Ahmed Hankir – författare

"An honest, engaging and most of all, hopeful book."—Adam Kay, BAFTA-winning, multi-million-bestselling author, TV writer and performer."Warm, funny and devastatingly honest. An incredibly insightful story full of hope and resilience."—Dr Amir Khan, Sunday Times bestselling author and Resident Doctor for ITV's Lorraine and Good Morning Britain"An inspiring rebuke to the nihilism which prevails in society about persons living with mental illness due to myths, misinformation and stigma.... Professor Hankir's personal journey bursts with courage, resilience and hope."—Vikram Patel, Paul Farmer Professor and Chair of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, USAExplore mental health, wellness, and illness in this engaging and insightful discussion from a practicing psychiatrist who himself lives with a mental health conditionIn Breakthrough: A Story of Hope, Resilience and Mental Health Recovery, World Health Organization Award Winning psychiatrist, former psychiatric patient and mental health advocate Dr. Ahmed Hankir delivers a unique and powerful insight into mental health and wellness, mental illness, mental health treatment, and the culture surrounding mental health by tracing his own personal recovery journey from impoverished and shunned psychiatric patient, to becoming an NHS Consultant psychiatrist. In the book you'll explore many of the issues currently dominating the discussion of mental health and illness, including the impacts of poverty, unemployment, the cost of living crisis, homelessness, addictions, the use of medication to treat mental illness, the widespread prevalence of stigma, discrimination and racism in mental health and much more.You'll also find: Comprehensive discussions about how to overcome shame and stigma to seek help if you're suffering from a mental illness.Explorations of how mental health practitioners and family members of people living with mental health conditions can themselves remain healthy as they care for others.Examinations of why mental health related stigma remains so stubbornly common in our societies and what we can do to combat it.Breakthrough is a resource of hope and a companion for people suffering in silence who feel isolated and disconnected from society. It will also be of interest to mental health practitioners, including psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, counsellors, addictions specialists, carers and clients. The take home messages are clear: living with a mental health condition is nothing to be ashamed about and, with the right support, recovery is a reality for the many and not the few.

Following World War II and the exposure of the concentration camps, psychiatry turned its attention to a vast range of cultural concerns with results that seemed to indicate a decline of stigma over time. However, it is now clear that whatever drives prejudices, especially in the case of anti-Semitism, was just dormant and perhaps not fully understood. Hate crimes and anti-Semitism broad recently re-emerged in Europe, and the United States followed shortly thereafter.  The US Federal Bureau of investigation reports that New York City, which is still considered the most Jewish-friendly region in the US, experienced a 22% spike in anti-Semitic hate crimes in 2018 alone, with more extremes in other regions of the country.  Neo-Nazi groups have grown stronger in the United States and abroad, often resulting in organized acts of violence.  The recent Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, PA demonstrated that these acts are not limited to one-on-one interactions, butsometimes as prolific, large-scale act.  The medical community is not immune from biases either.  The Cleveland Clinic recently fired a young doctor after she publicly declared her wishes to inject Jewish patients with lethal substances, which is only one of many hateful comments she made on social media over the course of several years.  Psychiatrists in particular grapple with this as they try to serve patients of both Jewish and non-Jewish descent who struggle to process these acts of hate.                Despite all of this, there is no training and no resource to guide medical professionals through these challenges.  The editors of the recent Springer book, Islamophobia and Psychiatry, recognize this gap in the literature and seek to develop another high-quality text to meet this need. Written by expert clinicians in global regions where these incidents are mostprevalent, the book seeks to be neither political nor opinion-based; instead, the text takes an innovative cross-cultural psychiatric interaction, similar to what was done with Springer’s new Islamophobia book. Coverage will range from foci on the social psychiatric aspects of anti-Semitism to how it may in turn infuse clinical encounters between patients and clinicians. Written by experts in this area, the insight and expertise of psychiatrists from a variety of cultural and religious backgrounds will focus on what psychiatrists need to know to combat the negative mental health impact that increasingly rise out of this particular phenomenon. Such a multi-cultural psychiatric approach has never been taken before for this topic. This discourse is the foundation for the primary goal of this book: to develop the tools needed to improve clinical outcomes for patients.  Hence, this book aims to present an updated, comprehensive bio-psychosocial perspective on anti-Semitism at the interface of clinical psychiatry.

Finally, thereare chapters by a mental health professional who has been a patient, a Jewish psychiatrist, a Muslim psychiatrist knowledgeable about Christianity and psychiatry in the Muslim majority world, and a Christian psychiatrist.

This book provides a thorough, comprehensive, and accessible reference for all the major Eastern faith traditions and their intersection with psychiatry. Understanding Eastern religion is of paramount value to all mental health professionals, as there is a growing emphasis on religion and spirituality as a part of clinical cultural competence interventions, predominantly in North America and Europe. Additionally, there is rising membership in Eastern, Asian, and non-Semitic faith traditions in North America and Europe. Hence, more patients and clinicians belong to these non-Western faiths than ever before.The volume is divided into five parts. Part 1 covers general issues, including principles of culture, religion, and spirituality in psychiatry, spirituality across the lifespan, child rearing, practice and faith, and how death and dying is approached in these Eastern traditions. Part 2 covers specific Eastern religions and spiritual traditions, including basic principles and research-based clinical aspects of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, as well as Confucian philosophical ideas. Part 3 attempts to apply the importance of cultural humility to perspectives on the Eastern Traditions from Western Psychiatry. These include Christian, Muslim, and Jewish perspectives, not of expertise, but of explorations in learning. Part 4 covers specific social psychiatric perspectives, including the psychiatric harm that can come from caste divisions and cults posing as religions, but closes with a perspective on the Eastern connections to the relatively unknown, but unifying, Omnist perspective.All mental health professionals seeking to expand their understanding of the essential belief systems of various Eastern religions and their connection with mental health will find Eastern Religions, Spirituality, and Psychiatry an invaluable resource.