It has been suggested on occasion that psychiatry has been influenced by the planet’s former controllers to stigmatize and discourage things like disclosure of UFO sightings and by outmoded paradigms to categorize many enlightenment experiences or the confusion that can arise from them as psychotic breakdowns, etc. These diagnoses end up in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM).
Now American Psychiatric Publishing Inc. is issuing a new study that re-examines the psychiatric evaluation of spiritual and religious experiences. Psychiatry’s paradigm has long been that of empirical materialism, which has little room for the many elevated spiritual experiences people have. Let’s hope this new study will open the profession up to experiences that spiritual seekers prize and long for. Thanks to Amy.
Book of the Month: October
Religious and Spiritual Issues in Psychiatric Diagnosis
by John R. Peteet, M.D., Francis G. Lu, M.D., and William E. Narrow, M.D., M.P.H.
Subscribers to DSM Premium and DSM Select at PsychiatryOnline.org get access to a free PDF version of a featured book EVERY MONTH from the APPI Bookstore.
October brings Religious and Spiritual Issues in Psychiatric Diagnosis: A Research Agenda for DSM-V, by John R. Peteet, M.D., Francis G. Lu, M.D., and William E. Narrow, M.D., M.P.H.
Religious and Spiritual Issues in Psychiatric Diagnosis: A Research Agenda for DSM-V examines the role of spiritual and religious considerations in the DSM revision process. The volume includes chapters on each major category of psychiatric disorder, with an analysis of the implications of religion and spirituality for their diagnosis, course, and outcome. Based on the work presented by the prominent clinicians and researchers who participated in the 2006 Corresponding Committee on Religion, Spirituality, and Psychiatry of the American Psychiatric Association, the volume addresses the spiritual and philosophical issues involved in distinguishing a psychiatric disorder from a spiritual condition.
This volume is unique in reviewing the literature on spirituality and major psychiatric disorders with the objective of clarifying where existing descriptions of diagnostic criteria and of the course and outcome of these disorders require revision. In addition, the contributors identify areas that demand further research. Only in this book can clinicians find a comprehensive treatment of this important topic, as well as features that enhance understanding and encourage future scholarship.
- Each chapter makes specific recommendations for revising the wording of the DSM, and each is followed by two commentaries that contextualize, analyze, and critique the chapter’s recommendations.
- Other chapter contributors make the case for updating the V Code for a Spiritual or Religious Problem, and discuss the place of spiritual and religious considerations in the Outline for a Cultural Formulation.
- Mental health practitioners from all disciplines who seek to practice in a more integrated, holistic fashion will find in this volume a foundation for including religious and spiritual considerations in their cases, as well as recognition and validation that these problems are worthy of clinical attention.
Psychiatry has often been viewed as hostile to religion, and the DSM has been criticized for neglecting this vital dimension of human experience. As interest in the intersection between spirituality and mental health continues to grow, Religious and Spiritual Issues in Psychiatric Diagnosis: A Research Agenda for DSM-Vwill become an ever more relevant and necessary resource for addressing these concerns in a positive, practical, and systematic way.
You can access the Book of the Month from the home page at PsychiatryOnline.
You’ll have access to Religious and Spiritual Issues in Psychiatric Diagnosis: A Research Agenda for DSM-Vas a PDF download for the month of October.