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As more people practice meditation, yoga, and participate in workshops for personal transformation, increasing numbers of them are having experiences related to spiritual awakening. The problem is they don't know the territory. An intense spiritual experience can seem overwhelming and scary and even be confused with going crazy.

This practical book is the classic text, newly updated in 2006 (3rd edition), defining the problems that can arise when someone is disoriented by intense spiritual experiences. It is a valuable resource for anyone interested in spiritual experiences and their relationship to mental health and mental illness. It distinguishes the differences between various mental pathologies and indicators of spiritual awakening. It clearly describes the kind of care one needs in a spiritual emergency process and how the care is dramatically different than conventional psychiatric treatment. It traces the history of how signs of spiritual awakening have been perceived in the past.

Graduate schools of psychology use this book as a text because it is such a clear statement about the nature of spiritual crises and appropriate treatment. However, it is written in a style that is also appropriate for any adult reader. The author, a transpersonal psychologist, has written five other books on spiritual healing and awakening. The title of the first edition of this book was "A Sourcebook for Helping People in Spiritual Emergency" and was published in 1988.

Sujets

Sociologie, société et politique

Training

Psychology

Education

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Publié par	eBookIt.com
Date de parution	21 février 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781456610050
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

A Sourcebook for Helping People with Spiritual Problems

by
Emma Bragdon, Ph.D.

Lightening Up Press
PO Box 325
Woodstock, VT. 05091

Praise for the Sourcebook:

"This Sourcebook is a valuable resource for anyone interested in spiritual experiences and their relationship to psychological health and pathology. It is a clear, concise statement about the nature of spiritual emergencies and appropriate treatment modalities. It deserves careful reading by mental health professionals as well as laypeople who are exploring their own spiritual growth. It provides a well balanced perspective and a wealth of useful information."
- Frances Vaughan, Ph.D., past president of the
Association for Transpersonal Psychology and author of Beyond Ego and Paths Beyond Ego.

"It fulfills a real need among people who might otherwise be labeled mentally ill." - John Mack, M.D., professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and founding director of the Center for Psychology and Social Change.

"Bragdon's books are not only scholarly but communicate a clear message ...they are really exceptional." - Winafred Lucas, Ph.D., author of Regression Therapy: A Handbook for Professionals, diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology.

"Once the concept of Spiritual Emergence is understood, psychotherapy will have broken the sound barrier. I trust that this book will make an important contribution to this hoped for breakthrough." - Brother David Steindl-Rast, author & leader in interfaith dialogue.

"The connection between traditional mental and emotional health and spiritual well-being has never been so clearly and rigorously examined, even by Scott Peck. This is no mere study, it is a practical book with many suggestions for uniting the two aspects of our inner world." - Sandy Anderson, for NAPRA Trade Journal.

"Mental Health professionals often work with spiritual problems but many do not have appropriate training ...This book will enable readers and those they are helping to survive the perils of the spiritual path and reap the benefits of a consciously lived spiritual life." - David Lukoff, Ph.D., San Francisco VAMedical Center and Professor at Saybrook Institute. Co-author of the new DSM-IV diagnostic category Religious or Spiritual Problem, Co-President of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology.

"I find the Sourcebook to be clear and comprehensive in covering the essential topics needed by clinicians in this field. 1 have used this material with my students and have found it to be indispensable for their professional training."
- Arlene Mazak, Ph.D., Professor at the Institute of
Transpersonal Psychology

"I plan to use this book in our hypnosis program as the text on Spiritual Emergence ..." - Ruah Bull, MSW, Twin Lakes College of the Healing Arts

"I highly recommend this book to serious yoga practitioners and to any other person following a spiritual path." - Betty Eiler, Hatha Yoga Instructor.

"We consider Emma Bragdon one of the spokespeople for this era." - Jacquelyn Small, MSW, author of Transformers: Therapists of the Future.

Copyright © 1993-2013 Lightening Up Press

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for such permissions should be addressed to:

Lightening Up Press - P.O. Box 325 - Woodstock, VT 05091 USA

Email: pr@EmmaBragdon.com
Website: http://www.EmmaBragdon.com/
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bragdon, Emma
A Sourcebook for Helping People with Spiritual Problems

Includes References, Index, Glossary
Tables, Referrals, and Six Articles of Interest

1. Psychology 2. Religion 3. Consciousness 4. Spirituality

I. Title

LC# 93-091814
Second Edition

(Formerly A Sourcebook for Helping People in Spiritual Emergency)

References updated in January 2006

Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com

ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-1005-0

Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 0-9620960-1-6

® SOFTCOVER IS PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Christina and Stanislav Grof, M.D., coined the term "spiritual emergency" and published the seminal work differentiating mental disorder and spiritual emergence phenomena. Christina Grof identified the need for people in spiritual emergence to have special support and initiated the Spiritual Emergency Network in 1980. David Lukoff, Ph.D., also stands out as a pioneer during the initiation of this new arena of psychology. Without the pioneering work of these people this Sourcebook would never have taken form in its first or second editions.

