A profound resource for psychology, spiritual direction, and pastoral integration. Renowned author May discusses the role of self-compassion and self-care in mental health. In this new edition, he also adds material on the intersection of psychology and spirituality, with expanded discussions of trust, solitude, and prayer.

The subtitle of this book, “The Spirituality of Mental Health” piqued my curiosity since it is an intersection of two of my interests.

Message: Struggling against the person you really are and not paying attention to what is going on now will make you very unhappy. At the same time, while you need to drop the impossible struggle for perfection, you must recognize that change may be part of the authentic self that you need to become.

I found much of the book to have a Zen -like koan quality without the author actually mentioning Buddhism. This book was written in 1982, before some of the more recent popular works on Buddhist practices in psychology, such as those on mindfulness, were published. This seems to be an ancestor of those more recent and to me, at least, more relevant books. ( )