The Wisdom of Mental Illness: Shamanism, Mental Health & the Renewal of the World

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Featuring a foreword by Dr David Luke, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Greenwich.

This book explores how the ancient path of shamanism can help us to understand the nature of mental illness, recasting psychological breakdown as a potentially transformational experience. What we label as pathological could actually be an initiation into a better relationship with ourselves and the world.

Written for those who are experiencing or who have experienced mental illness, or whose loved ones are going through such episodes, or who are mental wellbeing practitioners, this is a guide to the potentially transformational experience of that which we label mental illness. It explores the ancient concept of the "shamanic sickness", whereby the prospective shaman underwent many years of mental distress as part of their initiation, and looks at what this can teach us about mental health. It argues that, in some cases, what we seek to medicate could actually be a calling to a path of service and healing.

The book also explores our cultural biases around mental illness. What we define as pathological, many cultures see as a sign of being inspired and in touch with greater powers. It looks at our uneasy relationship with altered states of consciousness and how these might hold the key to healing many symptoms of mental illness. Finally it looks at how we, as species, have come out of balance in our relationship to nature and the devastating affect this is having on our mental health. By learning from ancient indigenous cultures who have remained in balance with the natural world, this book looks at solutions to heal this modern imbalance and find a way forward for the Earth and ourselves.

About the Author

Jez Hughes is a shamanic healer and teacher. Founder of the training centre Second Sight Healing, he is a regular teacher at the College of Psychic Studies in London, a popular speaker across the UK, and has featured on a panel of experts for mental health charity MIND. He has been profiled on BBC radio and across the national press. Jez has a close relationship with the indigenous Wixarika (Huichol) tribe from Mexico and is the main cultural liaison for their work in the UK. He is the author of The Heart of Life: Shamanic Initiation & Healing in the Modern World.

Review:

4.4 out of 5

88.89% of customers are satisfied

5.0 out of 5 stars Just brilliant!!

M.R.D.W. · 30 May 2022

I read a book, maybe we all do, and as I'm reading I think to myself: 'well that fits with my world view', and then get a faintly smug feeling that 'I've got that', and then read on. The ego is such an insidious thing.I spent a couple of years with Jez doing his training, and it was a wonderful experience. But this book and his writing goes way way beyond what I learned from being with him. This is a man who walks his talk, and puts the pieces of the jigsaw together. On reading this, not only am I left humbled, but I'm also left educated and somewhat reassured that there is a real teacher out there who really know what he is doing, and really knows how to communicate.But at the risk of blowing too much smoke up his nether regions (I know he wouldn't appreciate that), just to say this is such an important book, on many levels, and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who's interested in the ills of the self or the ills of the world.

5.0 out of 5 stars As a mental health nurse...

C.T. · 6 January 2022

I trained with Jez Hughes and work as a mental health nurse. If you want to find a way to bring these two discplines together please read this book.If we are going to move forward with the understanding and treatment, maybe outside of the current system, of 'mental illness' we need to understand the actual roots and wider connections so we can be with it effectively, and this book does that. How to hold space with a wider awareness.Rudolphs discription of psychosis made me cry....I bloody well knew it....if you have ever been with someone when that is happening you can see it, and thanku for that clarity. I hope that I can bring that back into work with more confidence.And, for me thats what this book did, gave me abit of a wider prespective to move into, and because I trained with the author, confidence in that.

4.0 out of 5 stars Other ways of viewing mental illness – a spiritual perspective

