Trials of the Visionary Mind

<p><b>A comprehensive summary of the author's revolutionary approach to psychosis.</b></p><p>Stress may cause highly activated mythic images to erupt from the psyche's deepest levels in the form of turbulent visionary experience. Depending on whether the interactions between the individual and the immediate surroundings lean toward affirmation or invalidation comprehension of these visions can turn the visionary experience into a step in growth or into a disorder as an acute psychosis. Based on his clinical and scholarly investigations John Weir Perry has found and formulated a mental syndrome which though customarily regarded as acute psychosis is in actuality a more natural effort of the psyche to mend its imbalances. If the upset is received in the spirit of empathy and understanding and allowed to run its course an acute episode can be found to reveal a self-organizing process that has self-healing potential.</p><p>This book examines what the acute psychotic experience stirs up in the psyche and how to empathetically respond. Understanding the function of mythic themes is reached through the author's investigation into myth and ritual of antiquity and also the visionary experience undergone by prophets and social reformers in various ages and parts of the world.</p>