Psychotherapy and the Sacred
By C. Michael Smith, Ph.D.
Drawing on historical, cross-cultural and clinical data, Psychotherapy and the Sacred explores the complex relations between psychotherapy and human religious experience. The author examines the factors contributing to the loss of the sacred in the western assumptive world and considers the efforts of Rudolph Otto, Gerhardus Van der Leeuw, and Mircea Eliade to retrieve a sense of the sacred. He discusses the manifestation of the sacred in transformative ritual and considers four examples of sacred therapeutics in traditional and pre-modern societies. He also presents a case from his own practice in which he utilizes religious resources in treating psychosis. In the final portion of the volume, the author draws on the theoretical work of Alfred North Whitehead to reinterpret the work of Carl Jung in order to develop an interpretation which affirms the sui generis character of religious experience. (CSSR Press)
1995 – Pages: 201
Order: $29.95
ISBN: 0913348287
Book Endorsements
“An original and stimulating piece of work, well argued and exhibiting sound scholarship. Dr. Smith’s medical-anthropological and cross cultural psychological work is excellent, and he succeeds in using this material for the advancement of his…argument.”
-Sudhir Kakar. Visiting professor in the Social Sciences and South Asian Languages and Civilizations, the
University of Chicago. Author of SHAMANS, MYSTICS AND DOCTORS.
“There is great need for such expressions….now that the field of psychiatry is so enamored of brain disorder and the medical model, in the extreme states, that the person and his/her experience is increasingly disqualified and neglected.”
-John Weir Perry, M.D. Jungian Analyst and author of THE FAR SIDE OF MADNESS; and THE PSYCHOTIC PROCESS.