Abstract:

This book represents an ambitious project that unites various fields in a multidisciplinary venture drawing on a diverse range of academics and clinicians from medicine, psychology and the educational sciences. The volume presents a plethora of essays and reviews by clinicians and academics, including highly personal contributions, some emotive and some self-confessional. Other contributors disclose details of their own personal pain and suffering in relation to critical life events, including illnesses, but also share their own resources and strengths, drawing on reflections and insights derived from literature, arts and psychology as well as medicine. Subsequently, these ideas lead to the creation of models for encouraging personal development: coping despite adversity and eventually finding meaning towards recovery both physically and psychologically. The authors are all very reflective, providing valuable advice for young practitioners and “afflicted” alike. The revelations of these distinguished contributors highlight the powerful role of psycho-history and biography in understanding which persons have influenced our lives, and what events have shaped us, and how may these have influenced our personal and working lives.

Few scientific books address the wide spectrum of challenges required to resolve such developmental issues. This psychological battleground allows us to share and capitalise on the wealth and diversity of personal encounters with what often appears to be insurmountable obstacles, but which are wounds healed through patience and continued practice. This collection of essays is an attempt to bridge theoretical and research concepts and findings with clinical practice, adopting an interdisciplinary and crosscultural perspective. Accordingly, this book will be relevant and useful for practitioners and researchers, but also for laymen and social policy makers. The intended readership thus represents a very broad and diverse audience to include those interested in health psychology, sociology, anthropology, public health and mental health sciences.

The book contains contributions by the following authors: Bruce Kirkcaldy, Arnold Weinstein, Peter K. Chadwick, Robert Miller, David Lukoff, Frederick J. Frese, Gordon Claridge, Neus Barrantes-Vidal, Nisha Dogra, Thandi Haruperi, Aleksandra Tokarz, Emile A. Allen, Amanda K. Ekdawi, Adrian Furnham, Michael W. Eysenck and Peter R. Breggin.

Contents

Introduction: When, why and how healers can profit from their own vulnerability?
Bruce Kirkcaldy

The Wounded Healer in Literature
Arnold Weinstein

Before and After Psychosis: Is there anything positive to be gained from the experience?
Peter K. Chadwick

Steps Towards Better Collaboration Between Stakeholders to Promote Mental Health and to Alleviate Disablement due to Mental Illness
Robert Miller

A Contemporary Shamanistic Initiatory Crisis
David Lukoff

Schizophrenia – Prodromal Signs and Symptoms – A Personal Perspective
Frederick J. Frese

Creativity: a healthy side of madness
Gordon Claridge & Neus Barrantes-Vidal

“Intoxicating happiness” – the blazing trail of mania
Bruce Kirkcaldy

Cancer: An illness, nothing more, nothing less
Nisha Dogra

Recreating self: A personal journey
Thandi Haruperi

On the meaning of self-knowledge, creativity and personal resources in a case of coping with a cancer
Aleksandra Tokarz

Scars of the Wounded Healer
Emile A. Allen

Identification and Separation – Career Choice Following Parental Death in Adolescence
Amanda K Ekdawi

Workaholism
Adrian Furnham

Lost in Shadows?
Michael W. Eysenck

Empathy, Woundedness, Burn Out, and How to Love Being a Therapist
Peter R. Breggin