Creativity, spirituality and mental health : exploring connections / Kelley Raab Mayo

This book emphasizes the integral connections between imagination, creativity, and spirituality and their role in healing. Part One highlights the work of a neglected yet important psychoanalyst, Marion Milner - a painter and undeclared mystic - expanding her work on creativity, mysticism, and mental health. Part Two explores imagination and creativity as expressed in fostering hope and in spiritually-oriented therapies, particularly for mood, anxiety, and eating disorders - offering practical application of studies in imagination and the arts. Raab Mayo concludes that both creativity and the potential for transcendence are inherent in the human psyche and can work as allies in the process of healing from mental illness.

This book emphasizes the integral connections between imagination, creativity, and spirituality and their role in healing. First, the author highlights the work of a neglected yet important psychoanalyst, Marion Milner - a painter and undeclared mystic - expanding her work on creativity, mysticism, and mental health. Second, she explores imagination and creativity as expressed in fostering hope and in spiritually-oriented therapies, particularly for mood, anxiety, and eating disorders - offering practical application of studies in imagination and the arts. Raab Mayo concludes that both creativity and the potential for transcendence are inherent in the human psyche and can work as allies in the process of recovery from mental illness.

Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 1 Introduction......Page 12 2 Marion Milner on Mysticism and Creativity......Page 24 3 Spirituality and Creativity: Theory and Practice......Page 44 4 Hope and the Religious Imagination......Page 66 5 Issues of Mood and Anxiety......Page 92 6 Eating Disorders......Page 120 7 Conclusion......Page 142 Bibliography......Page 156 Index......Page 176