Creativity, Spirituality, and Mental Health: Exploring Connections

by Kelley Raab Mayo, Jeff Astley, James A Beckford, Richard Brummer, Vincent Brümmer

Overview

This book emphasizes the integral connections between imagination, creativity, and spirituality and their role in healing. Part One highlights the work of a neglected yet important psychoanalyst, Marion Milner - a painter and undeclared mystic - expanding her work on creativity, mysticism, and mental health. Part Two explores imagination and creativity as expressed in fostering hope and in spiritually-oriented therapies, particularly for mood, anxiety, and eating disorders - offering practical application of studies in imagination and the arts. Raab Mayo concludes that both creativity and the potential for transcendence are inherent in the human psyche and can work as allies in the process of healing from mental illness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781409478348
Publisher:	Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Publication date:	05/28/2013
Series:	Ashgate New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Kelley Raab Mayo is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Ottawa, with a cross-appointment in Classics and Religious Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Ottawa, with a specialization in psychology of religion. In 2005 she was ordained a minister in the United Church of Christ, expanding her research into the area of pastoral theology in a mental health context. Dr Raab Mayo has published articles on mysticism, creativity, and mental health in such journals as the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion and Mental Health, Religion and Culture. She works as a chaplain at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre.

Table of Contents

Contents: Introduction; Marion Milner on mysticism and creativity; Spirituality and creativity: theory and practice; Hope and religious imagination; Issues of mood and anxiety; Eating disorders; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

’I recommend the book as a welcome addition to health-care literature, not least because of the connections made between imagination and hope in the context of healing.’ Church Times ’Any person interested in psychoanalysis, complementary and alternative medicine, and spirituality will find in this book a wealth of relevant investigative leads.’ Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy ’... the author is to be commended for the amount of information and inspiration she offers people with mental and emotional problems and those caring for them.’ Practical Theology 'Mayo’s approach to psychological healing through interrelating creativity and spirituality represents an underexplored route in the realm of psychiatric health, which makes her text a must read for students and scholars of psychiatry, psychology, and psychology of religion.' Religious Studies Review

From the Publisher