Shamanic Dimensions Of Psychotherapy

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Shamanic Dimensions of Psychotherapy

Author : Robin van Löben Sels
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000739791
Total Pages : 356 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (7 download)

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Book Synopsis Shamanic Dimensions of Psychotherapy by : Robin van Löben Sels

Download or read book Shamanic Dimensions of Psychotherapy written by Robin van Löben Sels and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-11-13 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Shamanic Dimensions of Psychotherapy: Healing through the Symbolic Process, Robin van Löben Sels uniquely and honestly recounts her personal journey toward a shamanic understanding of psychotherapy. Exploring the disruptive breakthrough of visions and dreams that occurred during her analysis, personal life, and psychoanalytic training, van Löben Sels illustrates how the phenomenology of ancient shamanism is still alive and how it is a paradigm for the emergence and maturation of the psyche in people today. This original book delves into van Löben Sels’s personal experience of the shaman, identifying such eruptions as a contemporary version of the archaic shaman’s initiatory call to vocation. The book is split into two parts. It begins by outlining the shamanic personality in history, recognizing this as an individual that has been called out of a collectively sanctioned identity into a creative life, and the unconscious shaman complex they consequently face, especially in psychotherapeutic relationships. Practical as well as theoretical, the second part outlines the shamanic attributes that underline psychotherapeutic relationships - silence, sound, mask, rhythm, gesture, movement, and respiration - and usefully describes how to use them as asanas for consciousness, or vehicles toward psychological awareness. With clinical examples and personal stories throughout, this book’s unique Jungian perspective addresses contemporary expressions of the shaman complex in our current world. Shamanic Dimensions of Psychotherapy: Healing through the Symbolic Process will be essential reading for Jungian analysts and psychotherapists in practice and in training, as well as for academics and students of Jungian and post-Jungian studies. It will be especially helpful and illuminating to those who have experienced an involuntary plunge into the depths and who seek ways to articulate their experience.

Psychomagic

Author : Alejandro Jodorowsky
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1594779562
Total Pages : 259 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (947 download)

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Book Synopsis Psychomagic by : Alejandro Jodorowsky

Download or read book Psychomagic written by Alejandro Jodorowsky and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-06-18 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A healing path using the power of dreams, theater, poetry, and shamanism • Shows how psychological realizations can cause true transformation when manifested by concrete poetic acts • Includes many examples of the surreal but successful actions Jodorowsky has prescribed to those seeking his help While living in Mexico, Alejandro Jodorowsky became familiar with the colorful and effective cures provided by folk healers. He realized that it is easier for the unconscious to understand the language of dreams than that of rationality. Illness can even be seen as a physical dream that reveals unresolved emotional and psychological problems. Psychomagic presents the shamanic and genealogical principles Jodorowsky discovered to create a healing therapy that could use the powers of dreams, art, and theater to empower individuals to heal wounds that in some cases had traveled through generations. The concrete and often surreal poetic actions Jodorowsky employs are part of an elaborate strategy intended to break apart the dysfunctional persona with whom the patient identifies in order to connect with a deeper self. That is when true transformation can manifest. For a young man who complained that he lived only in his head and was unable to grab hold of reality and advance toward the financial autonomy he desired, Jodorowsky gave the prescription to paste two gold coins to the soles of his shoes so that all day he would be walking on gold. A judge whose vanity was ruling his every move was given the task of dressing like a tramp and begging outside one of the fashionable restaurants he loved to frequent while pulling glass doll eyes out of his pockets. The lesson for him was that if a tramp can fill his pockets with eyeballs, then they must be of no value, and thus the eyes of others should have no bearing on who you are and what you do. Taking his patients directly at their words, Jodorowsky takes the same elements associated with a negative emotional charge and recasts them in an action that will make them positive and enable them to pay the psychological debts hindering their lives.

The Shaman's Way of Healing

Author : August Thalhamer
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9783709501238
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (12 download)

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Book Synopsis The Shaman's Way of Healing by : August Thalhamer

