Spirituality and psychosis both inhabit the region where ordinary reason ceases to function and barriers break down. The connection between them is evident - what is remarkable is how conventional thinking obscures the connection. This book challenges conventional understandings with a radical new perspective.

The interface between psychosis and spirituality is explored, drawing on key research and latest developments from a wide spread of disciplines:

Gordon Claridge on schizotypy, Peter Fenwick on the neuropsychological perspective, Neil Douglas Klotz on a new understanding of spirituality, Peter Chadwick on the mystical side of psychosis, David Kingdon on CBT for psychosis and religious delusions, are just five of the 12 distinguished contributors to this book.

This new perspective will be important for those professionally interested in both psychosis and spirituality (therapists, priests, etc.) people seeking a well grounded framework for their own direct expererience in this area and everyone interested in the latest thinking and research on this topic.

CONTENTS

Part one - Foundations 1 - Introduction, Cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis, Isabel Oarke, 2 - The neurophysiology of experience, Peter Fenwick

Part two - Spirituality revisited 3 - The polarities of consciousness, Natalie Tobert, 4 - Missing Stories: psychosis, spirituality and Tne development of western religious hermeneutics, Neil Douglas-KJotz

5 - Sanity to supersanity to insanity: a personal journey, Peter K Chadwick, 6 - Spiritual experience: healthy psychoticism? Gordon Claridge, 7 - Psychopathology, psychosis and the kundalini: postmodern perspectives on unusual subjective experience, Richard House

Part four - The discontinuity hypothesis and its philosophical implications 8 -Psychosis and spirituality: the discontinuity model, Isabel Clarke, 9 - Construction and reality: reflections on philosophy and spiritual/psychotic experience, Chris Clarke

Part five - Research 10 - Psychotic and spiritual experience: a case study comparison, Mike Jackson, 11 - Are delusions on a continuum? The case of religious and delusional beliefs, Emmanuelle Peters

Part six - Clinical implications 12 - The experience of fragmentation in psychosis: can mindfulness help? Nigel Mills, 13 - Spirituality, psychosis and the development of 'normalising rationales', David Kingdon, Ron Siddle and Shanaya Rathod, 14 - Endword, Isabel Carke

Published by Whurr: February 2001 £ 19.50 ISBN: 1 86156 202 0 paperback 200pp