Spirituality and Mental Health Across Cultures

Religiosity and spirituality (R/S) represent a very important factor of daily life for many individuals across different cultures and contexts. It is associated with lower rates of depression, suicide, mortality, and substance abuse, and is positively correlated with well-being and quality of life. Despite growing academic recognition and scientific literature on these connections this knowledge has not been translated into clinical practice.

Part of the expanding Oxford Cultural Psychiatry series, Spirituality and Mental Health Across Cultures is a timely exploration of the implications of R/S on mental health. Written and edited by 38 experts in the fields of spirituality and mental health from 11 countries, covering a wide range of cultural and geographical perspectives, this unique resource assesses how mental health relates to world religions, agnosticism, atheism, and spiritualism unaffiliated with organised religion, with a practical touch.

Across 25 chapters, this resource provides readers with a succinct and trustworthy review of the latest research and how this can be applied to clinical care. The first section covers the principles and fundamental questions that relate science, history, philosophy, neuroscience, religion, and spirituality with mental health. The second section discusses the main beliefs and practices related to world religions and their implications to mental health. The third reviews the impact of R/S on specific clinical situations and offers practical guidance on how to handle these appropriately, such as practical suggestions for assessing and integrating R/S in personal history anamnesis or psychotherapy.

Alexander Moreira-Almeida, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director, Research Center in Spirituality and Health (NUPES), School of Medicine, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Brazil,Bruno Paz Mosqueiro, Psychiatrist, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil,Dinesh Bhugra, Professor Emeritus of Mental Health and Cultural Diversity, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), Kings College, UK

Alexander Moreira-Almeida, MD, PhD, is Associate Professor of Psychiatry, founder and director of NUPES, the Research Center in Spirituality and Health, at the School of Medicine, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Brazil. Chair of and coordinator of the section on spirituality of the Brazilian Psychiatric Association. Chair of the Sections on Spirituality of the Latin American (APAL) and the Brazilian (ABP) Psychiatric Associations. Former chair of the WPA (World Psychiatric Association) Section on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry (2014-17 and 2017-2020) where he coordinated the proposal and approval of the WPA Position Statement on Spirituality and Religion in Psychiatry that has been translated into Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch, Chinese, Hindi, and Arabic.


Bruno Paz Mosqueiro is a Psychiatrist at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil

Professor Dinesh Bhugra is Emeritus Professor of Mental Health and Cultural Diversity at King's College, London. He was Dean (Lead Educational Officer) of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (2003-2008) and then President of the Royal College (2008-2011). He was Vice-Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges with remit for education for doctors of all grades and specialities. During this period he led on College's campaign for Fair Deal for people with mental illness. He established strategy for public mental health. As President of the BMA (2018-2019) he led on a large survey of mental health and well-being of medical students globally, a campaign for equity between physical and mental health and Medicine's social contract.

Introduction
Section I Theory
1. Religion, Spirituality, and Mental Health: Setting the scene, Alexander Moreira-Almeida and Dinesh Bhugra
2. Western Spirituality: A Historical Epistemology, German Berrios and Ivana S. Markov?
3. Conflicts and Complexities: Medical Science, Exceptional Experiences, and the Perils of Simplistic History, Andreas Sommer
4. Can Spirituality be a Scientific Topic And How? A Rigorous But Open Minded Scientific Approach of Studies on Religion, Spirituality and Mental Health, Harald Walach
5. Differentiating spiritual experiences from mental disorders, Leonardo Machado and Alexander Moreira-Almeida
6. The Light and the Bulb: The Psychology and Neurophysiology of Mystical Experience, Etzel Carde?a and Lena Lindstr?m
7. Evidence for the impact of religiosity and spirituality on mental health, Giancarlo Lucchetti, Rodolfo Furlan Damiano, Alessandra Lamas Granero Lucchetti, and Mario Fernando Prieto Peres
8. Mechanisms: How Religion Impacts Mental Health, Harold G. Koenig
9. Spirituality/Religion in LGBT Individuals, Dinesh Bhugra, Cameron Watson, and Susham Gupta
Section II General principles of religions and relationship with mental health
10. Christianity and Mental Health, Alison J. Gray and Christopher C.H. Cook
11. Islam and Mental Health, Ahmed Okasha and Tarek A. Okasha
12. Hinduism, Matcheri S. Keshavan, Bangalore N. Gangadhar, and Ananda K. Pandurangi
13. Principles and practices of Buddhism in relationship to mental health, Malcolm Huxter and Leandro Pizzuti
14. Judaism, Haim Belmaker, Rael Strous, and Pesach Lichtenberg
15. Nonreligion, Atheism and Mental Health, Miguel Farias and Thomas J. Coleman III
16. African Religions, Spirituality and Mental Health Healing Practices, Olatunde Ayinde, Akin Ojagbemi, Victor Makanjuola, and Oye Gureje
17. Spiritual But Not Religious, Bruno Paz Mosqueiro
Section III Clinical Practice
18. Principles of integrating religion and spirituality in mental health care and the WPA Position Statement, Christopher C.H. Cook and Alexander Moreira-Almeida
19. Spiritually and culturally sensitive evidence-based approaches to taking a spiritual history, Larkin Kao and John Peteet
20. Religion, Spirituality in Prevention and Promotion in Mental Health, Arjan W. Braam
21. Positive Psychiatry and Psychology and Spirituality, Simone Hauck and C. Robert Cloninger
22. Spiritually integrated psychotherapy, Marianna de Abreu Costa and David Rosmarin
23. Religious and Spiritual Struggles and Mental Health:Implications for Clinical Practice, Kenneth I. Pargament and Julie J. Exline
24. Spirituality and End of Life Experiences: Meeting the Spiritual Needs of the Dying, Peter Fenwick and Bruno Paz Mosqueiro
25. Fruitful collaborations with religious and spiritual communities to foster mental health on general society examples from around the world, Wai Lun Alan Fung, Victor A. Shepherd, King Yee Agatha Chong, Sujatha D. Sharma, and Avdesh Sharma
5. Differentiating spiritual experiences from mental disorders
6. The Light and the Bulb: The Psychology and Neurophysiology of Mystical Experience
7. Evidence for the impact of religiosity and spirituality on mental health