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Jean-Claude Larchet
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Mental Disorders and Spiritual Healing: Teachings from the Early Christian East Paperback – July 1, 2005

by Jean-Claude Larchet (Author), G John Champoux (Translator), Rama P Coomaraswamy (Translator)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 45 ratings
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This work, the third panel of a triptych dedicated by the author to the notion of illness derived from the patristic and hagiographic texts of the Christian East from the first to the fourteenth centuries, makes an essential contribution to the history of mental illnesses and their therapies in a domain very little studied until now. Confronted by the numerous problems still posed today in understanding these illnesses, their treatment, and their relationship to those who are sick, he shows the importance offered for reflection and current practice by early Christian thought and experience. After indicating how the Fathers understood the psyche and its relationship with body and spirit, the author gives a detailed analysis of the different causes they attribute to mental illness and the various treatments recommended. At the same time he shows how, relying on fundamental Christian values, they manifest a constant solicitude and respect for the sick, and how they are at pains to integrate them into community life and have them participate in their own healing, foreshadowing in this way the needs and aspirations of our own time. The last part discloses the deep significance of one of the strangest and most fascinating forms of asceticism the Christian East has known: 'folly for the sake of Christ', a madness feigned with the goal of attaining a high degree of humility, but also a way well-suited, through a close experience of their condition, to help those who are often among, today as in the past, the most destitute. Jean-Claude Larchet is docteur dès lettres et sciences humaines, docteur en théologie, and docteur d'État en philosophie. The author of Thérapeutique des maladies spirituelles (Paris: Editions de l'Ancre, 1991) and The Theology of Illness (Crestwood, New York: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2002), he is a specialist in questions of health, sickness, and healing. He is today one of the foremost St Maximus the Confessor specialists.
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  1. Print length
    180 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Angelico Press / Sophia Perennis
  4. Publication date
    July 1, 2005
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.41 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    159731045X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1597310451
  8. See all details
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4.6 out of 5 stars
45 global ratings

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Customers find the book insightful and well-researched. They find it an essential read for spiritual formation in Christ, providing comprehensive treatment of mental and spiritual ailments. The author expresses the basics clearly for professional scholars while addressing the general reader. Overall, readers describe the book as a good read.

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9 customers mention "Insight"7 positive2 negative

Customers find the book insightful and helpful for treating mental and spiritual maladies. They appreciate the author's research and application of patristic texts. The book is considered essential reading for spiritual formation in Christ. It distills complex and diverse multi-level etiologies for readers interested in these topics.

"Dr. Larchet always does an excellent job with deeply researching patristic texts and carefully applying them to today. This book is no different...." Read more

"...This work will be of significant interest to mental health practitioners or individuals wanting to gain deeper knowledge of Christian psychology and..." Read more

"...recommendation to consider this text as essential reading for spiritual formation in Christ, comprehensive treatment of sadness and acedia, and..." Read more

"...a fast easy read for the general public while expressing the basics for the professional scholar. The chapter headings are as follows: 1...." Read more

4 customers mention "Readability"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book readable.

"...Good book." Read more

"It's a little murky, but well worth the read. I'm working on it...." Read more

"An excellent book, while some of the language in this book is a bit clinical requiring me to look up a few words, I found that as a layman Larchet..." Read more

"...A good read & highly recommend" Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Jerome the Cat
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good patristic perspectives
    Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2021
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    Dr. Larchet always does an excellent job with deeply researching patristic texts and carefully applying them to today. This book is no different. He shows that the Church has always seen that mental illness comes from a variety of sources including bodily/biological, spiritual, and demonic. In order to properly treat someone, it is important to know the source of their ailment.

    While the Church Fathers didn't have the medical knowledge that we have today, he shows that there is no reason to be wary of medical science. However, he also points out that the root of mental illness can often be found to have a spiritual source. Addressing the mind and body while ignoring the spiritual aspect of our humanity causes even further suffering in this world. The best approach is to take all factors into consideration so that the entire person can be healed.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • George
    5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful
    Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2022
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    I recommend this book to anyone who is willing to sit down and look up some of the terminology that is used in this book. I have little to no-knowledge regarding some words again I’m not that smart of a being but still I still can understand what the author is trying to portray. Good book.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Samuel Bendeck Sotillos
    5.0 out of 5 stars A new look on psychology or the “science of the soul”
    Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2022
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    Larchet has done a praiseworthy job in revealing the dimensions of Christian psychology as recognized by the Christian East. In its pages, it becomes apparent that much of what constitutes mental illness according to Christian psychology exists outside the competence of mainstream psychology and psychiatry, which does not take the spiritual dimension into consideration. Their attempts to reduce the human being to the corporeal or the psycho-physical devoid of what transcends these dimensions will always be shortsighted and provide a fragmented understanding, which may in some cases produce a temporary cure or removal of unwanted symptoms, but not true healing. Larchet carefully distills the complex and diverse multi-level etiologies for readers interested in these profound questions of ultimate meaning as they are related to the Christian tradition and its “science of the soul.” When confronted with modern Western psychology’s myopic and truncated outlook on mental health and what it means to be human, it becomes evident that modern psychology is ill-equipped to provide integral therapy or healing. We cannot repeat enough that there is in fact nothing absolute, or universal for that matter, about what modern psychology views as mental illness or psychological health. In taking mainstream psychology to task for its reductionism and materialistic outlook, we are not therefore reducing all psychological problems to spiritual problems. As this is again a very complex issue where much remains enigmatic and unknown, we need to tread lightly and with great humility. This work will be of significant interest to mental health practitioners or individuals wanting to gain deeper knowledge of Christian psychology and integral forms of healing.

