Aging and God : spiritual pathways to mental health in midlife and later years

Contents Foreword * Preface * Part I. Religion and the Mental Sciences * The History of Psychiatry and Religion * Sigmund Freud * Conflicting Approaches to Mental Health * Overlap and Complementarity * Part II. Theoretical Issues * Theories of Human Development * Fowler's Stages of Faith Development * A Theory of Religious Faith Development * Part III. Advances in Research * Depression and Medical Illness * Using Religion to Cope * Cases of Religious Coping in Action * Religious Coping and Depression * Religion and Anxiety * Part IV. Clinical Applications * Spiritual Needs of Physically Ill Elders * Meeting Psychological and Spiritual Needs * Use of Religion in Psychotherapy * V. Special Concerns in Later Life * The Nursing Home and Alzheimer's Disease * Alcoholism/Sexual Dysfunction * The Family and Bereavement Issues * Religious Conversion * VI. The Final Frontier * Hope for the Dying * Suicide in Later Life * Physician-Assisted Suicide * Final Comments * Indexes * Reference Notes Included