by David Aldridge (Author), David Aldridge (Author)
The spiritual factors associated with healing are increasingly being acknowledged by modern medicine. Our definition of what constitutes health has expanded beyond the purely medical, yet the delivery of modern medicine to the patient often fails to take this into account. Doctors, anthropologists, psychologists and sociologists have all written on the subject, but thus far the literature has been fragmented between the disciplines.
David Aldridge presents the first unified approach to the subject. In Spirituality, Healing and Medicine he evaluates the existing literature from across the disciplines to ascertain just how effective and influential spiritual healing may be on the patient's physical and psychological well-being. He encourages us to redefine treatment strategies and the ways in which we understand health, and argues that the spiritual elements of experience help the patient to find purpose, meaning and hope in the face of sickness. It is in the understanding of suffering and the need for deliverance from it, he suggests, that the traditions and aims of medicine and spirituality meet.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 228
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley
Published: 01 Mar 2000
ISBN 10: 1853025542
ISBN 13: 9781853025549
David Aldridge makes it clear that he does not propose spiritual healing as an alternative to modern healthcare delivery. He has evaluated literature from all disciplines concerned with healthcare to discover the influence that spirituality has on the physical and psychological well-being of the patient.
The concept of spirituality is complicated and at times difficult to identify with and because of this can be devalued in importance to the holistic care of a patient. Different religions and beliefs are explored in the text and many problems that occur are highlighted. The fact that prayer as a spiritual activity is undertaken by the patient and not applied to him/her by another person should be recognised as giving comfort so therefore welcomed by the practitioner. The point which comes over extremely clearly is that all members of the healthcare profession should be willing to accept that a patient's spirituality helps him/her find hope in the face of illness and should be and used alongside the medical treatment.
-- Journal of Community NursingThis is the first to attend so thoroughly to the intersect of theology and medicine - and it's a gem of a book.
It is in the experience of suffering and the consequent need of relief, Aldridge believes, that both medicine and religion share a common goal. Using case studies to bring his arguments to life, he illustrates what he calls healing narratives in the context of a performed life . Patience, grace, prayer, meditation, hope, forgiveness, and fellowship are as important, he says, as medicine or surgery. Many researchers are attempting to demonstrate this assertion; studies on prayer are the most promising at present. But many of these efforts neglect to tease apart the elements of healing that are so difficult to grasp: the difference between spirituality and religion, for example, or the forms of prayer. This is Aldridge's great strength. It makes sense.
It's a great read, and any nurse in search of meaning in the midst of tragedy and suffering (not to mention his or her own well-being) need look no further than this for a starting point.
-- Accident and Emergency Nursing