Biblical Psychotherapy

Reclaiming Scriptural Narratives for Positive Psychology and Suicide Prevention

Kalman J. Kaplan, Paul Cantz

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781978754881
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Greek Ancient History
• Index: Psychology

In Biblical Psychotherapy, Kalman J. Kaplan and Paul Cantz offer a new approach to suicide prevention based on biblical narratives that is designed to overcome the suicidogenic patterns in Greek and Roman stories implicit in modern mental health. More than sixteen suicides and self-mutilations emerge in the twenty-six surviving tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides and countless others occurred in Greek and Roman lives. In contrast, only six suicides are found in the Hebrew Scriptures, in addition to a number of suicide-prevention narratives. Kaplan and Cantz reclaim life-enhancing biblical narratives as alternatives to matched suicidal stories in Greek and Roman society with regard to seven evidence-based risk factors. These biblical narratives are employed to treat fourteen patients fitting into the outlined Graeco-Roman suicidal syndromes and to provide an in-depth positive psychology aimed at promoting life rather than simply preventing suicide.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 The Relevance of Biblical Narratives to Mental Health
• 2 Biblical Psychology
• 3 A Brief History of Views of Suicide
• 4 Seven Evidence-Based Risk Factors for Suicide
• 5 Elijah against Ajax
• 6 Job against Zeno
• 7 David against Coriolanus
• 8 Jonah against Narcissus
• 9 Moses against Oedipus
• 10 Rebecca against Phaedra
• 11 Ruth against Antigone
• Conclusion
• Glossary of Biblical and Graeco-Roman Terms and Figures
• References
• Index
• About the Authors