The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth (Hardcover)

by Gerald G. May (Author) "When people speak of going through a dark night of the soul, they usually mean they're experiencing bad things..." (more)
Key Phrases: passive recollection, passive night, sheer gift, John of the Cross, Medina del Campo, Brother Lawrence (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
"Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk with you again." These lyrics from Simon and Garfunkel's famous song could be the guiding theme of this excellent offering by psychiatrist and spiritual counselor May. As May delves into the meaning and purpose of "the dark night of the soul," we come to see it as a comforting and necessary friend, ushering in a time of transformation, rather than a gloomy blackness to avoid. In order to illuminate the dark night, May draws upon the lives of the Carmelite mystics, John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, as well as psychiatric research and scripture. Like the contemporary scholars of psychiatry, both Teresa and John had early insights into the unconscious dimension of life that goes on beneath our awareness-an obscure and mysterious arena that they both called "the dark." Since humans are so skilled at denial-especially denying the power of their compulsions and attachments-they would never enter into this spiritual night of reckoning if they could see in advance what it would entail. This is why we need the darkness in front of us. May, who also wrote Addiction and Grace, eventually moves into a strong discussion about depression and addiction, showing why the dark night is necessary to overcome both. Ultimately, he becomes a messenger of hope, reminding readers that every dark night brings the sweet dawn of awakening. With its clear writing and strong psychological foundation, this is a relevant resource for readers of all spiritual persuasions.
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Product Description

Distinguished psychiatrist, spiritual counselor, and bestselling author Gerald G. May argues that the "shadow" side of the spiritual life has been trivialized and neglected to our serious detriment. In The Dark Night of the Soul, Dr. May shows that the dark side is a vital ingredient for deep, authentic, healthy spirituality.

Superficial and naively upbeat spirituality does not heal and enrich the soul; nor does our tendency to relegate deep spiritual growth to mystics and saints help us cope with the fullness of what we experience in life. Only honest, sometimes difficult encounters with what Christian spirituality calls "the dark night of the soul" can lead to true spiritual wholeness.

May emphasizes that the dark night is not necessarily a time of suffering and despair, but rather one of deep transition, during which our lives are clouded and full of mystery as we move through a time of trial and uncertainty to freedom and joy. The darkness of the night implies nothing sinister, but rather that our liberation takes place mysteriously, in secret, and beyond our conscious control.

May draws on the great Christian spiritual teachings and writings on the "dark night," especially by John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, on other spiritual traditions, psychiatric ideas and resources, and on poetry and literature. The Dark Night of the Soul embraces the universal spiritual experience of disorientation, doubt, fear, emptiness, "dryness," and despair, all of which are ingredients in developing a mature, authentic spiritual life.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; 1st edition (February 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060554231
• ISBN-13: 978-0060554231
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #360,199 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sheds light on the "dark night", February 18, 2004

By A Customer

Pray-ers who have experienced the rich silence of quiet prayer typically find themselves feeling strangely unsatisfied after praying this prayer for a while. The sense of God's presence and love wanes and a growing sense of one's being somehow off track increases. This beautifully written and highly informative little book by one of the present time's most eloquent and knowledgeable mystics is a trustworthy guide to what lies ahead. It's central message is that the prayer of quiet is God's doing, not one's own, and that one's emotional and psychological responses are transitory and not of God. The call is to wait patiently, trustingly, and faithfully, and know that in the dark mystery God is working to bring the soul closer to God. Dr. May's decades of reading and praying with John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila shine forth in this book.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars They Say the Darkest Hour is Right Before the Dawn, April 15, 2006

By	Lightman (New York) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth (Paperback)

In this book, profound but obscure like the material with which it deals, psychiatrist Gerald May describes a process of spiritual growth that is operational in the difficult seasons of life.

Drawing from the experiences of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, he explores a journey of consciousness that leads us into the recognition of "our deep and irrevocable communion with the Divine".

It is a path through darkness, a path of letting go, a path of abandoning oneself, losing oneself, and in so doing ultimately finding what is real. The following quotes reveal something of this journey:

* The darkness of the night implies nothing sinister, only that the liberation takes place in hidden ways, beneath our knowledge and understanding.

* Although not knowing may itself seem like a bad thing, I am convinced it is one of the great gifts of the dark night of the soul.

