Psychic Wholeness and Healing: Using All the Powers of the Human Psyche [Paperback]

Conrad W., M.D. Baars (Author), Anna A. Terruwe (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 278 pages
• Publisher: Alba House (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0818904100
• ISBN-13: 978-0818904103
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #595,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revolutionary treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, November 21, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (San Antonio, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Psychic Wholeness and Healing: Using All the Powers of the Human Psyche (Paperback)

As a psychotherapist, this is a pivotal book in successfully understanding and treating obsessive-compulsive disorder. It synthesizes the psychology of St. Thomas Aquinas with modern psychological principles. This therapy is especially helpful for therapists treating Catholic Christians with OCD, as it does not contradict fundamental Catholic teaching, particularly in the area of sexuality.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book on the Emotional Life, November 9, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Psychic Wholeness and Healing: Using All the Powers of the Human Psyche (Paperback)

Dr. Terruwe and Dr. Baars give us an excellent understanding of the healthy emotional life and what can go wrong to cause an emotional disorder. The reader is given an understanding of many of the repressive disorders which include symptoms such as tension, anxiety, depression, irritablity, anger, fatigue, scrupulosity and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Clinical cases underscore the concepts in this book, bringing the reader an understanding of the freedom available through the healing of these emotional disorders and *hope* for those afflicted. The authors' clinical discoveries are detailed along with an explanation of their therapy. Prevention of these disorders is also discussed. Many, many people have been greatly helped through these principles. This book is geared for a wide audience -- lay persons, mental health professionals and those involved in Christian ministry and the moral formation of others. (Please note that the words "psychic" and "psyche" in title of this book refer to "psychological" wholeness.)

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful, balanced, not at all unreasonable, September 3, 2005

By 

Zot "Zot" (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Psychic Wholeness and Healing: Using All the Powers of the Human Psyche (Paperback)

If you were raised Catholic, and you hated it, you should read this book.

If you didn't hate it, or you are Catholic, you should read this book.

If you have nothing to do with Catholicism, but are familiar with a Freudian view of repression, you should read it.

If you're a parent, you should read it.

Now I would like to respond briefly to an older review:

"The treatments advocated by Konrad Baars, along with much else in the periphery of psychological treatment is a sham. These outmoded theories have been superseded by a biological understanding personality and disease as well as the innovated notions of Sigmund Freud, who, over one hundred years ago, introduced the discovery of the unconscious."

I wonder how a biological understanding has superseded anything when for every new medicine, we have two new diseases.

"The only appeal of Baars's work is its association with Catholic doctrine. But that religion is not a suitable basis for psychiatric treatment."

Not so. I am not Catholic, and I find his work compelling nonetheless. One does not have to be Catholic to see its value. But a purely biological view of man isn't suitable for therapy either.

"No psychiatric residency program in this country teaches this type of mystical, New Age mumbo-jumbo. It is soley the province of poorly-trained "counselors," social workers, and religious devotees. If you are having a problem, only the latest pharmaceutical innovations can claim to offer relief of suffering."

I'm sure. That's why I know so many people whom drugs offer little if any relief. Also, the mere fact that something isn't widely taught does nothing to disprove its worth. Montessori schools aren't widely popular, but I wouldn't say the standard academic system is superior--far from it. It takes a long time for things to become known, and when they go against the grain, longer for them to be accepted.

I would like to add that I have yet to hear a credible psychiatrist, or for that matter, any patients, claim that drugs alone will cure a mental/emotional illness. Perhaps the author of that review hasn't met many psychiatrists.