I also acknowledge the many other voices from the East and West who have strained to find a common language to speak about the phenomena of spiritual emergence. The individual voices from religion, psychology, philosophy, anthropology and metaphysics are too many to list, but their energy, insight and brilliance contributed to the synthesis of ideas presented here.

I am indebted to the fortitude, skill and good humor of Keith S. Gordon who assisted me in the graphic design of this edition. Carolyn Hengst, MSW-ACP, and Francis Lu, MD., generously contributed their professional knowledge and editing skills for which I am very grateful. Ron Jue, PhD., made suggestions regarding films which illustrate spiritual emergence phenomena. Innumerable friends offered suggestions and encouragement. Thank you all for your love and attention.

Introduction: David Lukoff, Ph.D.

J ust as the ink is drying from the newly issued fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV), which for the first time contains the category of spiritual problems, here appears the first-ever book devoted exclusively to the diagnosis and treatment of spiritual problems. Religious problems, which make up the other half of the official DSM-IV diagnostic category, "Religious or Spiritual Problem," have received much more attention in the clinical and research literature. There's a handbook (Wicks, Parsons, and Capps, 1985) and four journals devoted to pastoral counseling, several more to "Christian psychiatry," as well as professional organizations and conferences that address religious problems. Unfortunately, there is nothing comparable for spiritual problems. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology has published several articles on spiritual problems (Lukoff, 1985; Ossoff, 1993; Waldman, 1992), but there is no journal devoted to this topic. This is surprising since surveys have shown that mental health professionals routinely see clients with spiritual problems. In one survey, psychologists reported that 4.5% of their clients brought a mystical experience into therapy within the past year (Allman et aI., 1992). Thus mental health professionals often work with spiritual problems, but many do not have appropriate training. Scott Peck, a psychiatrist who has written several books on the spiritual dimensions of life, including the best selling The Road Less Traveled, gave an invited address which drew a standing-room only crowd at the 1992 Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. He pronounced that psychiatrists are "ill-equipped" to deal with either religious /spiritual pathology or health. Continuing to neglect religious/spiritual issues, he claimed, would perpetuate the predicaments that are related to psychiatry's traditional neglect of these issues: "occasional, devastating misdiagnosis; not infrequent mistreatment; an increasingly poor reputation; inadequate research and theory; and a limitation of psychiatrists' own personal development" (Peck, 1993, p. 243).

Fortunately, in addition to the incorporation of spiritual problems as a diagnostic category in the DSM-IV, progress is occurring on other fronts. Francis Lu, M.D., has been working with the American Psychiatry Association and the Residency Review Committee to develop new guidelines for the Essentials for Psychiatry Residency Training, which sets forth the criteria used in the accreditation of all residency programs in the U.S .. These proposed criteria would be used to assess whether psychiatry residency programs are providing training in current American cultures and subcultures, especially related to gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and religious/spiritual beliefs. The adoption of these criteria would mandate that training programs for psychiatrists explicitly address religious and spiritual problems. In psychology, others such as Vaughan (1991), Krippner and Welch (1992) and Shafranske and Maloney (1990) have been bringing spiritual issues to the attention of clinical psychologists. Reviews of the research on psychoreligious and psychospiritual dimensions of healing (Lukoff, Turner, & Lu, 1992; 1993) indicate that recognition of these factors has been increasing in all of the allied mental health professions including rehabilitation, addiction counseling, nursing, and social work.

Like Dr. Bragdon, I also underwent the type of spiritual problem known as a spiritual emergency which temporarily impaired my ability to function in consensual reality and everyday social life. Also, like Dr. Bragdon, I was able see the experience through to a positive resolution with the support of my friends and family, obviating the need for traditional psychiatric intervention that might have resulted in hospitalization or medication. Since becoming a licensed psychologist and working at Camarillo State Hospital, the UCLA Clinical Research Center for Schizophrenia and its associated clinic, and currently at the San Francisco VA Day treatment Center, I have often found myself face-to-fa