Megan Jackson Hall has struggled with her mental health for decades. Faith, Romance, and Creations through Psychosis is her powerful memoir that delves into a range of personal topics, including the author's continued distrust of her ex-husband and her belief in his connections to the mafia. It also explores her dream of a free worldwide online JK-doctorate institute, her ideas for revolutionizing the Catholic Church, and creating a healing ranch for people suffering from mental health issues. Faith, Romance, and Creations through Psychosis delves into how the author learns about her past and the connections of her family to the mafia. She recounts recurring dreams of a romantic relationship with a man named Gary Barlow, whom she believes communicates with her through his songs. She provides comfort for Catholics who want a church to come home to, and a clarion call for all who believe in access for everyone to free education and an easier way to receive treatment for mental health. The innovations that swirl through her head offer the promise of a brighter, more efficient future.

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.

This extraordinary collection of correspondence by Paul Bowles spans eight decades and provides an evolving portrait of an artist renowned for his privacy. From his earliest extant letter, written at the age of four, to his precocious effusions to Aaron Copeland and to Gertrude Stein; from his meditations on mescaline as relayed to Ned Rorem, to his intensely moving letters to Jane Bowles during her illness, In Touch fills in the lacunae left by previous biographers and offers a rare look at the many aspects of Bowles's brilliant career—as composer, novelist, short-story master, travel writer, translator, ethnographer, and literary critic. Here is Bowles on the genesis of his first novel, The Sheltering Sky; on his distaste for Western melodies and his dogged attempts to record indigenous Moroccan music; on the Beats, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, and Tennessee Williams; on the nature and craft of writing; on Bernardo Bertolucci, David Byrne, and Sting; on the decline of American and the challenges of living in North Africa. Gossipy, reflective, enlightening, and always entertaining, In Touch stands as an epistolary autobiography of one of the legendary writers of our time, and a unique chronicle of the twentieth-century avant-garde.

Freud argued that religions originate in the unconscious needs, longings and fantasies of human minds. His work has served to highlight how any analysis of religion must explore mental life, both the cognitive and the unconscious. 'Freud on Religion' examines Freud's complex understanding of religious belief and practice. The book brings together contemporary psychoanalytic theory and case material from Freud's clinical practice to illustrate how the operations of the unconscious mind support various forms of religious belief, from mainstream to occult. 'Freud on Religion' offers a new way of understanding Freud's thinking and demonstrates how valuable psychoanalysis is for the study of religion.

From an early age, Sandra experienced that being different means being excluded. In her early twenties, she had to concede that her notions of life differed so widely from those of her environment that her attempt to explain herself, the world and its working principles ultimately lead her to a psychiatric ward. Diagnosis: acute psychosis. Writing is both a trigger and a cure for Sandra's illness. In her book, she documents her experiences and thoughts, combining the unreal and the idealism of a young woman dreaming of escaping the superficiality of the modern world. This is matched with an ice-cold clash with reality, whose pinpoint accuracy sometimes forces the reader to take a closer look at their own values.

Spirituality, religious belief and inclusive faith communities are important for mental well being but mental health practitioners have few guidelines for acknowledging these issues when working with service users. Spirituality, Values and Mental Health gathers together personal and professional contributions from mental health professionals, carers and mental health service users and survivors. It addresses the stigma that can surround both mental health and spirituality and explores the place of the spiritual in mental health care, teasing out its implications for research, education, training and good practice. This book is a welcome source of ideas and common-sense that is essential reading for mental health practitioners, carers and service users, chaplains, faith leaders, faith communities, as well as students and professionals working in the field of spirituality and mental health.