* The spiritual life for Theresa and John has nothing to do with actually getting closer to God. Union with God is neither acquired nor received; it is realized, and in that sense it is something that can be yearned for, sought after, and - with God's grace - found.

* The dark night helps us to become what we are created to be: lovers of God and one another.

* ...we are not only born with God at our center, but we are born with a heart full of desire for God. This yearning is our fundamental motive force; it is the human spirit. It is the energy behind everything we seek and aspire to.

* Liberation, whether experienced pleasurably or painfully, always involves relinquishment, some kind of loss.

* Sometimes the only way we can enter the deeper dimensions of the journey is by being unable to see where we are going.

* ...in worldly matters it is good to have light so we know where to go without stumbling. But in spiritual matters it is precisely when we do think we know where to go that we are most likely to stumble.

* When we cannot chart our own course, we become vulnerable to God's protection, and the darkness becomes a "guiding night," a "night more kindly than the dawn."

* We cannot achieve our own liberation or fulfillment; we would not even know where to begin. But neither does God reach down from the sky and manipulate us like puppets. ...the process of the dark night is neither accomplished on our own nor worked within us by God alone.

* Though we don't realize it at the time, when habitual senses of God do disappear in the process of the dark night, it is surely because it is time for us to relinquish our attachment to them. We have made an idol of our images and feelings of God, giving them more importance than the true God that they represent.

* The darkness, the holy unknowing that characterizes this freedom, is the opposite of confusion and ignorance. Confusion happens when mystery is an enemy and we feel we must solve it to master our destinies. And ignorance is not knowing that we do not know. In the liberation of the night we are freed from having to figure things out, and we find delight in knowing that we do not know.

It is comforting to come to understand that what we may experience as painful, dry, and difficult periods of life are often seasons of deep becoming. It is another way by which we learn that, as the Lord said it to St. Paul, "My grace is sufficient; my power is made perfect in weakness".

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful understanding of the "Dark Night", December 25, 2005

By	Bekeh Utietiang "book reviewer" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth (Paperback)

Gerald May in this book helps the reader to appreciate the spiritualities of both St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. Rather than looking at the dark night of the soul as something negative, the author looks at it from a very positive perspective. He says, "The dark night is a profoundly good thing. It is an ongoing spiritual process in which we are liberated from attachments and compulsions and empowered to live and love more freely." There is a strong liberation perspective in the whole book. Again and again, the author looks at this phenomenon as liberation for freedom and this freedom is freedom for love.

The author identifies some misunderstandings that people have about the dark night and tries to correct them. He says it is not negative or sinister; there is no need for a big and dramatic tragedy for authentic spiritual growth to take place; and that the dark night of the soul is not something that occurs once in a lifetime.

Attachment is a compulsive condition that robs us of our freedom. He describes unpleasant attachments as those we consider as being bad habits. He says when these hinder our love, they become addictions and in spiritual life, the objects of our attachments and addictions become idols. He says our attachments are very successfully when we live in denial. The problem with spiritual denial is that it makes us unaware of our idolatry and enables us to believe we have a full and free capacity for love.

The author says for St. John of the Cross, the dark night of the soul is "a secret way in which God not only liberates us from our attachments and idolatries, but also brings us to the realization of our true nature. The night is the means by which we find our heart's desire, our freedom for love." Though the dark night is meant to liberate us, it may not feel pleasurable. One feeling certain in the experience is that of obscurity and a sense of loss. Even when this experience seems to be pleasant, they would still be some sense of grief because of the loss involved in the liberation.

The freedom experienced in the dark night of the soul is a freedom to love. It is not just freedom from, it is a freedom for love. The author says, "Human beings exist because of love, and the meaning and goal of our lives is love. ... Liberation from attachment is only a means to this end." In this sense then, the dark night experience helps us to become who we truly are, to realize our true nature and capabilities as that of love. In this experience, we are no longer blurred by our selfish desires, nor are our lives veiled in denial. We become the person God created us to be.

I find chapter six of the book, "The Dark Night Today" as the most important chapter in the book. He uses the dark night experience to discuss depression, addiction, personality and gender, spiritual companionship and social systems.

I highly recommend this book. It is clear, well written and practical.