This volume sheds new light on addiction and other ailments, detailing a recipe for transcendence. The author describes pattern addiction as the root of a variety of psychologicl and physical afflictions including what is traditionally called addiction. Drug addiction offers one of the most tangible examples of patterning and some of the most tangible evidence that addiction to a pattern can be transcended. Pattern addiction is part of the human condition. It frequently manifests itself in explicit symptoms such as drug addiction, physical pain, chronic ailments including ulcers, and even cancer. Implicit pattern addictions are built over a long period of time because most neurological programming takes place over time. This patterning becomes detrimental when the pattern is harmful to the emotional, physical, and/or spiritual well-being of the individual (or his family or community). All too often, medicine treats the explicit symptoms of an affliction without correcting the underlying and more implicit pattern addictions. This is due, in part, to the inability of current medical theory to do more.
Addiction is often thought about in terms of cause, be that brain chemistry, attachment patterns or cognitive schemas. But this does not allow an understanding of what addiction "is". It does not illuminate how addiction is lived. A phenomenology of addiction reveals that addiction is characterised by an intolerance of pain, a pursuit of pleasure, immediacy, technocratic solutions, alienation, ambiguity and is drenched in deception. These are its individual clinical manifestations, but this is also the way life, in this century, is lived. The addict is thus the ultimate 21st century subject, consuming without end, intolerant of emotion and unable to grasp their own limitations. Rather than embraced, these subjects act as a denied symptom, haunting late capitalism and exposing the vampire-like nature of our culture. As such, these subjects need to be treated not just as individuals who have "gone too far", but as victims of the political agenda shaping our lives. Thus the heart of the book is a description of addiction deepened by existential-phenomenological theory. This description is then used to understand the historical emergence of addiction, its socio-political manifestation and also the crucial issue of how to clinically treat the addict-subject.
Psychotherapy, in order to survive, must shift from curing to caring. The pathological model is giving way to the growth model. Finding wholeness in our confusion requires imagination and transcendence. Healing requires more than self-knowledge and awareness. Only through experiencing oneself, in a struggle of mutual acceptance, are the blocks to the life force removed. The book is about being fully alive. It leads to the thinking of the most profound psychotherapy into the next century. Existentialism is the framework by which the author addresses our deepest life needs. It alone gives meaning to our experience. A seasoned and thoughtful clinician, the author furnishes rich techniques and approaches toward a new understanding of patients' life dilemmas. His solid and dramatic case material shows how he keeps himself and his patients deeply engaged in experiencing life in abundance. This nourishing book will lead both therapist and client away from burnout into deeper lives of optimism, freshness and creativity.
"Dr. Norman Rosenthal's Transcendence is the best-ever book on Transcendental Meditation: accessible and substantive, engaging and scientific, practical and profound. A very enjoyable read that can change your life, for good." - David Lynch "I have been meditating for over 10 years, and I found Transcendence to be a uniquely compelling introduction to the art and science of Transcendental Meditation. Dr. Norman Rosenthal's book will propel TM into the mainstream where it belongs." - Russell Simmons In this definitive book on the scientifically proven health and stress-relieving benefits of Transcendental Meditation, a renowned psychiatrist and researcher explores why TM works, what it can do for you, and how to use it for maximum effect. Norman E. Rosenthal, M.D., a twenty-year researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health and the celebrated psychiatrist who pioneered the study and treatment of Season Affective Disorder (SAD), brings us the most important work on Transcendental Meditation since the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Science of Being and Art of Living-- and one of our generation's most significant books on achieving greater physical and mental health and wellness. Transcendence demystifies the practice and benefits of Transcendental Meditation for a general audience who may have heard about the method but do not necessarily know what it is, how it is learned, or what they stand to gain, physically and emotionally, from achieving transcendence. Dr. Rosenthal clearly and practically explains the basic ideas behind Transcendental Meditation: It is a nonreligious practice that involves sitting comfortably for twenty minutes twice a day while using a silent mantra, or nonverbal sound, to attain a profound state of aware relaxation. Alongside exclusive celebrity interviews-where figures like Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Martin Scorsese, Russell Brand, Laura Dern, Moby, and David Lynch openly discuss their meditation-Dr. Rosenthal draws upon experience from the lives of his patients and a wealth of clinical research amassed on TM over the past generation (340 peer-reviewed published articles). He provides the fullest and most accessible book ever on the broad range of benefits of this remarkably simple practice, from relief of anxiety, stress and depression to new hope for those experiencing addiction, attention-deficit disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
This volume explores the addiction-focused group therapy sessions led by Dr. Richard Miller, revealing the way he directs and works with collections of shifting feelings and energies. Many traditionalists have struggled with and even refuted the notion that psychotherapy can be valuable in addiction treatment. They have argued that psychotherapy is too general, that addicted people need more addiction- specific treatment. Dr. Miller has responded that psychotherapy is an immensely powerful tool which can be directed to meet the specific needs of its recipients, that it can be addiction-focused. He has also argued that psychotherapy is essential in addiction therapy and that gestalt therapy is a powerful tool in the retrieval, examination, and release of buried feelings that may create fertile ground for addictive behavior. The volume includes edited and abridged transcripts of psychotherapy sessions led by Dr. Miller, didactic descriptions of components of his methods, an interview with Dr. Miller, autobiographies, and poetry of some of the group participants, and a look into the future of psychotherapy in addiction treatment.
