Psychotherapy and the sacred: Religious experience and religious resources in psychotherapy (Studies in religion, society and personality)

"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 Rudolf 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 psychotherapeutics in traditional and premodern culture and 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 of the use of religious resources in psychotherapy which affirms the sui generis character of religious experience." "The richness and scope of this work challenges mental health professionals to rethink both their theoretical assumptions and their mode of practice."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved