Promotional Information

"Spirit, Science and Health: How the Spiritual Mind Fuels Physical Wellness, edited by two of the top researchers and authorities in the field, covers a wide range of key topics on the frontier of the discipline of spirituality and health. It is an outstanding contribution to the literature that is a must read for skeptics and believers alike in this growing field. Chapters on prayer, meditation, measurement, spiritual growth, spiritual interventions, ethics of integrating spirituality into patient care and special issues related to adolescents, persons who are HIV positive or have AIDS, or cancer, provide a cohesive menu of must-read topics. Each of these chapters is written by authors who are immensely knowledgeable with a depth of research and clinical experience. These are the trendsetters in spirituality and health. This volume will be one that won't stay on your shelf for very long." -- Harold G. Koenig, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Associate Professor of Medicine Duke University "Illuminating, engaging, and intriguing--this book signals a coming of age of the science of spirituality and health. These chapters move beyond the basic question of whether spirituality relates to health to the more sophisticated question of how spirituality relates to health. Written inuser-friendly language, this important work will introduce many readers to the significant body of wisdom--theoretical, empirical, and practical--that is emerging from diverse disciplines on the topic of spirituality and health." -- Kenneth I. Pargament, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Bowling Green State University

About the Author

Thomas G. Plante is Professor and Chair of Psychology at Santa Clara University and Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. He has authored, edited, or co-edited 10 books, and more than 100 chapters and journal articles. Widely known in the popular media, Plante has been featured in TIME, People, USA Today, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report. He is series editor for the Preager series, Abnormal Psychology. Carl E. Thoresen is Professor Emeritus of Education and Psychology, and, by courtesy, Psychiatry/Behavioral Science at Stanford University. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Spirituality & Health Institute at Santa Clara University. Thoresen has worked in the field of Counseling and Health Psychology for more than 30 years. A Founding Fellow for the Society of Behavioral Medicine, he served on an Expert Panel for the National Institutes of Health Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences, focused on spirituality and health. His many awards include the John Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, election to Fellow status in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Psychological Association, and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.

Reviews

This book could serve very effectively as a brief reference handbook or as an introductory textbook for the emerging field of spirituality and health--now a component in the curriculum of many schools of nursing, medicine, and other health-related professions, as well as in some colleges of liberal arts or education. The book is a particularly well-integrated collection of short reports on the current state of the field. It covers concepts and assessment instruments typically used in spirituality-and-health research. It also covers basic techniques for self-management and personal development (such as prayer and meditation) that long have been part of spiritual traditions, and increasingly are recognized as having relevance for health maintenance too. The book concludes with consideration of general ethical issues and with problems characteristic of specific population groups, e.g., adolescents, the elderly, HIV/AIDS sufferers, and cancer patients. Contributors treat these issues with discernment, respect, and appropriate expertise….Recommended. All levels.
*Choice*

Medicine is increasingly embracing a health promotion rather than disease model. As associates with the Spirituality and Health Institute at Santa Clara U., Plante and Thoreson, introduce 14 chapters examining how the formerly little-researched psychosocial factor of spirituality/religion relates to health in general and to specific patient populations. Social cognitive theory, to which the contributions of preface writer Albert Bandura Stanford U.) are well-known, is used to explain the demonstrated health effects of such practices as meditation and holy name repetition. Case examples treat ethical pitfalls.
*SciTech Book News*