Spiritual Emergency/Emergence/Counseling Record Type: Review   ID: 1002
The Psychic Thread: Paranormal and Transpersonal Aspects of Psychotherapy Mintz, Elizabeth E., with Gertrude R. Schmeidler
Addressed primarily to the practicing psychotherapist, this book "discusses the psychodynamic significance and therapeutic management of paranormal and transpersonal experiences reported by the patient or taking place in the therapeutic situation" (p. 11). The clinical data presented is taken from the author's own clinical experiences or that of her colleagues. The author's stance is pragmatic: Seeming psychic and transpersonal or mystical experiences do occur in people's lives, and whatever their reality may be, unless responsible practitioners begin to regard them as matters of legitimate concern for psychologists, untrained entrepreneurs will try to answer the need. In the Introduction, paranormal and transpersonal experiences are defined and discussed within a psychotherapeutic context, setting the stage for the ten chapters to follow. The subjects covered are: the nature of psi; apparent psi experiences occurring in psychotherapy and their therapeutic management; patients' apparent psychic awareness of the therapist's personal life; how the therapist's hunches can help the patient; patients who seem to be psychic; apparent psi among patients in therapy or supervisory groups; transpersonal experiences occurring in the context of group therapy; the relationship between mystical experiences and schizophrenia; an overview of therapeutic approaches that allow for transpersonal dimensions of experience; and the therapist's role in the management of bereavement and serious illness, including a discussion of near-death experiences. The focus of discussion throughout is on therapeutic management.
Publisher Information:	New York: Human Sciences Press, 1983. 232p. Chapter notes; Index: 227-232

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