The Enigma of Psychosis
Sacred Psychology - A Global Perspective - Samuel Bendeck Sotillos
Samuel Bendeck Sotillos [+]
Psychotherapist
Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, PsyD, LMFT, LPCC, CCMHC, NCC, CPRP, CCTP, MHRS, is a
practicing psychotherapist who has worked for many years in the field of mental health and social services. His focus is on comparative religion and the intersection between culture, spirituality, and psychology. His works include The Quest For Who We Are: Modern Psychology and the Sacred (2023), Paths That Lead to the Same Summit: An Annotated Guide to World Spirituality (2020), Dismantling Freud: Fake Therapy and the Psychoanalytic Worldview (2020), and Behaviorism: The Quandary of a Psychology without a Soul (2017). He edited the volume, Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy (2013), and his articles have appeared in numerous journals and periodicals. He lives on the Central Coast of California.
Description
The epidemic of mental illness has become a global crisis. According to the WHO, some 450 million people around the world are currently suffering from mental illness, and 1 in 4 will at some point in their lifetime suffer from a mental health issue. In an era that prizes empirically verifiable evidence-based treatments, it is puzzling that much of what constitutes psychopathology and its psychogenesis or etiology remains a mystery. Psychosis remains elusive for modern science. This essay focuses on examining modernistic and traditional notions of psychosis or extreme states of mind as informed by the world’s religions in order to better understand this phenomenon.