Böcker av Anthony Marsella

Imagine for a moment God-a Supreme Being of your choice - is your neighbor! A good neighbor! Someone with whom you could share your deepest thoughts and feelings and know they would be understood and accepted. Someone with whom you could hold a conversation and not be worried your questions or answers would result in a frown or reflexive reply: "That us blasphemy-sacrilege!" Or the frequent childhood warning: "If you keep talking like that, you are going to go to hell!"Imagine you could knock on your neighbor's door and be greeted and welcomed by an image, essence, or being of your mind's own fashioning, saying: "Come in! Come in! I was expecting you!" Imagine God - a Supreme Being - as a neighbor! Imagine a neighbor whose grandeur and wisdom would encourage you to explore issues of life's meaning and purpose familiar to us all yet too often left unanswered, languishing, for fear that possible answers would be difficult to accept or disruptive to existing life routines.Your good neighbor would welcome your questions and answers, freeing you to ask others. Suppose, for example, you asked your good neighbor a question, and the good neighbor replied: "The answer is 'yes' and 'no'."Imagine an opportunity, free of life's conventional distractions, a place and a time for you to wonder without being told words stopping thought: "Right!" "Wrong!" "Take off your shoes, you are on holy ground."In this small volume, readers will find a collection of eleven on going conversations with God - a Supreme Being - not in a magnificent church, temple, or mosque, overwhelming in earthly splendor, but just an open door, a gentle voice, and a welcoming presence for exploring thought you have had on your mind for a long time. Knock, knock! " It's me again. Do you have a few minutes? I know the world is hectic and you are needed by many, but I won't take long.""Yes, yes, of course! Would you like some wine? Cheese? Wafers?" Imagine a good neighbor with a sense of humor to soften the moment, a neighbor understanding the importance of a smile, laughter, and humility without losing grace and dignity. If you have read these words, why not open the book and read more? It's ok! Keep the conversation going!

This volume is a collection of scholarly, editorial, and personal commentaries (Chapters) on "schizophrenia" with special attention directed toward the consequences of "imprecision" in professional and scientific thought and practice because of our failure to accept "schizophrenia" is a construct. A construct is a term, word, concept subject to denotative and connotative semantic abuses and limitations.The reification of a construct in the absence of substantial research confirmation, leads to disorders in our professional and scientific thought and practice, which scholars have termed "epistemopathologies."This is the irony and the tragedy, as "schizophrenia" has acquired widespread acceptance and use as a medical/psychiatric/political diagnostic label. The label serves a mental health industry, but does little to explain or describe the etiology, expressions, and care of individuals assigned the "term."A central issue is the commitment to "reductionism" as a conceptual and methodological pillar for the "mental health industry." Reductionism is an ideology, legitimizing medical solutions for critical widespread social, political, economic, and moral problems.The ideology is apparent in the construct of "schizophrenia," where " utility" arguments for the continued medical diagnoses, treatments, and professional roles, deny issues of validity. This volume explores historical, conceptual, and cultural sources of our continuing use and abuse of the construct of "schizophrenia" as a questionable foundation for a mental health industry, perpetuating and tolerating "imprecision."

This volume invites you to share a journey of the mind. The volume explores a number of topical areas from the vantage point of different writing genre, including poetry, poetic lyrics, elegies, essays, and short stories. Among the topical areas included are Nature, Places, Innovative Ideas, Love, War, and Mortality Encounters.Why the volume? The answer is both simple and complex. The simple answer is an impluse to share insights and experiences gleaned from a life well-lived - the inherent teacher and mentor in all of us. The complex answer is more nuanced, arising from a life pushed and pulled to share more intimate and private insights and experiences about life.Gatherings, is the right title for this collection. It is about gathering and building connections! I want readers to find personal meaning in my words, and also to enter my life - to know me better as a person through my writing. To know my experiences! This is connection!