Lifting The Veil Of Mental Illness

Mental illnesses are too often seen only in abstract terms. In keeping with this, mainstream psychology, which seldom acknowledges the psyche or soul, relies increasingly on pharmaceutical treatment. In his unique approach to anthroposophical psychology (or "psychosophy"), William Bento views imbalances of the human soul in an experiential and human way. Basing his views on the work of Rudolf Steiner, Bento looks not only at the human body, soul, and spirit, but also at the way the whole environment of physical phenomena, life forces, and spirit beings affects us as individuals. Going well beyond our immediate, earthly surroundings, the author considers the cosmic effects of sun, planets and stars, offering a holistic view of the human soul. This book is a valuable and accessible addition to the field of anthroposophical psychology and to the study of Spiritual Science in general.

Mental illnesses are too often seen only in abstract terms. In keeping with this, mainstream psychology, which seldom acknowledges the psyche or soul, relies increasingly on pharmaceutical treatment. In his unique approach to anthroposophical psychology (or "psychosophy"), William Bento views imbalances of the human soul in an experiential and human way. Basing his views on the work of Rudolf Steiner, Bento looks not only at the human body, soul, and spirit, but also at the way the whole environment of physical phenomena, life forces, and spirit beings affects us as individuals. Going well beyond our immediate, earthly surroundings, the author considers the cosmic effects of sun, planets and stars, offering a holistic view of the human soul. This book is a valuable and accessible addition to the field of anthroposophical psychology and to the study of Spiritual Science in general.

Despite the importance of regaining social roles during recovery from mental illness, the intersection between motherhood and serious mental illness is often overlooked. This book aims to rectify that neglect. A series of introductory chapters describing current research and services available to mothers with serious mental illness are followed by personal accounts of clients reflecting on their parenting experiences. One goal of the book is to provide clinicians with information that they can use to help patients struggling with questions and barriers in their attempts to parent. The inclusion of personal accounts of mothers on issues such as stigma, fears and discrimination in the context of parenting with a mental illness is intended to promote the message of mental illness recovery to a larger audience as well. Finally, it is hoped that this handbook will help inspire more research on mothers with mental illness and the creation of more services tailored to their needs.

The psychotherapy and counselling profession has recently experienced far-reaching changes because of the development of evidence-based medicine and managed care systems. The Future of Psychological Therapy brings together leading counsellors, psychotherapists, psychological therapists and managers to address how these changes are beginning to affect all aspects of the psychotherapy and counselling profession. It evaluates the impact of these developments, shows how they affect practitioner’s capacity to care, anticipates future developments and offers a coherent and viable approach to research and practice. The book draws on psychotherapeutic theory to develop insight into managed care and engages in qualitative microphenonena research into the complexities of clinical practice drawing on cutting edge developments. It aims to establish a balanced counselling and psychotherapy profession by: opening up a debate about these far-reaching developments which threaten the profession, challenging the rhetoric of accountability, audit, transparency and measurement of care, exposing the danger of sleeping through these momentous changes in the counselling and psychotherapy profession. The Future of Psychological Therapy is a timely and important book, examining the psychotherapy profession's approach to managed care and evidence-based research, and discussing whether a balanced, coherent and viable counselling and psychotherapy research and practice culture can be established. It will be of interest to practitioners, academics and policy makers in the field, non-clinical professionals and anyone who is interested in psychological therapy and addressing the worldwide deterioration in psychological health.

This handbook provides an overview and synthesis of relevant literature related to the issue of the well-being of working women. This focus addresses a gap that currently exists in the quality-of-life and well-being fields. The work of the authors answers the following broad questions: Does gender matter in the well-being of working women? Do prejudices against and stereotypes of women still play a role in inter-personal interactions in the workplace that could hinder women from flourishing professionally? Does the organizational context, such as organizational culture, reward systems, and leadership, contribute to the well-being of working-women? What impact does the national context have on the well-being of working women? And finally, how can public policies help enhance the well-being of working women? These are important issues for academics, researchers, and graduate students interested in gender issues in the fields of management, sociology, psychology, social psychology, economics, and quality of life studies. Policy makers and practitioners will also find this book beneficial. Equitable treatment and outcomes for all, regardless of gender, remains a challenging goal to achieve, with various barriers in different contexts and different cultures, and this book provides strong coverage of this important topic of well-being of working women.

From a psychiatric perspective, psychosis is generally viewed as a psychopathological and often incomprehensible mental disorder of biological cause. In his book, Brian Spittles argues that this represents a rather limited view, and that a psychospiritual investigation of psychosis may enable a better understanding of its nature and determinants. His aim is not to negate the discipline of psychiatry, but to demonstrate the viability and efficacy of incorporating psychospiritual considerations into psychosis research. Within these pages, Spittles challenges several core psychiatric beliefs, and calls for the discipline to extend its investigative parameters beyond the limited epistemological bounds of materialism. The book uses an open-ended heuristic approach that enables the systematic examination and critical appraisal of views on psychosis across the materialist-to-metaphysical spectrum. This is structured in four 'Focal Settings' that sequentially examine the construal of psychosis within different paradigms of psychospiritual understanding, which provide a historical overview of evolving understandings of psychosis within the tradition of psychiatry, in which psychospiritual matters are generally not considered.

This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2013. Chronic illness, together with people experiencing or treating it, became almost mute to predominant biomedical narration pervasive in mainstream media, education, medical and pharmaceutical industry. Contributors in this book aim to represent, discuss, and preserve the vanishing voices and stories on chronic illness from dimensions beyond medicine so that we may make sense of chronicity with the diversity it deserves. The book also incorporates research articles which share important stories about chronicity. These stories, same as chronic illness in our world, should not be treated in a ‘standardised’ way. Each reader, we hope, will relate the meanings of chronicity in this book to his or her own world.