Drawn from yoga philosophy and mindfulness, this collection of 30 potent, supportive tools will bolster, inspire, and assist those in addiction recovery. This collection of 30 yoga and mindfulness tools will help support those in recovery from addiction of all kinds. Thirty accessible, pointed teachings offer inspiration, comfort, and solidarity in the moment, helping us cultivate a powerful and purposeful life in recovery and to create a new design for living. Each chapter focuses on a quality—such as vigilance, acceptance, accountability, among others—and delves into how to manifest it in your recovery journey. Brian Hyman, a yoga teacher and recovery activist, understands deeply what people need to maintain sobriety and strengthen recovery—and knows that those who struggle with addiction also often need support with other mental health challenges, like obsession, anxiety, depression. The practices—which include inquiry questions, meditations, awareness exercises, breathing practices, yoga nidra, among others—will quiet the mind in difficult moments, support us as we establish meaningful relationships, and reinforce the power that recovery offers us. He offers resources and additional reading suggestions in the back matter. Hyman uses yogic philosophy, mindfulness teachings, personal anecdotes, and secular wisdom to illuminate each quality and the role it plays in helping us create the life we want.
This book addresses an epidemic that has developed on a global scale, and, which under the heading of “addiction,” presents a new narrative about the travails of the human predicament. The book introduces phenomenological motifs, such as desire, embodiment, and temporality, to uncover the existential roots of addiction, and develops Martin Heidegger’s insights into technology to uncover the challenge of becoming a self within the impulsiveness and depersonalization of our digital age. By charting a new path of philosophical inquiry, the book allows a pervasive, cultural phenomenon, ordinarily reserved to psychology, to speak as a referendum about the danger which technology poses to us on a daily basis. In this regard, addiction ceases to be merely a clinical malady, and instead becomes a “signpost” to exposing a hidden danger posed by the assimilation of our culture within a technological framework.
"All spiritual traditions have a wisdom literature. Alcoholics Anonymous is a spiritual tradition. Its influence and spread in the present century is going to depend on how well each generation of those in recovery assimilate and interiorize the basic wisdom that is enshrined in the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions." --Thomas Keating In this major new work, Father Thomas Keating reflects on the wisdom and legacy of the Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve-Step Method and its connections to, and similarities with, the Christian mystical traditions of centering prayer and Lectio Divina. In conversation with a long-time member of AA meetings, Father Thomas talks insightfully about surrendering to one's Higher Power and the journey that must be undertaken for the healing of the soul to begin.
In this bold departure from our usual view of death, Anglela Browne-Miller proposes that the fearless engagement of change and loss can be used as preparation for death and as a means to be more fully alive. Using death as a metaphor, she explains how life's transitions--including changes in relationships, habits, and belief systems--can be opportunities to reclaim personal autonomy and freedom.
This book is an exploration of ideas within the context of culture history. It involves an ideational reversal of the usual relationship existing between psychotherapists and artists. Instead of approaching the phenomenon of art from within a scientific frame of reference, psychotherapy is approached from within an aesthetic frame of reference. This unorthodox procedure proves to be productive in generating novel perspectives and new meanings in what are seen to be the twin phenomena of modern art and psychotherapy. Freud and Cezanne were key figures among those instrumental in the transformation of nineteenth century Western consciousness into twentieth century consciousness. Their influence continues unabated as we move into a new century. There are continuing radical implications in their thought that have yet to be fully realized.
