Spirituality and Psychiatry

Spirituality is a crucial but sometimes overlooked aspect of mental well-being and psychiatric care. This book explores the nature of spirituality, its relationship to religion, and the reasons for its importance in clinical practice. In this evidence-based text, the authors discuss the prevention and management of illness, as well as the maintenance of recovery. Different chapters focus on the key subspecialties of psychiatry, including psychotherapy, child and adolescent psychiatry, intellectual disability psychiatry, substance misuse psychiatry and old age psychiatry. It contains references to up-to-date research and provides a comprehensive review of the relevant academic literature. The book is, at least in part, a response to the questions posed by researchers, service users and clinicians, concerning the importance of spirituality in mental healthcare. Contributors include psychiatrists, psychotherapists, mental healthcare chaplains and a social worker. They discuss aspects of experience often omitted from psychiatry and present both clinician and service user perspectives. The book will be of wide interest to psychiatrists, psychiatry trainees and all mental health professionals.

In 2009, the Royal College of Psychiatrists London UK, published an inflammatory book titled "Spirituality and Psychiatry. The book is edited by 3 giants in the field of Psychiatry: Chris Cook, Andrew Powell and Andrew Sims. Each of the editors has served as a Chair of the Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. It is striking to me to discover that in every time they mention Christian faith, they are far from biblical truth of the Scripture. Not only that but also each chapter of the book is ended with tens of references, none of these includes the Bible. This book is an invaluable resource for those Christians who are involved in mental illness as it covers most areas of psychiatry to include: psychosis, depression, suicide, substance misuse and more in a biblical perspective with extensive biblical references.