Download or read book The Shaman's Way of Healing written by August Thalhamer and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shamanism, Family Constellations, Psychotherapy, the Christian Healing Tradition - their similarities and differences, illustrated with examples from a practitioner of all these methods. August Thalhamer, Austrian Catholic theologian, psychotherapist, and urban shaman is answering his calling to build bridges. Over the last half century, Thalhamer has been able to discover the harmony resonating between these (seemingly mutually-exclusive) worldviews, in theory and in practice. Here, he outlines the academic and intuitive paths that led to his own shamanic way of healing. This guide is a one-stop reference work for anyone interested in Shamanism. If your curiosity has ever left you wondering: What value does shamanic wisdom, ancient and contemporary, have for the Western world and how can we integrate it into our lives? This book will provide you with a solid harbor for launching your own personal journey, one you can always return to for inspiration. Univ.-Prof. Dr. H. H. Büttner, Wismar, wrote in the Ärzteblatt Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 8/2015 (the medical journal for the German edition): This book actually belongs in the hands of medical students and young doctors, because, by the way, it conveys western education, tradition and partly humanistic dimensions of medicine. We should again seek out the foundations on which the edifice of our philosophical and religious culture rests, also with regard to our mental health. Today's medical students would, of course, be recommended to study philosophy again in addition to physics (which, by the way, was abolished by the Prussian Ministry of Culture in 1861). I enjoyed reading and thinking a lot.

Journeying

Author : Jeannette M. Gagan
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781649610836
Total Pages : 168 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (18 download)

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Book Synopsis Journeying by : Jeannette M. Gagan

Download or read book Journeying written by Jeannette M. Gagan and published by . This book was released on 2020-08 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Journeying not only shows the commonalities shared by shamanism and psychology, it also illustrates the potency of their combined healing power. The true heart of this pioneering book rests in the application of shamanic technique to the healing of emotional and developmental wounds. Anchored in theory and supported by case examples, Journeying is suited for anyone invested in healing, practitioners and lay persons alike.

Shamanism and Spirituality in Therapeutic Practice

Author : Christa Mackinnon
Publisher : Singing Dragon
ISBN 13 : 0857010689
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (57 download)

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Book Synopsis Shamanism and Spirituality in Therapeutic Practice by : Christa Mackinnon

Download or read book Shamanism and Spirituality in Therapeutic Practice written by Christa Mackinnon and published by Singing Dragon. This book was released on 2012-06-15 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Increasing numbers of professionals in the fields of psychology and therapy are seeking to incorporate elements of spirituality into their therapeutic oeuvre, addressing not only mental and emotional issues, but also the soul. This book discloses how indigenous traditions can be adapted to offer practitioners a highly effective repertoire of insights, psycho-spiritual approaches and therapeutic tools. The underlying concepts and world-views of indigenous and contemporary shamanism are explained and tied in with current developments in psychology and science. After clarifying altered states of perception, concepts of integrative wholeness of mind, body, soul and spirit and transformative shamanic 'healing' approaches, the book goes on to outline concrete contemporary tools and techniques that can be applied directly to work with clients. It presents research, examples and case studies throughout. This will be enlightening and compelling reading for psychologists, therapists, counsellors and coaches looking for profound insights and innovative methods of practice that cater for the whole human psyche, reaching beyond contemporary Western mind and body approaches.

Soulfulness

Author : David England
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429905149
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

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Book Synopsis Soulfulness by : David England

Download or read book Soulfulness written by David England and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings the wisdom of the ancient healing practice of shamanism together with the insights of contemporary psychology to provide an integrated approach to the treatment of traumatic symptoms.'Soulfulness' has two historic shamanic roots: Mayan and Native American psychology - a psychology of Self - as expressed in the many aspects of the Medicine Wheel, the wheel of health and wholeness; and the Shamanic Journey and Soul Retrieval, as practiced in traditional societies throughout the world, notably the Tungus tribes of Siberia. This book presents the ancient wisdom of shamanic theory and practice in a form which is fit for use within the mainstream of twenty-first century psychotherapeutic endeavour, including an extensive explanation of Shamanic Psychology and a practical description of the ceremonies of the Shamanic Journey and Soul Retrieval.

Manual of Psychomagic

Author : Alejandro Jodorowsky
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1620551616
Total Pages : 261 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (25 download)

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Book Synopsis Manual of Psychomagic by : Alejandro Jodorowsky

