Psychotherapy and Spirituality

Foreword by Malcolm Pines. Introduction. Part 1. Spirituality in the therapeutic session. 1. Flight, fright or faith? 2. Groundless or reasonable fear? 3. Psychological or spiritual trauma? 4. Vision or hallucination? 5. Depression or spiritual darkness? 6. Narcissism or misdirected worship? Part 2. A Grammar of western consciousness. 7. The past complicates the present. 8. Bringing the background to the fore. 9. Psychotherapy and root metaphors. 10. Psychotherapy and spiritual root metaphors. 11. Spiritual metaphors and modern western consciousness. Part 3. Existential and cognitive aspects of spirituality. 12. Spirituality as a change process. 13. The existential aspect of spirituality. 14. Psychotherapy and the struggle for authentic spirituality. 15. The cognitive aspect of spirituality. 16. Psychotherapy and illuminative experience. Part 4. Relational aspects of spirituality. 17. The analysis of spiritual relationships. 18. Spirituality as a negative therapeutic factor. 19. Impersonal (or manipulative) relationships. 20. Mutual agreement (or contractual) relationships. 21. Mutual love (or fellowship) relationships. Further reading. References. Index.

Agneta Schreurs PhD has studied social psychology, theology and philosophy at the universities of Amsterdam and Utrecht. She has worked as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Utrecht and the Free University of Amsterdam, and as a group conductor at the Dr C. Aalders Foundation of spiritual direction and pastoral psychotherapy. She is currently involved in a research project on spirituality at the Free University of Amsterdam, and in private practice in pastoral counselling and spiritual direction. She is a member of the Christian Society of Psychiatrists, Psychologists and Psychotherapists, the Dutch Association for Group Psychotherapy and the Society for the Study of Theology.