Gerald G. MayRezensionen

Comprehensive and clearly written, Care of Mind/Care of Spirit never reduces religion to psychology, but treats religious experience as the truly unique thing that it is. Reflecting an impressive theological and psychological competence, May's carefully balanced, groundbreaking study offers much needed assistance to the growing ranks of those who counsel others on their religious quest, whether spiritual director, pastoral counselor, religious educator, therapist, minister, priest, or religious. It also offers insight to all who are interested in the dynamics of spirituality.

Eloquently exploring the healing concepts of grace and love, Gerald May describes a life beyond addiction and what it means to live it.

May made Theresa of Avila's works (and presumably John of the Cross) more comprehensible to a modern reader than Miribai Starr's recent translations of My Life and The Interior Castle. John's "Dark Night" referring to the obscurity of God within us rather than depression or God seemingly ignoring us was encouraging as was the idea that prayer life is not a linear progression but goes up and down, loops back to be beginning and the stages often overlap. He also contrasts meditation, inward focus to the exclusion of everything else, with contemplation, opening one's awareness to encompass everything happening around which I found interesting and had never heard before.

The book offers inspiration and hope for those who desire to explore the mystery of who and what they are and examines the "processes of attachment" that lead to addiction. It describes the relationship between addiction and spiritual awareness including the various addictions to alcohol, drugs, work, sex, performance, responsibility, and intimacy.

So engaging

A profound resource for psychology, spiritual direction, and pastoral integration. Renowned author May discusses the role of self-compassion and self-care in mental health. In this new edition, he also adds material on the intersection of psychology and spirituality, with expanded discussions of trust, solitude, and prayer.

+1 star for the syncreticism and decent literary quotations

the author mistakes addiction for habit, and in doing so generalizes the notion of addiction to the point where it has no clinical or therapeutic significance, also trivializing the struggles of those who DO face unique struggles with the disease of addiction

occasionally he throws out some allegedly scientific or evidence-based assertion (without citation or reference) which I recognized (and verified) to b quite false. his chapter on neurology is laughably bad, anthropomorphizing the individual neurons and missing the neurological forest for the trees

on top of all of this, he's a bit pretentious, which would b find if his overconfidence didn't result in outlandish claims and assertions alongside more reasonable ones

if u wanna read some cool philosophical and spiritual quotes and concepts abt desire and grace and etc, w some kinda inaccurate pop-science thrown in, then ya u might enjoy this. but if u want any insight into how addiction operates as a unique neurological disease and behavioral process, if u want any insight into the etiology or treatment for addiction, its varieties and variations, u will b quite disappointed½

Contents:

1. Willingness and Willfulness
2. Foundations for a Contemplative Psychology
3. Unitive Experience: a Paradigm for contemplative psychology
4. Searching: the Quest for Love, Union, and Being
5. Fear: Self-Image and Spirituality
6. Love: The Answer to Fear
7. Energy: the Unifying Force

Very good introduction/summary to John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila's famous writings.

The subtitle of this book, “The Spirituality of Mental Health” piqued my curiosity since it is an intersection of two of my interests.

Message: Struggling against the person you really are and not paying attention to what is going on now will make you very unhappy. At the same time, while you need to drop the impossible struggle for perfection, you must recognize that change may be part of the authentic self that you need to become.

I found much of the book to have a Zen -like koan quality without the author actually mentioning Buddhism. This book was written in 1982, before some of the more recent popular works on Buddhist practices in psychology, such as those on mindfulness, were published. This seems to be an ancestor of those more recent and to me, at least, more relevant books.½

The overused but still useful word “addiction” comes from the 16th century Latin noun addictio, which means “a giving over or surrender.” Not the good surrender, but the bad one, a giving over to something or someone that will then control me and eventually ruin me.

We think of addicts as being on the way to ruin. They might be very dangerous, and certainly not in control of themselves. They are … not us. We are not addicts; someone else is.

Some “addictions” seem good; can’t you be “addicted” to God? Can’t you feel compelled to do good works and bring blessing to the people in your life?

God loves us, but God hates our addictions. God loves me the sinner, but God hates the sin. And addiction is certainly sin.

Some of us, although certainly not me, have “addictive personalities.” They (not me, mind you) are weak and prone to that “giving over” to alcohol, or stress, or video games, or pornography, or gossip, or some other awful thing. We should watch out for them.

These questionable assertions about addiction are addressed by Dr. Gerald May in this bestselling book. It’s been republished with a new introduction and two short articles published a few years after the book was originally published in 1988. Gerald May was a distinguished psychiatrist who worked and taught and wrote as a faculty member of the Shalem School of Spiritual Direction for 30 plus years before he died of cancer in 2005.