L.F. · 10 December 2022

This is certainly an interesting approach, one which gives more agency to individuals, and less purely mechanistic, biochemical fixing of something seen as broken.There is far more of a focus in Western medicine in seeing almost every variety of human emotional and mental response as potentially a pathology which might be broken, and can be fixed by biochemical means, as whatever is going on, has biochemical, neurochemical markers. So…there is a lot of fixing the faulty chemistry of an aberrance seen as an individual problem.There have been other cultures which have seen ‘madness’ as something which may have wider origins than the individual, and, indeed, perhaps even a mark of being touched by the divine, with the sufferer being broken by taken out of a place of comfort in order to grow into being one who is divinely tested and transformed. The breaking of the safe illusions and deceits which most of us inhabit on a day to day existence, may allow dialogue with the sacred, and lead to the ability to heal others. That is, the shamanic journey.There’s a lot of interest in shamanism in the West, and no doubt some of it is because we have a predilection for the quick fix! Whether than is the cosh of the Western pharmacopeia or the flashy transformations of psychedelics!Hughes has been on this challenging journey himself, to a place of breakdown, and a place of healing through shamanic wisdom, and is now a shaman himself.In many ways, this is a different version of the ‘antipsychiatry’ movement of the 1960s and 1970s.Society itself as the broken, and those who individually are broken by something the rest of us more or less live somewhat equitably within, are the sane ones, though suffering, and we are the deluded and numbed off from reality.My somewhat challenge with this book is twofold – one stylistic, one its theories and conclusions.Stylistically, there’s a lot of repetition and effectively the same things said, over and overNor do I believe that every mental and emotional breakdown and challenge is divine. That old Romantic view of the divine madness of the artist, that all of this is a prerequisite of creative genius. Some individual madness certainly is a sane response to the insanity of a world which is often collectively aberrant - and neither shamanism nor pharmacological drugs are going to provide solutions to what may be caused by, for example, racism, inequality, poverty, disempowerment etc. And some individual madness IS the result of endocrine malfunction, kidney failure, etc.Maybe NO overarching solution, one size fits all response is the answerA challenging and, yes, thought provoking read, which is rather as it should be! 3.5 rating, raised

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, easy read, very informative, I highly recommend it to anyone

P. · 29 January 2022

Great book, very easy to read!! As a dyslexic person I found this book a good read. Interesting and full of good facts!! I highly recommend it!!!

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful

C.L. · 3 January 2022

Enjoyed this insightful book very useful contemporary thinking about historical views on mental illnessHighly recommend this book for all mental health practitioners.

1.0 out of 5 stars Appropriation

L. · 30 August 2023

Modern day jigging around of ancient concepts called shamanism really just witchcraft.

Wonderful book

A. · 26 October 2024

For individuals and mental health providers, alike.

Powerful and Legitimate Healing Insights

G.T.B. · 18 December 2021

As a mental health practitioner trained in psychology and an author of indigenous inspired healing books, I approached this book with interest, but also with some skepticism. That said, after consuming this book my conclusion is The Wisdom of Mental Illness is a invaluable guide to understanding and healing from mental illness and the Western world's technology driven lifestyle.When the mental health industry is soundly critiqued, along with its deeply embedded financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry, it is understandably common for authors to launch into rants and diatribes that pile on while not offering useful takeaways. The Wisdom of Mental Illness, however, is a reasoned, historically reflective, cross-culturally sensitive, methodical, and balanced analysis of not only the dangers of Western healing paradigms, or for that matter sacred insights of indigenous inspired approaches, but Jez Hughes thoughtfully offers guidance on how to blend the best of both worlds.This is the best primer on shamanic healing I have read, and I have consumed many books on the subject. Hughes describes the process of deconstruction of the mind from disorder and chaos. Then he follows up with a sensitive understanding of how such challenging and painful events can, if approached thoughtfully, serve as a catalyst event for personal growth. Additionally, his perspective on the contemporary proclivity to carelessly label most all suffering as "trauma" (described as "the inability to forget" painful events) suggests the need for a more balanced and hopeful perspective that can help people move on with life meaning extracted. His description of how psychedelics and entheogens can enhance healing while repairing the brain is accurate news to share. And the explanation of the placebo effect and the role of the trickster in healing is very well done -- solid. Finally, the author makes the point that healers would do well by capitalizing on insights from their own mental health struggles so they might better connect with the individuals they serve. We all are wounded, but how we respond to suffering is central to growth.This is not a romantic view of shamanism or indigenous cultures. It is, however, a solidly pragmatic guide to healing. I am grateful to Jez Hughes for this gift.

Astounding book written from the heart

J.D. · 19 July 2022

To anyone curious about reading this book I highly recommend it. It is written from the heart and from personal experience.

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The Wisdom of Mental Illness: Shamanism, Mental Health & the Renewal of the World

Name: The Wisdom of Mental Illness: Shamanism, Mental Health & the Renewal of the World
Brand: Watkins Publishing
SKU: K1786785293
Price: 10.62 BHD
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Rating: 4.5 (9 reviews)

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