Healing Souls: Psychotherapy in the Latter-Day Saint Community

ISBN-13: 9780252028649 / Angielski / Twarda / 2003 / 264 str.

Eric Gottfrid Swedin

Opis

In this first history of psychotherapy among the Latter-day Saints, Eric G. Swedin describes how modern psychology has affected the healing of souls in the LDS community. But, he also shows how this community melded its theological doctrines with mainstream psychiatry when secular concepts clashed with fundamental tenets of Mormonism. The psychological professions pervasive in twentieth-century American society were viewed as dangerous by some religious communities. Healing Souls describes the LDS community's mixed feelings about science and modernity: while valuing knowledge, Mormons feared a challenge to faith. Nonetheless, psychology courses were introduced at Brigham Young University, and LDS psychotherapists began to introduce new ideas and practices to the community. Swedin portrays the rise of professional organizations such as the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists, as well as the importance of Allen E. Bergin, first director of the BYU Institute for Studies in Values and Human Behavior. Bergin and others paved the way for the LDS adoption of professional psychotherapy as an essential element of their cure of souls. Important chapters take up LDS ps