Wrestling with Our Inner Angels: Faith, Mental Illness, and the Journey to Wholeness [Hardcover]

Nancy Kehoe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 26, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0470455411 | ISBN-13: 978-0470455418 | Edition: 1

Wrestling with Our Inner Angels is Nancy Kehoe’s compelling, intimate, and moving story of how she brought her background as a psychologist and a nun in the Religious of the Sacred Heart to bear in the groups she formed to explore the role of faith and spirituality in their treatment – and in their lives. Through fascinating stories of her own spiritual journey, she gives readers of all backgrounds and interests new insights into the inner lives of the mentally ill and new ways of thinking about the role of spirituality and faith in all our lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The shadow of Freud and his view of religion as illusion still looms over psychotherapy, making it problematic for therapists to engage their clients about a subject that can be of great importance and potential benefit. Because she is both a nun and a clinician, author Kehoe can draw on both her psychological and religious training to approach with insight and sensitivity the role of belief and motivation in the lives of people troubled by mental illness. Neither illusion nor panacea, religious belief helps people organize their lives and make decisions. Kehoe has listened for years to people with illness, and she shares their compelling stories. She also discloses her own wrestling with inner religious promptings and their influence in her own choices. This book will be most helpful to other professionals in the field, but its honesty and humility also make it useful for anyone interested in faith and mental illness, particularly anyone with an emotional stake in the difficulties of mental illness. (June)
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Review

The shadow of Freud and his view of religion as illusion still looms over psychotherapy, making it problematic for therapists to engage their clients about a subject that can be of great importance and potential benefit. Because she is both a nun and a clinician, author Kehoe can draw on both her psychological and religious training to approach with insight and sensitivity the role of belief and motivation in the lives of people troubled by mental illness. Neither illusion nor panacea, religious belief helps people organize their lives and make decisions. Kehoe has listened for years to people with illness, and she shares their compelling stories. She also discloses her own wrestling with inner religious promptings and their influence in her own choices. This book will be most helpful to other professionals in the field, but its honesty and humility also make it useful for anyone interested in faith and mental illness, particularly anyone with an emotional stake in the difficulties of mental illness. (June) (Publishers Weekly, May 11, 2009)

 

"Wrestling With Our Inner Angels is an important book...All concerned with faith, mental health and the journey to wholeness -- whether from a spiritual-religious or a psychological perspective -- will not only enjoy reading this book but be encouraged to reflect more deeply on the author's thesis." (America magazine October 26, 2009)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (May 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470455411
• ISBN-13: 978-0470455418
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #499,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Unexpectedly compelling reading May 21, 2009

By susan

Format:Hardcover

This is a wonderful, deep, and thoughtful book, providing insight into areas of health we rarely travel.
I am particularly grateful for Ms/Dr/Sister Kehoe's inclusion of her own story, her doubts and struggles.
I recommend it for anyone interested in their own spiritual journeys, workers in health care, especially in the fields of aging and mental health. It is a good read.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Inspiring Contribution June 21, 2009

By William Dahl VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I cried, began to float, said "wow" and "aha," wondered, was angered, dismayed and finally --- encouraged. This book is a barrier-busting contribution from a compassionate caregiver who has given her life to this work. I always find it fascinating that just when we think we have everything figured out, along comes an author who exposes our ignorance - shining light on and giving voice to an issue that we have relegated to the silence of the shadows. As another author has recently said, "When we reach the end of the bookshelf, it's time to write another book." As Kehoe demonstrates, the "end of the bookshelf" is simply an illusion, just as many of our attitudes, perceptions and knowledge about the relationship between faith, mental illness and a journey to wholeness.

Nancy Kehoe is a nun and a clinician whose work is well known with the mentally ill. She is also a clinical instructor in psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Cambridge Health Alliance - an affiliate of Harvard Medical School.

The stories of Kehoe's work with her patients is written in such a way that the reality - "patients are people" whose faith dimension in their lives (beliefs, history, values, practices, doubts, fears and experiences) is fundamental to the approach to their wellness. The history of mental health professionals, clinical psychology and psychiatry is one where patients have been fearful of even broaching the subject of sharing the faith dimension of their lives. Some professional caregivers have even stigmatized those who do as evidencing signs of even deeper and more complex "illness" than originally diagnosed. Thus, there has been a two-sided taboo about broaching this subject, let alone developing clinical approaches to explore it. As Kehoe writes, "Many who suffer from mental illness live with a personally defined "dual diagnosis: "mentally ill" and "sinner"; They have two "disorders." --- Conversely, mental health professionals deal with the illness of the clients but not with their sense of sin."(p.88). Whether one accepts the Judeo-Christian concept of "sin" or not, the universal human experience of guilt, shame, fear, having wronged another or self, coupled with the yearning for forgiveness, peace, acceptance, understanding and confession are paramount to the journey toward wholeness --- as this book clearly points out.

Kehoe's work in this arena illuminates the terribly valuable essence of the following: "I have rethought the value of religious traditions. When they truly serve us, they take us out of ourselves and link us to something transcendent, fostering a new sense that we are part of a larger whole." (p.87). It is my hope that this book with provide the essential "permission" to explore and incorporate the methods that Kehoe freely shares with us.

In a world that seems to be rather smug about our current state of intellectual prowess, and, in too many cases, "comfortable" about our worldview or what we think we know, Kehoe's book provides a bridge to a place our ignorance and lack of courage has prevented us from going. This is a book that needs to be read, discussed and acted upon by further explorations into the necessity of developing clinical and therapeutic approaches to the mentally ill that embrace the realm of the spiritual life as essential to not only relief, healing and wholeness, but the prevention of certain forms and degrees of mental illness. As Kehoe succinctly points out:

"When the voices of parents, ministers, teachers and caregivers fall on the ears of people in a vulnerable position because of their illness, they have the potential to be as harmful as internal voices. The voices of others can limit us, define us and instill guilt and fear." (p.104). Translation - This book is for you --- people who consider themselves "normal" or "healthy." Buy it. Read it. It's a heart-changing, mind rearranging story. The truths revealed in this book, particularly through the way Kehoe shares the stories of her patients, is riveting. This is a book about courage, hope and inspiration. As Kehoe writes in the final sentence of the work: "The voices of others can inspire us, encourage us, and give us hope."

Well, that's exactly the impact this book had on me. I recommend that you will choose to read this book and experience the same. Perhaps it may be through works like this that the "normal" will be changed sufficiently to revise their approach to "understanding the abnormal" --- and in doing so we can become more compassionate with one another --- bursting through the illusory taboos --- mythical barriers where our own smug ignorance prevents us from exploring.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A mind- and heart-expanding book June 11, 2009

By William A. Barry

Format:Hardcover

Rarely do clinicians write with such compassion and generosity of spirit about people with mental illness. Dr. Kehoe not only listens with compassion and an open mind, but also tells her story with an unflinching honesty. This book, I hope, will enable more clinicians, pastoral counselors, caregivers and ordinary people to listen with more care to those with mental illness. It will, I also hope, open the hearts and minds of psychologists and psychiatrists to pay sympathetic attention to the religious dimension of their clients' lives. A wonderful book. William A. Barry, S.J., Ph.D.