Download or read book Manual of Psychomagic written by Alejandro Jodorowsky and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-01-30 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A workbook for using symbolic acts to heal the unconscious mind • Provides several hundred successful psychomagic solutions for a wide range of specific psychological, sexual, emotional, and physical problems, from stuttering, eczema, and fears to repressed rage and hereditary illnesses • Details how practitioners can develop unique psychomagic solutions for their patients • Explains how psychomagic bypasses the rational mind to work directly with the unconscious for quicker and more enduring change Traditional psychotherapy seeks to unburden the unconscious mind purely through talk and discussion. Psychomagic recognizes that it is difficult to reach the unconscious with rational thought. We should instead speak directly to the unconscious in its own language, that of dreams, poetry, and symbolic acts. By interacting on this deeper level, we can initiate quicker and more enduring change to resolve repressed childhood trauma, express buried emotions, and overcome deep-seated intimacy issues. Through the lens of psychomagic, illness can be seen as the physical dream of the unconscious, revealing unresolved issues, some passed from generation to generation. In this workbook of psychomagical spells, legendary filmmaker and creator of psychomagic Alejandro Jodorowsky provides several hundred successful psychomagic solutions for a wide range of psychological, sexual, emotional, and physical problems from stuttering, eczema, and fear of failure to repressed rage, hereditary illnesses, and domineering parents. Each solution takes the same elements associated with a negative emotional charge and recasts them into a series of theatrical symbolic actions that enable one to pay the psychological debts hindering their lives. Explaining the shamanic techniques at the foundation of psychomagic, the author offers methods for aspiring practitioners to develop solutions for their own unique patients. Jodorowsky explains how the surreal acts of psychomagic are intended to break apart the dysfunctional persona with whom the patient identifies in order to connect with a deeper, more authentic self. As he says in the book, “Health only finds itself in the authentic. There is no beauty without authenticity.”

Alternative States of Consciousness in Shamanism, Imaginal Psychotherapies, Hypnotherapy, and Meditation Including a Shamanism and Meditation Inspired Personal and Professional Training Program for the 21st Century Psychotherapist

Download Alternative States of Consciousness in Shamanism, Imaginal Psychotherapies, Hypnotherapy, and Meditation Including a Shamanism and Meditation Inspired Personal and Professional Training Program for the 21st Century Psychotherapist PDF Online Free

Author : Allen Holmquist
Publisher : Universal-Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1581123574
Total Pages : 599 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (811 download)

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Book Synopsis Alternative States of Consciousness in Shamanism, Imaginal Psychotherapies, Hypnotherapy, and Meditation Including a Shamanism and Meditation Inspired Personal and Professional Training Program for the 21st Century Psychotherapist by : Allen Holmquist

Download or read book Alternative States of Consciousness in Shamanism, Imaginal Psychotherapies, Hypnotherapy, and Meditation Including a Shamanism and Meditation Inspired Personal and Professional Training Program for the 21st Century Psychotherapist written by Allen Holmquist and published by Universal-Publishers. This book was released on 2009-08 with total page 599 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shamanism, hypnosis, imaginal psychotherapies, and meditation are based on the use of what we in the modern western world think of as non-ordinary human consciousness. These four modalities have fundamental similarities and differences in purpose, theory, technique, type of alternative consciousness, and their application of non-ordinary reality. Shamanism, the oldest and most intertwined with the cultures in which it is practiced, will be explored as a model for individual healing and transformation and professional training. The shamanic way will also be explored as a model of consciousness and a world-view that offers individuals, groups, and society much needed coping mechanisms, healing techniques, and transformative values that may be helpful in dealing with this trying and important transition time for humanity. Imaginal therapies, meditation and hypnosis all have their roots in shamanism, although in some parts of the world at certain times in history, shamanism borrowed from meditation in its adaptation and development.

Ecstatic Soul Retrieval

Author : Nicholas E. Brink
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1591432626
Total Pages : 262 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (914 download)

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Book Synopsis Ecstatic Soul Retrieval by : Nicholas E. Brink

Download or read book Ecstatic Soul Retrieval written by Nicholas E. Brink and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to integrating ecstatic trance, soul retrieval, and psychotherapy to overcome emotional challenges and deepen your connection to all life on Mother Earth • Describes the methodologies of ecstatic trance and psychotherapy, explaining how they can be integrated in a way that feels familiar and safe • Illustrates five ecstatic postures for strengthening identity, uncovering the root of suffering, and aligning with a spirit guide • Includes three in-depth case studies to illustrate how to override negative beliefs and habits and experience oneness with the Earth and all life Sharing the wisdom of shamanic healing, Nicholas Brink creates an accessible link between psychotherapy and the ritualized use of ecstatic trance postures. He explains how ecstatic trance triggers the imagery that allows us to override negative beliefs and retrieve the lost innocence of the soul. He shows us how to broaden healing beyond the resolution of individual emotional and behavioral issues to create harmony in family, community, society, and the world around us. Integrating cognitive behavioral therapy, narrative therapy, and dream analysis, the author provides a unique model for tapping into the universal mind in a way that feels familiar and safe. He illustrates five ecstatic postures for emotional and spiritual growth, moving from finding a place of relaxation in which to strengthen your sense of self to the soul retrieval experience, which leads to the death of dysfunctional beliefs and restoration of your original innocence. The author shows how spirit guides can support us as we achieve the spiritual consciousness of the shaman and recognize the interdependence of all cultures and all living things on the planet. Using three in-depth case studies, Brink demonstrates how these practices can be used to resolve common psychological issues such as agoraphobia, panic attacks, irrational anger, mood swings, obsessive behaviors, and control issues. Allowing you to find your inner shaman--your ability to heal yourself and, in turn, to contribute to the healing of all life on our planet--ecstatic soul retrieval helps you overcome emotional and behavioral problems, override negative beliefs, and experience oneness with all life on Mother Earth.

