinction and global spiritual awakening, there is a deep need for these prophets to embrace their spiritual gifts. To make this happen, we must learn to respect the sanctity of madness. We need to cultivate Mad Pride. Exploring the rise of Mad Pride and the mental patients’ liberation movement as well as building upon psychiatrist R. D. Laing’s revolutionary theories, Seth Farber, Ph.D., explains that diagnosing people as mad has more to do with social control than therapy. Many of those labeled as schizophrenic, bipolar, and other kinds of “mad” are not ill but simply experiencing different forms of spiritual awakening: they are seeing and feeling what is wrong with society and what needs to be done to change it. Farber shares his interviews with former schizophrenics who now lead successful and inspiring lives. He shows that it is impossible for society to change as long as the mad are suppressed because they are our catalysts of social change. By reclaiming their rightful role as prophets of spiritual and cultural revitalization, the mad--by seeding new visions for our future--can help humanity overcome the spiritual crisis that endangers our survival and lead us to a higher and long-awaited stage of spiritual development.

The Awakening Artist

The Awakening Artist PDF Author: Patrick Howe
Publisher: O-Books
ISBN: 1780996462
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Awakening Artist: Madness and Spiritual Awakening in Art is an art theory book that explores the collision of human madness and spiritual awakening in art. It examines a condition of insanity that can be seen in most art movements throughout art history and contrasts that insanity with revelations of beauty, wonder and truth that can also be found in many works of art. The Awakening Artist references concepts of creativity put forward by Joseph Campbell, Carl Sagan, Albert Einstein, Carl Jung and others. Furthermore, The Awakening Artist discusses many of the world s most important artists who explored the theme of awakening in art including Michaelangelo, Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, Marcel Duchamp, Morris Graves and many others. Additionally, using concepts of Eastern philosophy, the book presents the case that human creativity originates from the same creative source that animates all of life, and that the artist naturally aligns with that creative source when he or she is in the act of creating. ,

Of God and Madness

Of God and Madness PDF Author: T. Byram Karasu
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742559752
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book Here

Book Description
Follows the spiritual journey of a young man, the child of the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a Jewish palace concubine, as he struggles to make sense of God through World War I in Istanbul, World War II in Paris, and the final years of British rule in Jerusalem, while maintaining his own precarious sanity.

Madness and Creativity

Madness and Creativity PDF Author: Ann Belford Ulanov
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1603449957
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 142

Get Book Here

Book Description
Analyst and author Ann Belford Ulanov draws on her years of clinical work and reflection to make the point that madness and creativity share a kinship, an insight that shakes both analysand and analyst to the core, reminding us as it does that the suffering places of the human psyche are inextricably—and, often inexplicably—related to the fountains of creativity, service, and even genius. She poses disturbing questions: How do we depend on order, when chaos is a necessary part of existence? What are we to make of evil—both that surrounding us and that within us? Is there a myth of meaning that can contain all the differences that threaten to shatter us? Ulanov’s insights unfold in conversation with themes in Jung’s Red Book which, according to Jung, present the most important experiences of his life, themes he explicated in his subsequent theories. In words and paintings Jung displays his psychic encounters from1913–1928, describing them as inner images that “burst forth from the unconscious and flooded me like an enigmatic stream and threatened to break me.” Responding to some of Jung’s more fantastic encounters as he illustrated them, Ulanov suggests that our problems and compulsions may show us the path our creativity should take. With Jung she asserts that the multiplicities within and around us are, paradoxically, pieces of a greater whole that can provide healing and unity as, in her words, “every part of us and of our world gets a seat at the table.” Taken from Ulanov’s addresses at the 2012 Fay Lectures in Analytical Psychology, Madness and Creativity stands as a carefully crafted presentation, with many clinical examples of human courage and fulfillment.

Nola

Nola PDF Author: Robin Hemley
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1609381807
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 363

Get Book Here

Book Description
The evidence at hand: an autobiography—complete with their mother’s edits—written by his brilliant and disturbingly religious sister; a story featuring actual childhood events, but published by his mother as fiction; the transcript of a hypnotherapy session from his adolescence; and perjured court documents hidden in a drawer for decades. These are the clues Robin Hemley gathers when he sets out to reconstruct the life of his older sister Nola, who died at the age of twenty-five after several years of treatment for schizophrenia. Armed with these types of clues, Hemley quickly discovers that finding the truth in any life—even one’s own—is a fragmented and complex task. Nola: A Memoir of Faith, Art, and Madness is much more than a remembrance of a young woman who was consumed her entire life by a passion for finding and understanding God; it is also a quest to understand what people choose to reveal and conceal, and an examination of the enormous toll mental illness takes on a family. Finally, it is a revelation of the alchemy that creates a writer: confidence in the unknowable, distrust of the proven, tortuous devotion to the fine print in life, and sacrifice to writing itself as it plays the roles of confessor, scourge, and creator. Upon its first release in 1998, Nola won ForeWord’s Book of the Year Award for biography/memoir, the Washington State Book Award for biography/memoir, and the Independent Press Book Award for autobiography/memoir.