    -Journal of Transpersonal Research, Vol. 10, No. 2 (2018)
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Laura K. Smith
    4.0 out of 5 stars Helpful for mental health professionals who realize illness is more spiritual than biological
    Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2015
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    It's a little murky, but well worth the read. I'm working on it. I was really wanting to read Life After Death According to the Orthodox Tradition by the same author, but have some family with mental illness, and thus thought I could be enlightened by this book. It is indeed helpful, especially if you read it after being trained in mental health and counseling concepts according to being "in the world."
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Father Silouan
    5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent synthesis of the Eastern Fathers.
    Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2018
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    An excellent book, while some of the language in this book is a bit clinical requiring me to look up a few words, I found that as a layman Larchet did an excellent job of synthesizing and condensing the understanding of the Eastern Church Fathers on mental illnesses without becoming to wordy and overwhelming. At around 170 pages this was a delightful read and answered many of the questions I have long had about the connections between the demonic realms and mental illnesses.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • PtrIoannis
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fools for Christ
    Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2009
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    This 2005 translation of 'Therapeutique des maladies mentales' (1992, Les Editions du Cerf) offers access to the well-heeled research of the author. Jean-Claude Larchet has built a steady foundation of criticism concerning so-called scientific approaches to treat mental and spiritual diseases. His thesis advances the view that ancient Fathers of the Church offer insights to treating mental and spiritual maladies, which contemporary theories of psychiatry either ignore or rebuff. Moreover, while acknowledging the gaps in source material from the Fathers, he identifies the explanatory gaps in psychiatric theories and treatment modalities all the same.

    Theological anthropology, derived from the Fathers, constitutes the general theme of the first chapter. The author devotes a chapter to each grouped domain of causes for mental illness according to the Fathers: a) insanity due to somatic origins, b) insanity due to demonic origin, and c) insanity of spiritual origin. Of particular note are 24 pages devoted to acedia -- its nosology, and treatment of sadness and acedia.

    The capstone of the text is a study of the fool for Christ. The goal of life in Christ is not only to be free of mental illness, but also to achieve harmony among body, mind, and spirit. Such harmony is represented by the fool for Christ, who is motivated by humility, detachment from the world, and charity.

    I offer an enthusiastic recommendation to consider this text as essential reading for spiritual formation in Christ, comprehensive treatment of sadness and acedia, and reappraisal of conventional medical modalities for treatment of mental illnesses. The text appeals to scholars and many others who share interests in etiology and management of mental illnesses. There are sufficient references in the bibliography to enhance additional exploration in themes addressed by the text.
    50 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Tonia Bilous
    5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended to read
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 7, 2016
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    Кожний психолог чи психіатр повинен цю книгу прочитати і навіть вивчити, святі отці християнства ще дві тисячі років тому знали істинні причини психічних захворювань, не послуговуючись ніякою сучасною апаратурою та експериментами з лікарськими препаратами. Людські пристрасті це вхід для бісів в нашу душу, які гублять її божественну природу, і лише віра в Бога як лікаря наших душ через церковні таїнства та покаяння може уздоровити хвору душу. Надія лише на медикаменти як гальма для психозів та депресій це шлях в нікуди, це найчастіше катування психічно хворих людей. Ця книга це вікно в світ людського божевілля і шлях уздоровлення через віру в Христа-Спасителя та Лікаря душ наших через благодатну дію Святого Духа.

    Each psychologist or psychiatrist should read this book and even explore it, the Fathers of Christianity knew the true causes of mental illness already two thousand years ago without any using of modern equipment and experiments with drugs. Human passions is the entrance for demons into our soules who destroy its divine nature, and only the faith in God as the Healer of our souls through the church sacraments and confession can cure the sick soul. The hope only on medicines as a brake for psychosis and depressions is a road to nowhere, it's often the torture for mentally ill people. This book is a window into the world of human madness and the path of healing through faith in Christ as the Redeemer and Physician of our souls through the gracious action of the Holy Spirit.
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  • Simion Vasile
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 26, 2017
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    treasure
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  • Floyd Frantz
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 29, 2016
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    Excellent reading.....
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