The Psychosis of God
The Psychosis of God

Author: Jeff Hood

Publisher: Wipf and Stock

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781498299008

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Psychosis has taken over. God's brain is gone. There is no cure. There is only God. There is only us. The Psychosis of God is about exploring the divine through the mentally ill amongst us. The image of our creator is the only tool we have for liberating God. The prison of our normative expectations steals our capacity for divine connection. Wake up! The mentally ill God is here to set the captives free. Think right! Perfection is now found in defection. Look out! Crazy is the only way out of this world alive. For BACK COVER: ""Jeff Hood is one of the great theological writers of our time. In teaching me what it means to be crazy, Jeff has taught me how to follow God."" --Christian Parks, Queer Anabaptist Pilgrim ""God is nuts! Dr. Hood's theology proves it."" --Rhonda Love, Professor of Public Health, University of Toronto (retired) ""Some of the things you read in this book will make you mad.Keep reading.Some of the things you read will challenge what you have been taught about God.Keep reading.Some of the things you read will make you think and think hard.Start thinking.It is past time to think of God made in our image and begin to explore the reality of who God is."" --Michelle Stafford, Transgender Southern Baptist Minister ""Jeff Hood is crazy as shit. This book is crazy as shit. I have no doubt you'll enjoy every word."" --Dan Kiniry, Prophetic Mover at Pilgrims in the Park ""Shock is Jeff Hood's most formidable tool. In these pages of theological exploration, even God gets shocked."" --Fred Clarkson, Activist Priest, Episcopal Diocese of Texas ""Just when I thought his writing couldn't get any better, Jeff Hood took me on a magical and painful journey to the mind of God. I'm changed."" --Jason Redick, United Methodist Rabble Rouser For INSIDE COVER: ""Is the human brain created in the image of God, including the parts impacted by mental illness? Jeff Hood argues for a theology that takes seriously God's intimate knowledge of mental illness, inviting us to see God suffering with us and saving us. At times disturbing and ultimately hopeful, this book is a welcomed addition to the conversation of the intersection of mental health and Christianity. Hood testifies to the expansive reach of God's love, even into the most diseased and disordered parts of the brain."" --Sarah Griffith Lund, Author of Blessed are the Crazy: Breaking the Silence About Mental Illness, Family and Church ""The Reverend Dr. Jeff Hood has penned yet another uncomfortable book. For some, The Psychosis of God will prove unnerving because of the topic; for others, because of the writing itself, which borders on the manic; and for those of us who are non-theists, because of the unrelentingly theological approach. And yet, this is a worthwhile read, perhaps even a necessary one. Right and wrong, beauty and ugliness, angels and demons --all dualities are mere appearances, conceptual constructs arising, enduring briefly, and subsiding in the empty luminosity of the unborn mind. Dr. Hood invites us to visit this luminous perfection, this emptiness where all is possible, the good and the bad."" --Tashi Nyima, New Jonang Buddhist Community ""Rev. Jeff Hood is the truth. I don't know anyone else better able to explain how intensely spiritual mental illness is. This book is a bridge of hope and understanding for those who are suffering."" --Olinka Green, Ambassador of Soul Justice ""While most of Christianity is stuck in an ableist theology of Platonic ideals, Rev. Hood seeks to provide liberation: liberation from thinking that our minds and bodies must be normalized, by showing us that even God has struggled. This book shows why it is vital to have theologies from marginalized and non-normative voices. May we all be challenged to see God's image in ourselves."" --Ember Kelley, Transgender Faith Activist ""In his newest book, Dr. Jeff Hood continues fulfilling his call to queer prophetic troublemaking. In the true spirit of liberation"

Hearing Voices, Demonic and Divine
Hearing Voices, Demonic and Divine

Author: Christopher C. H. Cook

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-12-07

Total Pages: 462

ISBN-13: 0429750943

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The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781472453983, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivative 4.0 license. Experiences of hearing the voice of God (or angels, demons, or other spiritual beings) have generally been understood either as religious experiences or else as a feature of mental illness. Some critics of traditional religious faith have dismissed the visions and voices attributed to biblical characters and saints as evidence of mental disorder. However, it is now known that many ordinary people, with no other evidence of mental disorder, also hear voices and that these voices not infrequently include spiritual or religious content. Psychological and interdisciplinary research has shed a revealing light on these experiences in recent years, so that we now know much more about the phenomenon of "hearing voices" than ever before. The present work considers biblical, historical, and scientific accounts of spiritual and mystical experiences of voice hearing in the Christian tradition in order to explore how some voices may be understood theologically as revelatory. It is proposed that in the incarnation, Christian faith finds both an understanding of what it is to be fully human (a theological anthropology), and God’s perfect self-disclosure (revelation). Within such an understanding, revelatory voices represent a key point of interpersonal encounter between human beings and God.

The Psychosis of God
The Psychosis of God

Author: Jeff Hood

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2016-09-08

Total Pages: 75

ISBN-13: 1498298990

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Psychosis has taken over. God's brain is gone. There is no cure. There is only God. There is only us. The Psychosis of God is about exploring the divine through the mentally ill amongst us. The image of our creator is the only tool we have for liberating God. The prison of our normative expectations steals our capacity for divine connection. Wake up! The mentally ill God is here to set the captives free. Think right! Perfection is now found in defection. Look out! Crazy is the only way out of this world alive.