Dr. May is a poet and a philosopher. He is a Christian and sometimes sounds like a mystic. At the same time he is precise in his understanding and description of the mental and physical nature of addiction. Although this book was written just as the river of new information about how the brain works began to really flow, it describes much more of the physical nature of attachment and addiction than most of us know, and in a way that is both detailed and non-technical.

Actually, most of us don’t have a clue about addiction, because we’ve heard so much on TV and read so many flash-in-the-pan stories of both truth and fiction. This kind of non-helpful “information” barrage makes us think we know, when we don’t.

Some of my best friends are addicts. But, Gerald May makes it clear, that’s not surprising. I’m an addict too. So is he. Early in the book May compiles a list of attraction addictions (what we want) and aversion addictions (what we avoid). He says in one of his many charming personal asides, “If it is any consolation, I am addicted to at least fourteen of the listed items, and I could add several others if I wanted to be completely candid. Which I do not.”

If you find time to read this book (as I did not … even as a Christian counselor, even as one who works regularly with folks in great pain because of their addictions, even though I had heard over and over for years how good a book this was … until I was assigned it as required reading for a class), you will discover the seamy side of yourself. Rather, you’ll have to acknowledge the seamy side of yourself that you probably already know all too well.

And, thank God, you will also discover the glorious and unconditioned nature of God’s grace for you. Seamy side and all.

Take it or leave it.

Gerald May has written an excellent primer to St John of the Cross with a little Teresa of Avila thrown in for good measure. I recommend it to anybody looking to expand their insight into spirituality and specifically our inner growth into the Divine. My only critique is May's comments regarding addiction, which are both intriguing and disappointing. It is like he get the outward veneer of recovery but not the deep monster of addiction, otherwise I highly recommend.

This is the book I'm currently recommending to friends who feel the tug of a more spiritual life, but don't know where to begin.

May does a superb job of describing our addictive nature and issues the hard challenge of living in the spacious moments once we've stopped.

I think its a really interesting book it has so many action and conflict but always the main character solve it.

Though I was stretched by some Dr. May's theology, I learned a great deal about addiction from him. Truly knowledgeable in both areas of addiction and spirituality, May's writing has been a resource for many working with those in addiction or struggling with their own (however, I must say that May makes a strong case that we all struggle with addiction).

This book got me through the hard time of having my leg broken. It helped me make sense of a large period of time where I was greatly depressed as well, It didn't cure me of anything, but it helped me feel so not lonely.

22.5

The mother tongue 1991 english language, linguistics
Irvine, William B On desire: why we want what we want 2005
Scharen, Christian One step closer: why U2 matters to those seeking God 2006 u2, essential, christian thought
Vernon, Mark The philosophy of friendship 2005 friendshps, plato, relatnshps
Panek, Richard Seeing and believing: how the telescope opened our eyes and minds to the heavens 1999 telescope, galileo, astronomy, planets, sol system

Riel, Calon Ships of the Star fleet 1988
Bryson, Bill A short history of nearly everything 2004 everything, good science writing, factdensity
Debord, Guy The society of the spectacle 1995 situationist, debord
The spiritual in art: abstract painting 1890-1985 1999 abstract painting, essential, paintg, painters
Editors, New Eye Photography Star Trek Maps 1980 obstrai, galaxy, cartography
Spiekermann, Erik Stop stealing sheep and find out how type works 2002 typography, typeface design
May, Gerald G Th dark night o th soul: a psychiatrist explores th connectn betw darkness n spiritual growth 2005 dawn, teresa of avila, john of the cross, essential
Campbell, Jeremy Th improbable machine: what th upheavals in artificial intelligence rsch reveal about how th mind really wks 1989 ai, pattern, infm theory, game theory
Dement, William C Th promise o sleep: a pioneer in sleep medcne xplores th vital conectn betw heal, hapnss, n a gd nts sleep 2000 insomnia, apnea, sleep labs, sleep debt
Norman, Donald A Things that make us smart: defending human attributes in the age of the machine 1994 affordances, usability, ergonomics, human factors, simplicity
Lamott, Anne Traveling mercies: some thoughts on faith 2000 writers, writing, essential, life
Shekerjian, Denise Uncommon genius 1991 macarthur award, genius, creativity
Tufte, Edward R Visual explanations: images and quantities, evidence and narrative 1997 infm design, charts, data graphics
Surowiecki, James The wisdom of crowds: why th many are smarter than th few n how collctve wisdm shapes busn, econs, society 2005 group dynamics, groupthink