Religion, Culture and Mental Health [Hardcover]

Analyses the religious and cultural influences on common psychiatric disorders.How does religion affect mental health and how does this vary in different societies and cultures? This book examines the religious and cultural influences on a range of psychiatric disorders, including positive states of mind, in order to analyse whether such practices are beneficial or detrimental to mental health.How does religion affect mental health and how does this vary in different societies and cultures? This book examines the religious and cultural influences on a range of psychiatric disorders, including positive states of mind, in order to analyse whether such practices are beneficial or detrimental to mental health.Are religious practices involving seeing visions and speaking in tongues beneficial or detrimental to mental health? Do some cultures express distress in bodily form because they lack the linguistic categories to express distress psychologically? Do some religions encourage clinical levels of obsessional behaviour? And are religious people happier than others? By merging the growing information on religion and mental health with that on culture and mental health, Kate Loewenthal enables fresh perspectives on these questions. This book deals with different psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, manic disorders, depression, anxiety, somatisation and dissociation as well as positive states of mind, and analyses the religious and cultural influences on each.1. Introduction; 2. Schizophrenia; 3. Manic disorder; 4. Depression; 5. Anxiety; 6. Somatization; 7. Dissociation; 8. Positive states; 9. Conclusion. This book offers an excellent introduction to the field of religion, culture and mental health. It is comprehensive in its overview of contemporary studies. It reads in a clear and lucid way and will be useful for anyone in the field of mental health, religion and culture.
--Simon Dein, Consultant Psychiatrist and Senior Lecturer in the Academic Del��