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti
The Three Christs of Ypsilanti

Author: Milton Rokeach

Publisher: New York Review of Books

Published: 2011-04-19

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 1590173848

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On July 1, 1959, at Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan, the social psychologist Milton Rokeach brought together three paranoid schizophrenics: Clyde Benson, an elderly farmer and alcoholic; Joseph Cassel, a failed writer who was institutionalized after increasingly violent behavior toward his family; and Leon Gabor, a college dropout and veteran of World War II. The men had one thing in common: each believed himself to be Jesus Christ. Their extraordinary meeting and the two years they spent in one another’s company serves as the basis for an investigation into the nature of human identity, belief, and delusion that is poignant, amusing, and at times disturbing. Displaying the sympathy and subtlety of a gifted novelist, Rokeach draws us into the lives of three troubled and profoundly different men who find themselves “confronted with the ultimate contradiction conceivable for human beings: more than one person claiming the same identity.”

Broken Pieces and the God who Mends Them
Broken Pieces and the God who Mends Them

Author: Simonetta Carr

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781629953977

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When a son, sister, or grandchild begins to behave in unexpected and disturbing ways, family members hope it is simply a phase. For some, it is instead a lifetime illness—schizophrenia. The diagnosis of schizophrenia can bring shock, fear, and worry to everyone involved. But in the midst of the numerous challenges, hope doesn't have to die. Simonetta chronicles her experiences of caring for a son with schizophrenia, along with all the struggles, questions, and fervent prayer that went with it. But this isn't one person's story. She has provided information and wisdom from psychiatrists, pastors, parents, and people who successfully live with schizophrenia, uncovering the gospel in each situation and sharing hard-won insights on how to care and advocate for those we love.

Is Faith Delusion?
Is Faith Delusion?

Author: Andrew Sims

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2009-05-09

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1847063403

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How, in a scientifically and technologically advanced age, can people still believe in God? Andrew Sims examines both the connection and the division between Christian faith and psychiatry.

The Bible and Mental Health
The Bible and Mental Health

Author: Christopher C.H. Cook

Publisher: SCM Press

Published: 2020-08-30

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 0334059798

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Is it possible to develop such a thing as a biblical theology of mental health? How might we develop a helpful and pastoral use of scripture to explore questions of mental health within a Christian framework? This timely and important book integrates the highest levels of biblical scholarship with theological and pastoral concerns to consider how we use scripture when dealing with mental health issues.

Finding Jesus in the Storm
Finding Jesus in the Storm

Author: John Swinton

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2020-09-22

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1467460249

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People living with mental health challenges are not excluded from God’s love or even the fullness of life promised by Jesus. Unfortunately, this hope is often lost amid the well-meaning labels and medical treatments that dominate the mental health field today. In Finding Jesus in the Storm, John Swinton makes the case for reclaiming that hope by changing the way we talk about mental health and remembering that, above all, people are people, regardless of how unconventionally they experience life. Finding Jesus in the Storm is a call for the church to be an epicenter of compassion for those experiencing depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and related difficulties. That means breaking free of the assumptions that often accompany these diagnoses, allowing for the possibility that people living within unconventional states of mental health might experience God in unique ways that are real and perhaps even revelatory. In each chapter, Swinton gives voice to those experiencing the mental health challenges in question, so readers can see firsthand what God’s healing looks like in a variety of circumstances. The result is a book about people instead of symptoms, description instead of diagnosis, and lifegiving hope for everyone in the midst of the storm.

International Perspectives in Values-Based Mental Health Practice
International Perspectives in Values-Based Mental Health Practice

Author: Drozdstoy Stoyanov

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-12-11

Total Pages: 415

ISBN-13: 3030478521

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This open access book offers essential information on values-based practice (VBP): the clinical skills involved, teamwork and person-centered care, links between values and evidence, and the importance of partnerships in shared decision-making. Different cultures have different values; for example, partnership in decision-making looks very different, from the highly individualized perspective of European and North American cultures to the collective and family-oriented perspectives common in South East Asia. In turn, African cultures offer yet another perspective, one that falls between these two extremes (called batho pele). The book will benefit everyone concerned with the practical challenges of delivering mental health services. Accordingly, all contributions are developed on the basis of case vignettes, and cover a range of situations in which values underlie tensions or uncertainties regarding how to proceed in clinical practice. Examples include the patient’s autonomy and best interest, the physician’s commitment to establishing high standards of clinical governance, clinical versus community best interest, institutional versus clinical interests, patients insisting on medically unsound but legal treatments etc. Thus far, VBP publications have mainly dealt with clinical scenarios involving individual values (of clinicians and patients). Our objective with this book is to develop a model of VBP that is culturally much broader in scope. As such, it offers a vital resource for mental health stakeholders in an increasingly inter-connected world. It also offers opportunities for cross-learning in values-based practice between cultures with very different clinical care traditions.

The Myth of Mental Illness
The Myth of Mental Illness

Author: Thomas S. Szasz

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2011-07-12

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 0062104748

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“The landmark book that argued that psychiatry consistently expands its definition of mental illness to impose its authority over moral and cultural conflict.” — New York Times The 50th anniversary edition of the most influential critique of psychiatry every written, with a new preface on the age of Prozac and Ritalin and the rise of designer drugs, plus two bonus essays. Thomas Szasz's classic book revolutionized thinking about the nature of the psychiatric profession and the moral implications of its practices. By diagnosing unwanted behavior as mental illness, psychiatrists, Szasz argues, absolve individuals of responsibility for their actions and instead blame their alleged illness. He also critiques Freudian psychology as a pseudoscience and warns against the dangerous overreach of psychiatry into all aspects of modern life.