Cultural Perspectives on Mental Wellbeing: Spiritual Interpretations of Symptoms in Medical Practice By Natalie Tobert. London & Philadelphia. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. 2017. £19.99 (pb). 264 pp. ISBN 9781785920844

Hosting a ‘Spirituality and Psychiatry’ special interest group (SIG) with 3000 plus members, the Royal College of Psychiatrists is well-placed to support the basic theme of this book: that society is close to: ‘A major shift in how health and mental health are understood and treated’. The new vision involves: ‘Embracing a holistic, open ended, even mystery-filled vision of humankind’. Described here is a challenging but valuable evolution of ideas, not exactly abandoning, but developing an added dimension to the prevailing reductionist, disease-based paradigm.

Natalie Tobert, a medical anthropologist, writes clearly and persuasively about previous major revisions of attitude, towards unmarried mothers or consenting homosexuals, for example. Her research has been deliberately wide-ranging, concerning human experience of life through health, to death ‘and beyond’. Using a spiritual perspective, she nevertheless avoids any particular religious or academic viewpoint. Her aim is, ‘to acknowledge the dilemma of different frameworks of knowledge’, and especially to reconcile perspective differences between healthcare workers and patients … (in part) ‘because coherence of understanding between practitioner and client tends to improve healing’.

In 17 neat chapters, each helpfully introduced and then summarised for clarity, the author tackles pertinent subjects including ‘cultural beliefs about health and illness’, ‘beliefs about conception and human identity’, ‘women's bodies and human behaviour’, ‘cultural knowledge on death and dying’ (also survival after death), then five chapters on ‘anomalous experiences’, among them ‘religious and spiritual experiences’, ‘near-death experiences’, and ‘spiritual awakening’. The final chapters in turn cover, ‘Why address cultural understandings and academic fixity?’, ‘Acknowledging dissonance as a way forward’, and ‘Towards positive change’.

This is a worthwhile book, making an ideal companion to two RCPsych Press publications edited by Chris Cook and colleagues: Spirituality and Psychiatry and Spirituality and Narrative in Psychiatric Practice. Members of the Spirituality and Psychiatry SIG will certainly find it rewarding. Others might find it surprisingly beneficial, both accessible and enlightening, too.