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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Delusional Mitigation In Religious And Psychological Forms Of Self-Cultivation: Buddhist And Clinical Insight On Delusional Symptomatology, Austin J. Avison Oct 2021

Delusional Mitigation In Religious And Psychological Forms Of Self-Cultivation: Buddhist And Clinical Insight On Delusional Symptomatology, Austin J. Avison

The Hilltop Review

This essay examines Buddhist forms of self-cultivation and development that enable a psychosocial capacity for emotional, cognitive, and behavioral adjustment by improving an individual's characteristic mode of interaction within the world. First, we will consider the religious form of self-cultivation seen in the context of Buddhism and its desire to remove delusional perspectives through developmental practices. In this, we will consider the cultivating function of clinical psychology through the therapeutic application of cognitive restructuring techniques as a form of cultivation. Next, considering psychological self-cultivation, training, development, and education concerning the treatment of schizophrenia and its characteristic criterion of delusions. Further, …


Facing Our Demons: Psychiatric Perspectives On Exorcism Rituals, Joel R. Sanford Jun 2016

Facing Our Demons: Psychiatric Perspectives On Exorcism Rituals, Joel R. Sanford

The Hilltop Review

Belief in possession by malevolent spirits exists in many cultures and religions throughout the world, and such beliefs often serve as explanations for a variety of psychological and emotional afflictions. Traditional remedies in these cases often involve exorcism rituals, which are believed to expel spirits from a person's mind and/or body. Some of the cases commonly attributed to involuntary spirit possession are diagnosed within the psychiatric community as schizophrenia or some sort of dissociative disorder and treated with psychotherapy and/or medicine. For some in the psychiatric community, exorcisms and their use by patients are viewed as problematic due to their …


Proof Of Heaven?: Controversy Over Near-Death Experiences In American Christianity, Joel Sanford Jan 2015

Proof Of Heaven?: Controversy Over Near-Death Experiences In American Christianity, Joel Sanford

The Hilltop Review

Testimonies claiming firsthand experience of Life after Death have been circulating in many cultures since antiquity. Among these experiences are those occurring at, near, or beyond the point of death or apparent death. Testimonies of this kind of experience, now widely referred to as a Near-death Experience (NDE), were popularized by Raymond Moody's publication of Life after Life in 1975. In the last 10 years, it seems there has been a growing American public interest in these experiences, resulting in a slew of New York Times best-sellers. With such provocative titles as Proof of Heaven and Heaven is for Real …