What is it about?
A detailed review of an important book, which is a complex and detailed read. The various highly erudite contributors explore the cultural, social and psychological aspects of psychotic mental illness and service users provide their experiences.
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Why is it important?
Psychotic illness can all too easily be over-medicalised.; however, a balanced view is necessary to weigh up the pros and cons of diagnosis, medication and the internal world of the individual. Spirituality without dogma can be a crucial part of recovery and an opportunity to reintegrate towards a more normal life.
Perspectives
Reviewing this book was a complex and prolonged process. Recovery of sufferers of serious and enduring mental illness is within everyone's interest for the safety of all concerned and in the care of relatives and those who we know who may act differently to the 'norm'. Yet these individuals need to be understood and not rejected by society or feared when they themselves suffer many fears. My experience over twenty years ranges from working with men and women who are suffering from serious and psychotic mental illness in community-based work all the way to the high secure hospital treatment of mentally disordered offenders. Risk management is crucial in ensuring the safety of service users, carers and NHS staff. I provide a balanced view from clinical and spiritual perspectives, based on my expertise as a therapist, author,researcher and musician coming from a deep and comprehensive interest in how faith can sustain humans through times of adversity and yet may become distorted.
Dr Stella Jean Compton Dickinson
Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Insanity and divinity: studies in psychosis and spirituality, Psychosis, April 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/17522439.2018.1463554.
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Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
