From a psychiatric perspective, psychosis is generally viewed as a psychopathological and often incomprehensible mental disorder of biological cause. In his book, Brian Spittles argues that this represents a rather limited view, and that a psychospiritual investigation of psychosis may enable a better understanding of its nature and determinants. His aim is not to negate the discipline of psychiatry, but to demonstrate the viability and efficacy of incorporating psychospiritual considerations into psychosis research. Within these pages, Spittles challenges several core psychiatric beliefs, and calls for the discipline to extend its investigative parameters beyond the limited epistemological bounds of materialism. The book uses an open-ended heuristic approach that enables the systematic examination and critical appraisal of views on psychosis across the materialist-to-metaphysical spectrum. This is structured in four 'Focal Settings' that sequentially examine the construal of psychosis within different paradigms of psychospiritual understanding, which provide a historical overview of evolving understandings of psychosis within the tradition of psychiatry, in which psychospiritual matters are generally not considered.

[Zen Psychosis] is a work of experimental fiction: the attempt to construct a personal memoir culled not from diaries, but dreams. In a way, as the scenes are taken from my own journals, this book is not fiction at all; the dreams are real, their meanings form a story. As a critic of art and an amateur student of Jungian psychoanalysis, I am often compelled to decode intuitive, inscrutable symbols and assemble meaning from the clues the dream or the artist leaves behind. In this novel, I'm applying the technique to my own inner self. This was directly inspired by Henry Miller, who in 1923 slipped an account of a vivid dream into a collection of short stories in [Black Spring]. "Into the Nightlife: A Coney Island of the Mind" later became an illustrated book in a collaboration between Miller and the artist Bezalel Schatz in 1947, as its tantalizing surrealism and literary voice actively blurred the boundaries between experience and imagination. The accompaniment of fantastical pinhole photographs by Osceola Refetoff augments and expands on this dynamic; bringing a beguiling dreamlike quality to what are in fact, people and places in the real world outside ourselves. As an artist and student of cinema, Refetoff has long been fascinated with the conventional visual language of what dreams are supposed to look like.

An expert’s guide to humanizing psychosis through communication offers key insights for family and friends to support loved ones during mental health crises. Are we all a little crazy? Roughly 15 percent of the population will have a psychotic experience, in which they lose contact with reality. Yet we often struggle to understand and talk about psychosis. Interactions between people build on the stories they tell each other—stories about the past, about who they are or what they want. In psychosis we can no longer rely on these stories, this shared language. So how should we communicate with someone experiencing reality in a radically different way than we are? Drawing on his work in psychoanalysis, Stijn Vanheule seeks to answer this question, which carries significant implications for mental health as a whole. With a combination of theory from Freud to Lacan, present-day research, and compelling examples from his own patients and well-known figures such as director David Lynch and artist Yayoi Kusama, he explores psychosis in an engaging way that can benefit those suffering from it as well as the people who care for and interact with them.

Visionary Psychosis or Spiritual and Psychological Emergence have next to their beauty also very painful aspects often leaving the emergent person deeply traumatized. This book is a personal account of a 50 year old woman and artist on her way of healing from her trauma from the negative aspects of her emergence, her movement back into life. The book is intended as inspiration for all those healing from the traumas of their psychosis, especially from Visionary Psychosis. In addition the book includes excerpts from earlier writings of Marie, giving an in depth look at the inside of emergence. The book concludes with visions for a more humane practice with emergent human beings. This book is insightful and a gentle and pensive inspiration to all those recovering from a Spiritual and Psychological Emergence, finding their way back into life whilst understanding their personal stories. This book is resilience building.

Therapeutic Communities for Psychosis offers a uniquely global insight into the renewed interest in the use of therapeutic communities for the treatment of psychosis, as complementary to pharmacological treatment. Within this edited volume contributors from around the world look at the range of treatment programmes on offer in therapeutic communities for those suffering from psychosis. Divided into three parts, the book covers: the historical and philosophical background of therapeutic communities and the treatment of psychosis in this context treatment settings and clinical models alternative therapies and extended applications. This book will be essential reading for all mental health professionals, targeting readers from a number of disciplines including psychiatry, psychology, social work, psychotherapy and group analysis.

This book presents a new paradigm for distinguishing psychotic and mystical religious experiences. In order to explore how Presbyterian pastors differentiate such events, Susan L. DeHoff draws from Reformed theology, psychological theory, and robust qualitative research. Following a conversation among multidisciplinary voices, she presents a new paradigm considering the similarities, differences, and possible overlap of psychotic and mystical religious experiences.

On Conquering Schizophrenia addresses the topic of schizophrenia like never written. Author Robert Francis offers a revelatory and breakthrough paradigm regarding the relegation and defeat of schizophrenia hither yet present in the topical annals. In his conceptualization, Francis offers both a theoretical clarity along with the necessary pragmatics. And along the way, in a seemingly effortless stream of topic and word, Francis also broaches the topics of metaphysics, philosophy, theology, literary form, and humor while all the while crafting a long overdue methodology to conquering schizophrenia. As the reader peruses the pages, Francis’s personal touch and affinity for his audience will quickly be experienced and felt. This is not only a book on conquering schizophrenia but also on the greater life experience, including overcoming all typical generalized afflictions. This truly is a book with no precedent!

Practicing Mental Illness is a guide to using meditation, movement and meaningful work to help manage affective disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety. Not a typical book on mindfulness, it acknowledges where mindfulness practices as taught today can be helpful, and where methods and teachings in popular mindfulness can be very damaging to people with mental illness. George Hofmann has written a subversive self-help book, which acknowledges that our society's low expectations of people with behavioral challenges contribute to the development of mental illness. He gives the reader the necessary tools to take responsibility to get well and stay well. In the end, Practicing Mental Illness presents a method that can help people with affective disorders predict oncoming mood changes and intervene to head off damaging emotions and maintain a balance of positive mental, and physical, health.

Dr. Curtis Adams helped guide his patients, allowing them to go through depth psychological experiences. After 40 years of practice, he offers us insights as to what is really helpful in terms of a treatment philosophy.. His method presents a viable alternative to standard practice which is often drug based and forced. Dr. Adams also shares his own dramatic personal story. Read these works if you want to explore a psycho-physiological perspective that can help people experiencing the most difficult of psychological conditions.