The Sacred Heritage

Author : Donald F. Sandner
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135236232
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (352 download)

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Book Synopsis The Sacred Heritage by : Donald F. Sandner

Download or read book The Sacred Heritage written by Donald F. Sandner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-18 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributors to this volume describe the many facets shamanism and depth psychology have in common: animal symbolism; recognition of the reality of the collective unconscious; and healing rituals that put therapist and patient in touch with transpersonal powers. By reintroducing the core of shamanism in contemporary form, these essays shape a powerful means of healing that combines the direct contact with the inner psyche one finds in shamanism with the self-reflection and critical awareness of modern consciousness. The contributors' draw from experiences both inside and outside the consulting room, and with cultures that include the Lakota Sioux, and those of the Peruvian Andes and the Hawaiian Islands. The focus is on those aspects of shamanism most useful and relevant to the modern practice of depth psychology. These explorations bring the young practice of analytical psychology into perspective as part of a much more ancient heritage of shamanistic healing.

Psychedelic Healing

Author : Neal M. Goldsmith
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1594778558
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (947 download)

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Book Synopsis Psychedelic Healing by : Neal M. Goldsmith

Download or read book Psychedelic Healing written by Neal M. Goldsmith and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-12-21 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Psychedelics as therapeutic catalysts for emotional and spiritual transformation • Explores the latest medical research on the healing powers of entheogens • Reveals the crucial role of tribal and shamanic wisdom in psychedelic medicine • Provides guidelines for working with psychedelics, including the author’s personal healing and recommendations for creating change on the spiritual and societal levels Banned after promising research in the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, the use of psychedelics as therapeutic catalysts is now being rediscovered at prestigious medical schools, such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, NYU, and UCLA. Through clinical trials to assess their use, entheogens have been found to ease anxiety in the dying, interrupt the hold of addictive drugs, cure post-traumatic stress disorder, and treat other deep-seated emotional disturbances. To date, results have been positive, and the idea of psychedelics as powerful psychiatric--and spiritual--medicines is now beginning to be accepted by the medical community. Exploring the latest cutting-edge research on psychedelics, along with their use in indigenous cultures throughout history for rites of passage and shamanic rituals, Neal Goldsmith reveals that the curative effect of entheogens comes not from a chemical effect on the body but rather by triggering a peak or spiritual experience. He provides guidelines for working with entheogens, groundbreaking analyses of the concept--and the process--of change in psychotherapy, and, ultimately, his own story of psychedelic healing. Examining the tribal roots of this knowledge, Goldsmith shows that by combining ancient wisdom and modern research, we can unlock the emotional, mental, and spiritual healing powers of these unique and powerful tools, providing an integral medicine for postmodern society.

Spiritual Dimensions of Healing

Author : Stanley Krippner
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Spiritual Dimensions of Healing by : Stanley Krippner

Download or read book Spiritual Dimensions of Healing written by Stanley Krippner and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Audio tape focuses on two shamanic healers, Graywolf and Nicky Scully, both of whom live and work in Oregon. They discuss their models of healing, and their healing procedures and techniques. An excerpt from sessions with clients is included illustrating dreamworking with Graywolf and guided imagery with Nicky Scully.

The Sacred Path of the Therapist

Author : Irene R. Siegel
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 0393712419
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (937 download)

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Book Synopsis The Sacred Path of the Therapist by : Irene R. Siegel

Download or read book The Sacred Path of the Therapist written by Irene R. Siegel and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2017-09-19 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Integrating Western psychological understanding with ancient Eastern and wisdom traditions, Siegel addresses how spiritual resonance is achieved within the psychotherapeutic process in The Sacred Path of the Therapist. Readers will learn how mindfulness practices and attunement can help them move clients toward recovery and beyond, allowing full potential to emerge within a shared coherent field of awakening consciousness. Topics include translating transpersonal theory into practice, understanding the human energy field, and the integration of psychotherapy and spiritual initiation. Drawing from her unique experiences working with master shamans as well as practicing as a psychotherapist, Irene Siegel discusses the evolving role of the therapist as both therapist and healer. Shamans are ancestral teachers, guides to nonordinary realms of consciousness and a divine cosmic whole within silent sacred spaces. Using lessons from native shamanic tradition and the evolving field of transpersonal psychology, both healer and client will learn to access the innate inner wisdom and healing potential within themselves through guided meditation exercises within moment-by-moment sacred space. The expanding content and context of therapy blends the two worlds: the clinical world and the world of the shaman.

