Description

In the modern framework of “mental health,” it is radical to ask what might be healed by the radicality of grace. But, let’s ask it: what might be healed by the radicality of grace? This is where we plot our course in this issue. As you might have guessed, it isn’t light fare—the landscape of the human psyche tends to prompt questions about our lives we’d naturally evade. But Jesus asks these questions. As the Great Physician, he gently addresses the wounds we’ve long kept covered. But in doing so, he also administers healing. He shows us that our wounds are carried in his.

In this issue we cover everything from self-help to suicide. We have psychopathic children and their pathological parents; we have pathological churches run by pathological pastors; we even have pathologies of pathologies! We have great interviews with “Ask Polly” columnist Heather Havrilesky and self-justification gurus Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson. Poems from the masterful Gray Jacobik. And so, so much more.

Contents

Opener

The Epidemic by DAVID ZAHL

The Confessional

Mockingbird Asks Polly: Our Interview with HEATHER HAVRILESKY

Confessions of Parental Recidivists by BRIAN & DEBBIE SOLUM

For the Record: Cures of Yore

Overmedicated, Under God: Help in the Age of Antidepressants by ETHAN RICHARDSON

A Poem by GRAY JACOBIK

Justifying Our Lives Away: A Q&A with CAROL TAVRIS & ELLIOT ARONSON

Schemers, Clingers, and Frank Lake’s Schizoid Self by SCOTT JONES

For the Record: Bookshelf, Non-Self-Help Reads, Mental Health at the Movies

The Laws of the Megachurch by JOEL GREINER

A Poem by GRAY JACOBIK

The Psychology of Attachment in Our Relationship with God by BONNIE POON ZAHL

For the Record: Know Thy Bias!

A Word of Acceptance: An Interview with JOANNA COLLICUTT

Notes from the Funny Farm by KATHRYN GOURLEY

A Poem by GRAY JACOBIK

How to Cope with the Modern World: A Short Guide by WILL MCDAVID

Life in a Dark Place: A Sermon by DAVID BROWDER