Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

Anyone working with the homeless or the mentally ill will find in this book a compassionate yet realistic lens through which to better understand both the suffering and the human potential of this often invisible population. Dr. Kehoe uses her own spiritual journey to find remarkable common ground with the mentally ill clients who choose to gather to talk about their understanding of God and the role of spirituality in their lives. While their stories are unusual and sometimes unbearably sad, their insights are profound and universal.

Every now and again you come across a book that speaks to you in a new way. Nancy Kehoe's book, "Wrestling With Out Inner Angels" is just such a book. It is an easy read although the subject matter is anything but. Nancy allows us to see those who suffer from mental illness in a new way - as spiritual beings. It provides us with insights into the "thinkings" that occur in one who is mentally ill and calls forth a deep compassion for them.I was especially touched by the personal struggles experienced that Nancy shared with the reader.

The first thing that struck me about this absorbing and unusual book was the author's tone -- neither self-aggrandizing nor self-effacing, she maintains a balance that is difficult to achieve.

Kehoe brings in her own situation, reactions and growth only as they relate to the people and stories she's discussing. She makes it clear that her group work is a mutually difficult and yet highly positive interaction for herself and the clients alike. Only at the end is the story behind her stance complete, when it becomes clear that the rules of her religious order trained her in the practice of self-abnegation, while the sessions with her clients helped her acknowledge and accept her strengths and gifts to others.

The book was very moving, but not at all maudlin or "cheesy." The clients come across as talented, intelligent and caring people who are afflicted with terrible illnesses that they struggle to keep in some perspective. Obviously, Kehoe's work helps them (and their therapists) do this.

A valuable contribution to understanding mental illness as only one part of an individual's life. And a beautiful example of the best work a therapist can do.

I have been reading this eminently readable book aloud to a group of elder women, none of whom has a certifiable mental illness, but all of whom find insights into their own lives in what Dr. Kehoe shares. Wisdom,compassion and humor have grown out of her clients'suffering and her own. We can all learn a great deal from it.

This is a short book to read slowly, letting the people Nancy Kehoe describes reveal the spirit at work in their lives. I didn't want it to end. But Nancy is a gifted writer. The people and the learnings stay with you. I loved this book.

As a Chaplain in a State Hospital serving those with mental illness, I found the book, "Wrestling with Our Inner Angels" to be just what I needed in several ways: it is encouraging and hopeful for me personally to remain in Spiritual Care; it is an "I can't put it down" read; it has gems of wisdom in it, helping me remain focused on the inner gifts of those struggling with mental illness; and not least of all, it is very supportive in the need for spirituality to be a part of the treatment offered our clients/patients in State facilities, which often have had negative reactions to spirituality.

By Dr. Nancy herself becoming a part of text, gives the book veracity beyond clinical observations. There definitely is a very humanizing element in the book, giving a face, a soul and a personality to all who suffer the stigma of an illness that is not their fault. If one would like an insight into the spirituality of those with a mental illness, this book is well worth it!

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was easy to read and focused on difficult but very relevant issues. The accounting of Buddy left me very moved and teary. The distinction made between types of voices that some mentally ill people hear was very helpful. Clearly the discussion of faith, religion or spirituality belongs in any therapeutic setting for those interested. I feel that Dr Kehoe offers some useful guidelines to start that process.