 Recovering
Sanity:
A Compassionate Approach to Understanding and Treating Psychosis
Edward M. Podvoll, M.D.
(Formerly published as The Seduction of Madness)
Recovering Sanity is a compassionately written examination
of the experience of psychosis and related mental illnesses.
By presenting four in-depth provides of illness and recovery, Dr. Edward
Podvoll
reveals the brilliance and chaos of the psychotic mind and demonstrates
its potential for recovery outside of traditional institutonal
settings.
Dr. Podvoll counters the conventional thinking that the milions
of Americans suffering from psychosis can never fully recover.
He offers
a bold new approach to treatment that involves home care with
a specially trained team of practitioners. Using "basic attendance",
a treatment technique inspired by the author's study of Buddhist
psychology, healthcare professionals can use the tools of compassion
and awareness
to help patients recover their underlying sanity. Originally
published as The Seduction of Madness, this reissue includes new introductory
material and two new appendices.
Praise for Recovering Sanity
(Click on each name to read full quotation)
Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, author of Wild Awakening
Mark Vonnegut, author of The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity
Daniel Goleman, author, Emotional Intelligence
Tulku Thondup, author of The Healing Power of Mind
Bernie Glassman, author of Infinite Circle: Teachings in Zen
Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, author of The Essence of Buddhism
Joan Halifax Roshi, Abbess, Upaya Zen
Center
Harold Searles, M.D., author of Countertransference and Related
Subjects
Oliver Sachs, M.D., author of Awakenings
Irvin Yalom, MD, author of Love’s
Executioner
Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, author of Wild
Awakening
Dr. Podvoll's important new work provides valuable insight
into understanding psychosis through the application of principles
from
the Buddhist science of mind. Recovering Sanity also addresses
universal pain and confusion, and the natural human longing to
undertake the journey
of transcendence. I recommend Dr. Podvoll's work not only to those
interested in healing psychological injuries, but to those
in all
walks of life
who wish to transcend mental suffering.
Mark Vonnegut, author of
The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity
Edward Podvoll’s The
Seduction of Madness is far and away the best written, most cogent,
compelling history of our attempts to come to terms
with the fascinating terrifying monster of madness. What kills
most books about insanity is the almost irresistible urge to romance
the disease
and project our social, aesthetic, religious values onto such a
big inviting canvas. Edward Podvoll’s book is admirably free
of such romance. We are all still a million miles away from knowing
enough to say who
will and who won’t get better and what we can do to improve our
odds but we will look long and hard without finding a better statement
of the problem.
Daniel Goleman, author, Emotional Intelligence
In The Seduction of
Madness, Ed Podvoll offers a uniquely humane vision of the
world of madness, one informed by a humanistic
and compassionate sensibility. Anyone who cares about those
who inhabit this world
will be enriched by this book.
Tulku Thondup, author of The Healing Power of Mind
Recovering Sanity is a must read book on the Healing arts of the East and West,
shining rays of compassionate wisdom for all who
are in need of recovering their mental health.
Bernie Glassman,
author of Infinite Circle: Teachings in Zen
The Seduction of Madness presents first of
all an important alternative vision of how to help psychotic
minds recover naturally, without
recourse to invasive methods. But its reach far surpasses the
field of mental illness. For Edward Podvoll sees full well that
each of us has a recovering mind, one that
is in the process of healing and discovering its innate wholeness.
The treatment
that he describes – how to work with islands of clarity, and
the innate intelligence that guides the healing process – is
a teaching not just
for mental health professionals but for anyone interested in
the transformation of mind, heart, and self. You rarely read
a book that is so beautifully,
lovingly written.
Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, author of The Essence
of Buddhism
Edward Podvoll's book is a uniquely refreshing book
that stands out amongst the recent spate of books on Buddhism
and Psychotherapy. He manages to combine the keen eye for detail
of someone trained
in the western mode of thinking, with the deep and profound insight
into the nature of the mind of a long-term practitioner of Buddhist
meditation. Edward does not make facile comparisons between the
two traditions, nor does he obfuscate
the reader with tediously repetitious technical details.
Joan
Halifax Roshi, Abbess,
Upaya Zen Center
This extraordinary book describes Ed Podvoll’s
pioneering work in healing psychosis. It challenges the current
medical and psychological
approaches to working with psychological disorders, and opens
the doors to the life of the mind that have long been closed.
This book offers
great possibilities not only to those touched by mental illness,
but to all of us as we examine our lives in the light of a profoundly
intelligent
and compassionate spiritual perspective.
Harold Searles, M.D.,
author of Countertransference and Related Subjects
Edward Podvoll,
M.D., is a highly original thinker who possesses, also, the ability
to describe inherently complex phenomena in
a remarkably lucid fashion. In these regards he is reminiscent
of Stephen Hawking,
the eminent Cambridge mathematician and physicist, author of
the international bestseller, A Brief History of Time. But
permeating, and over and beyond,
such rare intellectual endowments is Dr. Podvoll’s emotional
sensitivity to the phenomena of which he writes. This is his
capability which I value the most. In this brief space I cannot
cite various ones
among his original contributions. But I can assure the reader
that he or she will find this book eminently worth the reading
from cover
to cover.
Oliver Sachs, M.D., author of Awakenings
The Seduction
of Madness is a radical reconsideration of the psychotic mind
and its never-lost potential for "islands of clarity" and
self-recovery – one which provides us with desperately needed,
humane alternatives for understanding the psychotic patient.
This is first
a book for patients, families, friends, and physicians – but
it is equally an eloquent, and phenomenologically fascinating,
meditation on the structure of mind.
Irvin Yalom, MD, author of Love’s
Executioner
A remarkable book,
extremely creative and powerfully written … careful
observations made by a brilliant clinician and a wise and humane
therapeutic approach.
|
