This book provides an alternative, complementary approach to the existing conventional approaches to religious and spiritually oriented coping. By focusing on the role of culture, the authors take into account the methods employed by a vast number of people who do not directly identify themselves as religious. The empirical data used in this book derive from studies conducted in several countries; Sweden, China, South Korea, Turkey and Malaysia, across which religion plays a different role in the social and cultural life of individuals. This approach and these empirical data are unique and allow comparisons to be made between different cultural settings. By introducing the concept of meaning-making coping, the authors explore the influence of culture on choice of coping methods, be they purely religious, spiritual or existential. The term "existential meaning-making coping" is used to describe coping methods that are related to existential questions; these methods include religious, spiritual and existential coping methods. Meaning-making Methods for Coping with Serious Illness contributes to new approaches and theoretical models of coping. As such it is an invaluable resource for health care, medical, public health and sociology students and researchers. It will also be of interest to educators and policy-makers working in the area of health.

Many spiritual caregivers, including chaplains, spiritual directors and clergy, are unaware of how they can support people with chronic health conditions. This book combines insights on chronic illness with spiritual care skills and suggestions to enhance well-being for people living with long-term illness. Using a narrative approach, the author reflects on the stories of two women - Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, who travels from Kansas (a state of health) to Oz (an illness experience), alongside the author's personal experiences of managing an incurable autoimmune disease. Chapters will include guidelines and exercises that help equip caregivers to facilitate healing with people who live with long-term health conditions.

Perspectives on a Young Woman's Suicide is a unique and updated analysis of a diary left behind by "Katie," a young woman who took her own life. By drawing on clinicians, researchers, survivors of suicide loss, and those closest to Katie, this book delves into common beliefs about why people die by suicide and into the internal worlds of those who do, as well as ethical and moral questions surrounding those deaths. Several contributors discuss Katie’s suicide from the perspective of recent theories of suicide, including Joiner’s interpersonal theory and Klonsky’s three-step theory. Two contributors who have lost a child to suicide look at Katie’s diary from their perspective, one of whom discusses whether it is truly possible to prevent suicide. Finally, Katie’s sister reveals her reactions to this project and her ex-boyfriend shares his account of her death. This book is a vital addition to the library of any researcher, academic, or professional interested in suicide and suicide prevention.

This interdisciplinary study details spiritual approaches including meditation and yoga shown to be helpful in improving physical and psychological well-being. Whether a person suffers from a psychological or physical malady, such as depression, addictions, chronic pain, cancer, or complications from pregnancy, the best practice treatments likely include one common thread: spiritual practice. From meditation and yoga to spiritual surrender and religious rituals, spiritual practices are increasingly being recognized as physically and mentally beneficial for recovering from illness and for retaining optimal health. Healing with Spiritual Practices: Proven Techniques for Disorders from Addictions and Anxiety to Cancer and Chronic Pain, edited by the director of one of the nation's best-known university institutes of spirituality and health, explains current and emerging practices, their benefits, and the growing body of research that proves them effective. Comprising chapters from expert contributors, this book will appeal to students, scholars, and other readers interested in psychology, medicine, nursing, social work, pastoral care, and related disciplines.

Medicine, Health and Being Human begins a conversation to explore how the medical has defined us: that is, the ways in which perspectives of medicine and health have affected cultural understandings of what it means to be human. With chapters that span from the early modern period through to the contemporary world, and are drawn from a range of disciplines, this volume holds that incremental historical and cultural influences have brought about an understanding of humanity in which the medical is ingrained, consciously or unconsciously, usually as a mode of legitimisation. Divided into three parts, the book follows a narrative path from the integrity of the human soul, through to the integrity of the material human body, then finally brought together through engaging with end-of-life responses. Part 1 examines the move from spirituality to psychiatry in terms of the way medical science has influenced cultural understandings of the mind. Part 2 interrogates the role that medicine has played in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in constructing and deconstructing the self and other, including the fusion of visual objectivity and the scientific gaze in constructing perceptions of humanity. Part 3 looks at the limits of medicine when the integrity of one body breaks down. It contends with the ultimate question of the extent to which humanity is confined within the integrity of the human body, and how medicine and the humanities work together toward responding to the finality of death. This is a valuable contribution for all those interested in the medical humanities, history of medicine, history of ideas and the social approaches to health and illness.