Speaking just months after the end of the First World War, Rudolf Steiner urges his audience to awaken to the practical relevance of spiritual knowledge. Serious engagement with contemporary spiritual-scientific concepts can awaken healthy forces of the will, which in turn facilitate constructive action in the outer world. Conversely, ideas that are remnants of a previous age – echoed in empty phrases and dogmas – only hinder our ability to think with the consciousness demanded by the times, destroying the potential for true social initiative. The historical context of these lectures was indeed disastrous, with inflation, hunger, homelessness and political extremism all rife. But Steiner advises that social conditions will only get worse if people don’t engage with modern spiritual impulses. Thus – in contrast to the backward phenomenon of nationalism and the contemporary caricature of democracy – he introduces the future-oriented concept of social threefolding. He discusses manifold challenges, such as the decline of the West and the outmoded spiritual impulses of Jesuitism and Freemasonry – but also the positive path for an ascent of Western societies, genuine spiritual medicine, the true message of Easter, and the victory of the Archangel Michael. In several lectures, Rudolf Steiner speaks in some detail about the role and structure of the Catholic Church, the historical use of encyclicals and the doctrine of Papal Infallibility. The first full translation of this course features an introduction by Dorothy Hinkle-Uhlig, notes and an index. Seventeen lectures, Dornach, Mar.–Jul. 1920, GA 198
How the brain's architecture is related to the problems, passions, and aspirations of human beings. In contrast to this view, recent theoretical advances in brain imaging have revealed that the brain is an organ continually built and re-built by one's experience. We are now beginning to learn that many forms of psychotherapy, developed in the absence of any scientific understanding of the brain, are supported by neuroscientific findings. In fact, it could be argued that to be an effective psychotherapist these days it is essential to have some basic understanding of neuroscience. Louis Cozolino's The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy, Second Edition is the perfect place to start. In a beautifully written and accessible synthesis, Cozolino illustrates how the brain's architecture is related to the problems, passions, and aspirations of human beings. As the book so elegantly argues, all forms of psychotherapy--from psychoanalysis to behavioral interventions--are successful to the extent to which they enhance change in relevant neural circuits. Beginning with an overview of the intersecting fields of neuroscience and psychotherapy, this book delves into the brain's inner workings, from basic neuronal building blocks to complex systems of memory, language, and the organization of experience. It continues by explaining the development and organization of the healthy brain and the unhealthy brain. Common problems such as anxiety, trauma, and codependency are discussed from a scientific and clinical perspective. Throughout the book, the science behind the brain's working is applied to day-to-day experience and clinical practice. Written for psychotherapists and others interested in the relationship between brain and behavior, this book encourages us to consider the brain when attempting to understand human development, mental illness, and psychological health. Fully and thoroughly updated with the many neuroscientific developments that have happened in the eight years since the publication of the first edition, this revision to the bestselling book belongs on the shelf of all practitioners.
13 lectures, Dornach, Jan. 2-Apr. 25, 1924 (CW 316) Steiner's third lecture course to physicians has a character completely different from previous presentations. Delivered in response to a group of young doctors, it offers unique, groundbreaking insights into the practice and art of healing. Steiner speaks about the influence of cosmic and earthly forces--the periphery and center--on the human being. Proper understanding of these processes enables the physician to comprehend the actions of plants and minerals used in anthroposophic medicines, and thus to prescribe appropriate and individually specific remedies. Steiner paints a picture of the human being as a complex confluence of the forces of heredity, forces from the cosmos, and an individual's unique spiritual nature. The physician has to understand these relationships in order to be able to help effectively when they are out of balance. Steiner stresses the importance of personal development for physicians, and offers plentiful instructions for a meditative practice intrinsic to their work. Among a wealth of other topics, Steiner addresses inflammation and excessive growth; the scarlet fever and measles; the importance of a child's food and breast milk; the functions of the liver, heart, head, and skeleton; the incarnation process; karma as a guide for the physician; morality as a force flowing in from the cosmos; the cosmic trinity of Saturn, Sun, and Moon in healthy and sick people; and the human heart's involvement in thinking. Included here are Steiner's answers to questions and the first newsletter from the Medical Section, with a key meditation for physicians. This volume also features 18 full-color plates of Steiner's blackboard drawings, a comprehensive introduction, index and notes. READ A REVIEW OF THIS BOOK BY BOBBY MATHERNE This volume is a translation from German of Meditative Betrachtungen und Anleitungen zur Vertiefung der Heilkunst (GA 316). Eight of the lectures in this volume were previously translated and published as Course for Young Doctors.
