Bragdon Emma - Spiritism and mental health: practices from spiritist centers and spiritist psychiatric hospitals in Brazil

Most Americans believe healing consists of manipulating the molecules in our body through the use of medications or surgery. It comes as a surprise, therefore, to discover that sophisticated, effective healing traditions exist in other cultures that are based on a different approach. Spiritism and Mental Health is a marvelous introduction to the Brazilian Spiritist tradition. It is also a look at how consciousness-based research is transforming scientific medicine in our own culture.

Larry Dossey, MD, author of The Power of Premonitions , Healing Words , and Reinventing Medicine

Spiritism and Mental Health is a heartfelt paradigm-expanding glimpse into the future of mental health care. This books incredibly rich assortment of articles may seem off-puttingly esoteric at first glance, but the 26 chapters provide a comprehensive and down-to-earth overview of one of humanitys most ancient healing practicesworking with spiritsand how this spiritual perspective may help guide psychiatry out of its current psychopharmacological dead end.

Dr. Emma Bragdon provides a great service by building a bridge that brings these timeless ideas and their modern adaptations (i.e. a description of the Department of Spiritual Assistance at a Spiritist Psychiatric Hospital in Brazil) to an American audience, with the help of an all-star lineup that has enough medical credibility to pass muster among the staunchest skeptics (Beverly Rubik, Melvin Morse, Linda Russek, Dean Radin, and Stan Krippner, among others). The book contains invaluable resourcesextensive references, a listing of professional associations, and a glossary of terms. Dr. Bragdon is to be commendedtwo thumbs up!

Eric Leskowitz, MD, faculty member of the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Integrative Medicine Project at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston, USA

In Spiritism and Mental Health, psychotherapist Dr. Emma Bragdon, a renowned author and expert on Kardecs Spiritism, assesses the importance of including the spiritual aspects of human existence in mental health care. Drawing on decades of her own experience, and together with an impressive international team of professionals in the field, this scholarly book discusses numerous revealing case studies and stunning results. A must read for health care professionals; a leading-edge contribution toward the new paradigm required in our American mental health care system!

Klaus Heinemann, PhD, Physicist and author

Evidence that intuition and inner knowing has a central role in mental health care is keenly substantiated in this ground-breaking book on Spiritism. Brazilian Spiritist medical doctors contribute chapters revealing the rich 150-year-old history of spiritual treatments used in Brazilian community centers and psychiatric hospitals. Modern consciousness researchers and psychiatrists expose the importance of accepting a new paradigm of the mind in order to implement healing. Together in one book they offer a model sure to bring a renewal to the practice of psychiatry and psychology.

Judith Orloff, MD, Psychiatrist and author of Second Sight

This book is brilliant for all those interested in mental health and the role of spirit. It brings together the current scientific evidence supporting the role of the spirit in mental health and the amazing and ground-breaking experience from integrating psychiatry and Spiritism in Brazil. What an inspiration. Now we need to find a way to bring this into practice.

Dr. Haraldur Erlendsson, CMC, DCN, MSc, MRCPsych, Psychiatrist, The Dene Hospital, West Sussex, UK

A brilliant explanation of Spiritist practice in Brazila tour de force in introducing consciousness and spirituality to psychiatric treatment. I highly recommend this book for those wishing to practice truly holistic medicine.

John L. Turner, MD, Neurosurgeon and author of Medicine, Miracles and Manifestations: A Doctors Journey Through the Wolds of Divine Intervention, Near-Death Experiences, and Universal Energy

I recommend reading this book wholeheartedly. I think it is an important contribution to broadening our perspectives and it presents a wealth of information from other cultures. It confronts our fundamental beliefs and asks us to address the spiritual dimensions of mental health treatment. I believe it is our ethical obligation to investigate this to evaluate and revise our own mental health treatment programs.

Brian Sackett, PhD, Psychologist

Clinicians who are open to exploring transpersonal aspects of mental health and illness will find Spiritism and Mental Health absolutely fascinating. This book will also be of interest to anyone who is exploring the deeper processes and meanings of life and the human condition.

Daniel Benor, MD (Psychiatry), Editor-in-Chief of The International Journal of Healing and Caring

Spiritism and Mental Health opens a new view on psychiatric practices in centers throughout Brazil. A number of chapters in the book have been published in peer-reviewed papers, while others appear here for the first time. Spiritist care in St. Paulo in the area of mental sub-normality is carried out at the Spiritist Hospital Andr Luiz. I have had an opportunity to visit this hospital and it is one of the best run mental institutions I have ever come across. One reason for this is the high level of compassionate care given by the volunteer Spiritist workers. For anyone interested in mental health, the Spiritist work in the psychiatric field being carried out in Brazil deserves wider recognition as many of the principles involved could with advantage be incorporated into psychiatric practice of other countries. A book which raises many interesting questions and provides some challenging answers.

Peter Fenwick, MD, Psychiatrist and author of The Art of Dying

Spiritism and Mental Health is a must read for mental health workers interested in incorporating into their understandings beliefs and practices from another culture. Editor Emma Bragdon has brought together provocative and stimulating papers by scholars and practitioners working in the tradition of Brazilian Kardecist-Spiritism and those striving to incorporate the Spiritist perspective into their own, more traditional frameworks. The chapters clearly present and analyze the assumptions and therapeutic practices of this distinctive healing tradition while showing how it may be used to complement more conventional healing practices. The book is filled with case studies of patients treated by doctors, psychiatrists and other therapists in hospitals and religious centers in and outside Brazil with combinations of conventional Western and Spiritist treatments. The outcomes for the patients provide a new and exciting direction for scholars and therapists willing to expand their frameworks and approaches to treatment.

Sidney Greenfield, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and author of Spirits with Scalpels: The Cultural Biology of Religious Healing in Brazil

This book brings new light to our understanding of mental health and encourages a deeper approach to healing. Emma Bragdons work shows an insightful and integrated understanding of science, spirituality, and the world of subtle energies. The Foreword by James Lake, MD is a testimonial of great value. As a doctor and healer I found it highly informative reading. It is my belief that this type of understanding will become increasingly important in our next stage of evolution, as more of us work consciously with subtle energies to achieve a greater sense of balance and well-being.