Full Description
Religiosity and spirituality (R/S) represent a very important factor of daily life for many individuals across different cultures and contexts. It is associated with lower rates of depression, suicide, mortality, and substance abuse, and is positively correlated with well-being and quality of life. Despite growing academic recognition and scientific literature on these connections this knowledge has not been translated into clinical practice.
Part of the expanding Oxford Cultural Psychiatry series, Spirituality and Mental Health Across Cultures is a timely exploration of the implications of R/S on mental health. Written and edited by 38 experts in the fields of spirituality and mental health from 11 countries, covering a wide range of cultural and geographical perspectives, this unique resource assesses how mental health relates to world religions, agnosticism, atheism, and spiritualism unaffiliated with organised religion, with a practical touch.
Across 25 chapters, this resource provides readers with a succinct and trustworthy review of the latest research and how this can be applied to clinical care. The first section covers the principles and fundamental questions that relate science, history, philosophy, neuroscience, religion, and spirituality with mental health. The second section discusses the main beliefs and practices related to world religions and their implications to mental health. The third reviews the impact of R/S on specific clinical situations and offers practical guidance on how to handle these appropriately, such as practical suggestions for assessing and integrating R/S in personal history anamnesis or psychotherapy.
Contents
Introduction
Section I Theory
1: Alexander Moreira-Almeida and Dinesh Bhugra: Religion, Spirituality, and Mental Health: Setting the scene
2: German Berrios and Ivana S. Marková: Western Spirituality: A Historical Epistemology
3: Andreas Sommer: Conflicts and Complexities: Medical Science, Exceptional Experiences, and the Perils of Simplistic History
4: Harald Walach: Can Spirituality be a Scientific Topic And How? A Rigorous But Open Minded Scientific Approach of Studies on Religion, Spirituality and Mental Health
5: Leonardo Machado and Alexander Moreira-Almeida: Differentiating spiritual experiences from mental disorders
6: Etzel Cardeña and Lena Lindström: The Light and the Bulb: The Psychology and Neurophysiology of Mystical Experience
7: Giancarlo Lucchetti, Rodolfo Furlan Damiano, Alessandra Lamas Granero Lucchetti, and Mario Fernando Prieto Peres: Evidence for the impact of religiosity and spirituality on mental health
8: Harold G. Koenig: Mechanisms: How Religion Impacts Mental Health
9: Dinesh Bhugra, Cameron Watson, and Susham Gupta: Sexual minorities and spirituality
Section II General principles of religions and relationship with mental health
10: Alison J. Gray and Christopher C.H. Cook: Christianity and Mental Health
11: Ahmed Okasha and Tarek A. Okasha: Islam and Mental Health
12: Matcheri S. Keshavan, Bangalore N. Gangadhar, and Ananda K. Pandurangi: Hinduism
13: Malcolm Huxter and Leandro Pizzuti: Principles and practices of Buddhism in relationship to mental health
14: Haim Belmaker, Rael Strous, and Pesach Lichtenberg: Judaism
15: Miguel Farias and Thomas J. Coleman III: Nonreligion, Atheism and Mental Health
16: Olatunde Ayinde, Akin Ojagbemi, Victor Makanjuola, and Oye Gureje: African Religions, Spirituality and Mental Health Healing Practices
17: Bruno Paz Mosqueiro: Spiritual But Not Religious
Section III Clinical Practice
18: Christopher C.H. Cook and Alexander Moreira-Almeida: Principles of integrating religion and spirituality in mental health care and the WPA Position Statement
19: Larkin Kao and John Peteet: Spiritually and culturally sensitive evidence-based approaches to taking a spiritual history
20: Arjan W. Braam: Religion, Spirituality in Prevention and Promotion in Mental Health
21: Simone Hauck and C. Robert Cloninger: Positive Psychiatry and Psychology and Spirituality
22: Marianna de Abreu Costa and David Rosmarin: Spiritually integrated psychotherapy
23: Kenneth I. Pargament and Julie J. Exline: Religious and Spiritual Struggles and Mental Health:Implications for Clinical Practice
24: Peter Fenwick and Bruno Paz Mosqueiro: Spirituality and End of Life Experiences: Meeting the Spiritual Needs of the Dying
25: Wai Lun Alan Fung, Victor A. Shepherd, King Yee Agatha Chong, Sujatha D. Sharma, and Avdesh Sharma: Fruitful collaborations with religious and spiritual communities to foster mental health on general society examples from around the world
