The Healing Spirit: Explorations in Religion and Psychotherapy

Having gone through hardcover and paperback editions at Paragon House Publishers, The Healing Spirit is being reprinted by Bonne Chance Press because it has established itself as the classic text of psychiatry and religion. It describes an elemental psychology of religion, in which the exalted and troubling themes that are universal to the human condition, and that can be found in all sacred texts, can be clearly defined, located, and then utilized in psychotherapy. Using human stories and great classics of religious literature, it reveals why religion can be healing, soothing, inspiring, or the source of cruel, violent, and destructive hatreds. Based on a seminar that the author taught for eight years at the school of medicine, Yale University, the book evokes an atmosphere of intimate exchange among psychotherapists about the moving and meaningful issues that arise in the clinical encounter.