"Reading through this volume is to be taken on a journey. It is to walk with Robert Sardello on his journey as he pushes forward toward new realities. In a sense, each step is not so easy. The thinking often appears dense, the ideas often new and therefore disconcerting. But each individual piece, as the whole, is bathed in an aura--in a way, we may say it is bathed in soul; in love, in generosity, and friendship. Attending to these, we find the ideas and the new possibilities begin to make sense. We are moved to change our lives." -- Christopher Bamford (from his introduction) In these introductions, Robert Sardello introduces us to many people we may not otherwise have met and introduces us to many ways of being and thinking, which we didn't know before. The range of those we meet in these pages is staggering. At the same time, there is a sweet harmony and ever-unfolding deepening of a single theme. Miraculously, it pervades and shapes the entire sequence of those whom he presents, even though he often wrote in response to a request, and not initially on his own initiative. Robert writes of matters with which he has made a deep friendship, and out of that friendship he has received and participated in a communion of ideas. He is able to do this because he has entered the aspiration of those he is introducing at the deepest level, making their insights his own and deepening them in his own way. An introduction conveys a particular soul capacity. For Robert Sardello, "soul capacities" are of the essence of what he calls Spiritual Psychology. Together with the worlds and beings to which they correspond, it is such capacities that make us human and enable us to fulfill our human tasks. Reading these introductions is an astonishing experience. Within their short, individual compasses, they allow us to participate in Robert's own journey: to catch, as it were, the bird in flight and fly with it. That is, they map his journey--at least, that portion of it that began to unfold as his destiny began to crystallize. "Robert Sardello's insights navigate many hazardous abstractions, from the so-called New Age through the perennial philosophies. With Sophia as his muse, the 'current from the future' calls him, carrying its many imaginations as energy, the always-immediate now, and the truly new. Across these authors' writings, his visionary perspective deepens in dialogue with the different works as authored beings. For writings possess their own spirit, or how otherwise do they engender a unique spirit when reborn within our own imagination?" -- Scott R. Scribner (from his introduction)
‘The intention is to take a practical subject and show how our spiritual science with anthroposophical orientation truly can play an effective role in everyday life.’ – Rudolf Steiner Following his first major lecture course for medical practitioners, Rudolf Steiner sought to elaborate and deepen his ‘extension’ of the art of healing from a spiritual-scientific perspective. In this collection of addresses, discussions, question-and-answer sessions and lectures – running parallel to his major medical cycles – Steiner comments on contemporary medicine’s emphasis on experimental, materially-based research and its subsequent lack of attention to therapy. Steiner’s intention is not to detract from developments in medical science but to build on them with spiritual science – not quackery but a true art of medicine. The medical practitioner has an important task: diseases must be cured, and it is wrong not to intervene and simply to allow ‘karma to take its course’. Speaking to audiences ranging from members of the general public to small groups of medical professionals, Steiner offers new insights into our understanding of human organs such as the brain, kidneys and liver, as well as the efficacy of healing substances including arsenic, sulphur, arnica and essential plant oils. He studies a broad range of specific medical conditions, giving advice on cancer, hysteria, rheumatism, gout, skin eruptions, typhoid, diabetes, haemophilia, syphilis, gonorrhoea, asthma, glaucoma, leukaemia, smallpox, insomnia, and childhood diseases such as measles. His commentaries on a raft of contrasting subjects – such as psychiatry, sexual maturity, memory, poisoning and detoxification – present challenging perspectives for patients and medical practitioners. Steiner’s surprisingly non-dogmatic advice on vaccination, for example, gives a refreshingly balanced, and perhaps unexpected, point of view. This volume also includes a lecture on eurythmy therapy, a comprehensive introduction, index and notes, and nine full colour plates of Rudolf Steiner’s blackboard drawings.
This book is an edited collection of essays by fourteen multicultural women (including a few Anglo women) who are doing work that crosses the boundaries of ecological and social healing. The women are prominent academics, writers and leaders spanning Native American, Indigenous, Asian, African, Latina, Jewish and Multiracial backgrounds. The contributors express a myriad of ways that the relationship between the ecological and social have brought new understanding to their experiences and work in the world. Moreover by working with these edges of awareness, they are identifying new forms of teaching, leading, healing and positive change. Ecological and Social Healing is rooted in these ideas and speaks to an "edge awareness or consciousness." In essence this speaks to the power of integrating multiple and often conflicting views and the transformations that result. As women working across the boundaries of the ecological and social, we have powerful experiences that are creating new forms of healing. This book is rooted in academic theory as well as personal and professional experience, and highlights emerging models and insights. It will appeal to those working, teaching and learning in the fields of social justice, environmental issues, women's studies, spirituality, transformative/environmental/sustainability leadership, and interdisciplinary/intersectionality studies.