Neo-shamanism and Mental Health

Author : Karel James Bouse
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030319113
Total Pages : 163 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (33 download)

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Book Synopsis Neo-shamanism and Mental Health by : Karel James Bouse

Download or read book Neo-shamanism and Mental Health written by Karel James Bouse and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-10-24 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the contemporary practice of Neo-shamanism and its relationship to mental health. Chapters cover the practice of Neo-shamanism, how it differs from traditional shamanism, the technology of the shamanic journey, the lifeworlds of some of its practitioners, as well as its benefits and pitfalls. The author’s analysis draws on an in-depth study of existing literature, original qualitative-phenomenological research into the lifeworlds of practitioners, and nearly three decades of observation and experience as a student, teacher and practitioner of Neo-shamanism. She discusses the potential role of Neo-shamanic journey technology as an approach for psychology-based studies of consciousness and anomalous phenomena; its value as a tool for self-exploration as part of a supervised curriculum; as well as the possible therapeutic applications of the journey and shamanic healing protocols for use by mental health professionals. This book is a rich and timely resource for students and teachers of psychology, anthropology and sociology, psychotherapists, and anyone who is interested in consciousness and parapsychology.

Healing Thoughts, Therapeutic Shamanism

Author : Steven E. Rogat
Publisher : Creative Thought Center
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 188 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis Healing Thoughts, Therapeutic Shamanism by : Steven E. Rogat

Download or read book Healing Thoughts, Therapeutic Shamanism written by Steven E. Rogat and published by Creative Thought Center. This book was released on 1997 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Dynamic Energetic Healing

Author : Howard Brockman
Publisher : Columbia Press
ISBN 13 : 9780976646976
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (469 download)

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Book Synopsis Dynamic Energetic Healing by : Howard Brockman

Download or read book Dynamic Energetic Healing written by Howard Brockman and published by Columbia Press. This book was released on 2010-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers an alternative for the people frustrated with the over-prescription of anti-depressants and countless hours of talk therapy by combining contemporary psychology with ancient spiritual wisdom. This book explains the Dynamic Energetic Healing registered] model and its practical applications, along with seventeen case studies.

Shamans, Mystics, and Doctors

Author : Sudhir Kakar
Publisher : Knopf
ISBN 13 : 0307831795
Total Pages : 393 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (78 download)

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Book Synopsis Shamans, Mystics, and Doctors by : Sudhir Kakar

Download or read book Shamans, Mystics, and Doctors written by Sudhir Kakar and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2013-04-03 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shamans, Mystics and Doctors is a detailed and thoroughly fascinating account of the many ways in which the ancient healing traditions of India—embodied in the rituals of shamans, the teachings of gurus and the precepts of the school of medicine known as Ayurveda—diagnose and treat emotional disorder. Drawing on three years of intensive fieldwork and his own psychoanalytic training and experience, Sudhir Kakar takes us into a world of Islamic mosques and Hindu temples, of assembled multitudes, and dingy, out-of-the-way consultation rooms… a world where patients and healers blame evil spirits for emotional disturbances… where dreams and symptoms that would be familiar to Freud are interpreted in terms of a myriad of deities and legends… where trance-like “dissociation states” are induced to bring out and resolve the conflicts of repressed anger, lust and envy… where proper grooming, diet, exercise and conduct are (and have been for centuries) seen as essential to the preservation of a healthy mind and body. As he witnesses the practitioners and their patients, as he elucidates the therapeutic systems on which their encounters are based, as he contrasts his own Western training and biases with evidence of his eyes (and the sympathies of his heart), Kakar reveals the universal concerns of these individuals and their admittedly foreign cultures—people we can recognize and feel for, people (like their Western counterparts) trying to find some balance between the pressures and rewards of the external world and the fantasies and desires of the internal. This is a major work of cultural interpretation, a book that challenges (and should enhance) our understanding of therapy, mental health and individual freedom.