Beyond Madness

Beyond Madness PDF Author: Rachel A. Pruchno
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421441446
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 221

Get Book Here

Book Description
Reveals proven solutions for bettering the lives of people with serious mental illness, their families, and their communities. Leading scientist and gifted storyteller Rachel A. Pruchno, PhD, was shocked to encounter misinformation, ignorance, and intolerance when she sought to help her daughter, newly diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Turning to the scientific literature, Dr. Pruchno eventually found solutions, but she realized many others would need help to understand the highly technical writing and conflicting findings. In Beyond Madness—part memoir, part history, and part empathetic guide—Dr. Pruchno draws on her decades as a mental health professional, her own family's experiences with mental illness, and extensive interviews with people with serious mental illness to discuss how individuals live with these illnesses, including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and major depression. The book • presents real-world vignettes that vividly describe what it is like to experience some of the most troubling symptoms of a severe mental illness • offers practical advice for how individuals, family members, and communities can help people with a serious mental illness • explains how people with mental illness can find competent health care providers, identify treatment regimens, overcome obstacles to treatment, cope with stigma, and make decisions • provides insight into programs, such as Crisis Intervention Training, that can help people undergoing mental health crisis avoid jail and get the treatment they need • takes aim at the popular concept of "rock bottom" and reveals why this is such a harmful and simplistic approach • advocates for evidence-based care • documents examples of communities that have embraced successful strategies for promoting recovery • shows that people with serious mental illnesses can live productive lives Meticulously researched and engagingly written, Beyond Madness is a call to action and a promise of hope for everyone who cares about and interacts with the millions of people who have serious mental illness. Family members, friends, teachers, police, primary care doctors, and clergy—people who recognize that something is wrong but don't know how to help—will find the book's practical advice invaluable.

The Quest for the Inner Human

The Quest for the Inner Human PDF Author: Steven H. Propp
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1491715294
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 532

Get Book Here

Book Description
Psychology means the study of the soul; it is the social science concerned with investigating who we are, why we have certain feelings, and why we do the things we do. Are we no more than a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules? Is biology (our genetic inheritance) destiny, or does social upbringing play a crucial role? What are the roles played by Nature and by Nurture? Are we purely physical beings, or is there an aspect that can be called spiritual? This thought-provoking novel takes you on a journey of intellectual and emotional exploration, considering along the way questions that weve all asked ourselves, such as: Is it true that we only use 10% of our brains? Does playing classical music for infants increase their intelligence? Do crime rates go up during a full moon? Can hypnosis, or post-hypnotic suggestions, make us do something we wouldnt normally do? Does subliminal advertising influence us to buy products? Are our memories stored indelibly, almost like a tape recorder? What causes memory lapses as we age? Can repressed traumatic memories be recovered through hypnosis? Do some people have multiple personalities? How can I tell if someone has a neurosis, or a psychosis? Do men have an inner feminine side, and women an inner masculine? Are there innate psychological differences between males and females? The four main characters in this book will guide you through a diverse and sometimes bewildering world of differing approaches to answering such questions, such as Freudian, Jungian, and Adlerian; Humanistic, Existential, and Transpersonal; as well as Cognitive, Emotive, and Behaviorist. Along the way you will learn about the developmental stages proposed by psychologists such as Erikson, Kohlberg, Piaget, and Fowler, and even explore some of the questions currently being asked by both neuroscientists, and philosophers of the mind. Start reading, to begin your study of our innermost selves...

Psychosis and Spirituality

Psychosis and Spirituality PDF Author: Isabel Clarke
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9780470970294
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book Here

Book Description
The new edition of this successful text builds on the very latest research to present an original and unique exploration of the psychology of both spirituality and psychosis. The editor brings together fascinating perspectives from a broad range of distinguished contributors. This new edition covers the most recent body of research, both qualitative and quantitative, in its exploration of the interface between psychosis and spirituality, and investigation into anomalous experiences Ten new chapters added and the remaining text completely updated New to this edition is an expanded clinical section, relevant to clinicians working with psychosis Offers a fundamental rethink of the concept of psychosis, and proposes new insights into spirituality Includes feature chapters from a distinguished list of contributors across a broad range of disciplines, including Peter Fenwick, Peter Chadwick, David Kingdon, Gordon Claridge, Neil Douglas Klotz and David Lukoff

Holy Madness

Holy Madness PDF Author: Georg Feuerstein
Publisher: Paragon House Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 326

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Call of Spiritual Emergency

The Call of Spiritual Emergency PDF Author: Emma Bragdon
Publisher: eBookIt.com
ISBN: 1456610066
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Get Book Here

Book Description
A feast of revealing narratives expose the amazing story of how people deal with critical points in personal transformation, also known as spiritual emergency. With the increase of interest in yoga, meditation, mental health recovery, and recovery from addiction there is renewed interest in care that is not based on medication as much as empathy and compassionate companionship. This book helps anyone who doesn't have a language to understand intense inner experiences and confuses them with mental illness. If you have felt disoriented by intense spiritual experiences this book will help you understand where you are and where you may be heading. It is a map of the journey of spiritual awakening written by a psychologist who knows the territory well. Reading it may make the difference between heading off to the hospital to get drugs to stop the symptoms or staying home and knowing you are OK. Just because you have had a conversation with your spirit guide, or talked to the spirit of someone who has passed away doesn't mean you are having a breakdown. It could mean you are having a breakthrough to a higher level of functioning. The author is a psychologist and knows the territory.