Today, illness is almost universally regarded as either a nuisance or a grave misfortune. In contrast to this conventional thinking, Rudolf Steiner places the suffering caused by disease in a broad vista that includes an understanding of karma and personal metamorphosis. Illness comes to expression in the physical body, but mostly does not originate in it, says Steiner, and thus a key part of the physician’s work involves gaining insight into the whole nature of an individual – his essential core being. From this perspective, illness offers us the opportunity for deeper healing. Throughout this volume Rudolf Steiner draws our attention to the greater scope of the smallest phenomena – even a seemingly insignificant headache. He casts vivid light on things we normally take for granted, such as the human capacity to laugh or cry, and in the process broadens our vision of human existence. The apparently mundane human experiences of forgetting and remembering are intrinsic to our humanity, for example, and have unsuspected moral and spiritual dimensions. Steiner’s insights are never merely ‘lofty’ or nebulously ‘spiritual’ but time and again connect with the minutest realities of everyday life. In these 18 lectures, delivered on a weekly basis as part of an ongoing course covering ‘the whole field of spiritual science’, Steiner elaborates in detail on the diverse interplay of the human being’s constituting aspects (physical body, etheric body, astral body and ego or ‘I’) in relation to rhythmic processes, developing consciousness, the history of human evolution, and our connection with the cosmos. Within this broad canvas, some of his themes acquire a very distinctive focus – such as vivid accounts of the ‘intimate history’ of Christianity, ‘creating out of nothing’, the interior of the earth, and health and illness. Other topics include: the nature of pain, suffering, pleasure and bliss; the four human group souls of lion, bull, eagle and man; the significance of the Ten Commandments; the nature of original sin; the deed of Christ and the adversary powers of Lucifer, Ahriman and the Asuras; evolution and involution; the Atlantean period – and even Friedrich Nietzsche’s madness!
Although this book was first published in 1919, it remains highly relevant to social problems encountered today. Uniquely, Steiner's social thinking is not based on intellectual theory, but on a profound perception of the archetypal spiritual nature of social life. As he suggests in this classic work, society has three distinct realms - the economic, the political (individual human rights), and the cultural (spiritual). While social life as a whole is a unity, the autonomy of these three sectors should be respected if our increasing social problems are to be resolved. Steiner relates the ideals of 'liberty, equality and fraternity' to modern society. Economics calls for fraternity (brotherhood), political rights require equality, while culture should be characterised by liberty (freedom). The slogans of the French Revolution, he suggests, can only become truly manifest if our social thinking is transformed to correspond to the spiritual reality.
In Basic Social Policy and Planning, Burch presents a generic process for professional intervention and social work leadership that is required of those who desire to achieve improvements in the lives of those they serve. Burch developed this text and guide so that even persons with no prior formal training in social planning can apply these principles in their practices. Because few social workers are content with simply repairing the damages caused by inequities, inadequacies, and injustices in society, Basic Social Policy and Planning offers a usable set of guidelines on how to change lives for the better, in small and occasionally large ways, from within any setting--agency, community, and public policy. Social workers, nurses, teachers, and other human service professionals spend their lives relating to the social and emotional needs and problems of people. Burch converts sophisticated policy and planning concepts and techniques into a form which experts and non-experts can understand, relate to, and apply in their practices. He supplies these workers with approaches, methods, models, ways of thinking, and techniques for planning. He covers: VIBES (Values, Interests, Beliefs, Ethics, and Slants): Understanding where you and others are coming from and toward what destination you and they are heading Systems theories and worldviews: Understanding how these affect planning Logical analysis of all ways of thinking--scientific and experiential, bounded and nonbounded Different approaches to planning--comprehensive rational analysis; disjointed incrementalism and satisficing; mixed scanning; strategic, decentralized, contingency, transactional, and advocacy planning Global, strategic, tactical, and project management levels of planning Needs assessment and participation of those who will be affected Quantitative and economic planning approaches: Understanding basic ideology and assumptions Quantitative and economic approaches--measurement, pricing, cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis, decision analysis When used as a text, the first priority of this book is to give BSW and MSW students the training which they will need and want later in their careers. This training is consistent with Council on Social Work Education’s required BSW/MSW foundation courses as well as advance practice courses in most programs. When used as a guidebook for the many practitioners who have learned, since graduation, that they need more skill in setting and achieving policy, agency, and community goals than they learned in school, Basic Social Policy and Planning can enhance the “left brain” in social workers, who as a group tend to be stronger in the “right brain” direction with chapters that walk the reader step-by-step through a generic rational planning model and tell why, whom, when, and how to involve others in planning. Because the substance of the book is rooted in advance interdisciplinary planning theory and practice, this book is just what the doctor ordered for a doctoral first course in policy and planning--it provides the “hard” background in planning for professors of policy and macro practice. It is also highly appropriate for new PhDs who are assigned to teach such courses with limited background with its chapters on foundations of policy and planning, various approaches to planning, and quantitative techniques related to costs, benefits, and uncertainties in planning.
