Fire Burning in My Head

David Y. F. Ho has held professorial appointments in psychology and cultural studies in Asia and North America. He has authored numerous contributions in psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and education; and was the first Asian to have served as President of the International Council of Psychologists.

Contents: Part 1. Discoveries from a Self-Study of Madness: Tales from My Two Worlds –Episodes of Madness: All of Exuberance, None of Depression – Madness Has Enriched My Life – From Psychiatry to Spirituality – Glimpses of Enlightenment in the Midst of Madness – In Search of Transcultural Spirituality-in-Communion – Epilogue. I’m Getting There – Part 2. Transcending the Clash of Opposites: Thematic Group 1. Normality Versus Abnormality: Madness as Creative Energy: Self-Observations – Psychiatric Diagnosis and its Pitfalls – Psychopathology of Religious Luminaries – Thematic Group 2. Individual Versus Collective Madness: Societal Mental Health Crises in America and China – Values Underlying Mental Health Practice – The Trump Phenomenon and the Politics of an Unholy Alliance – Thematic Group 3. Eastern Versus Western Culture: Two Ways of Life: Chinese and American – Growing Up in the People’s Republic of China: Culture, Ideology, and Policy – Family Pathology in Literature: Reinterpreting the Oedipal Myth – Thematic Group 4. Spirituality Versus Spiritual Emptiness: Transforming Madness for Dignified Existence – Spirituality and Spiritual Emptiness: Toward Transcultural Applicability – References – Appendix A. Multidimensional Evaluation of Spirituality (MES) – Appendix B. Strategies of Coping – Appendix C. Highlights of 22 Episodes of Madness, and a Free Association – Appendix D. Expressive Dance to Music: A Royal Road to Holistic Health – Appendix E. The Undiscovered Illness: The Opposite of Depression

This extraordinary book, written by an extraordinary person, transforms the reader into a new and more dignified person. It shows how the forces of madness may be harnessed to serve creative purposes. Ho is a brilliant storyteller who entertains the reader with adventurous tales of his life as a spiritual journey. He is also a dialectical thinker who has succeeded in linking insights derived from his personal self-study with the science of mental illness versus health in diverse cultures.
—Evelin G. Lindner, Founding President, Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies

"David Ho shows that the over application of psychiatric diagnoses has the undesirable effect of viewing deviant experiences as dysfunctional and counterproductive. The account of his unusual mood elevations prompts us to realize that creativity and abnormality are rather mutually inclusive."
—Hubert Hermans, Emeritus Professor, Creator of Dialogical Self Theory

"This book is the author’s remarkable journey into the borderlands of madness and ordinary life. The reader is deeply enlightened by his power of integrating Oriental and Occidental perspectives within one inquisitive mind."
—Jaan Valsiner, Niels Bohr Professor of Cultural Psychology, Aalborg University

"Ho is a relentless bridge-builder: His Chinese and Western selves are literal bridges between East and West, psychiatry and spirituality, poetry and prose, and internal struggle and cultural evolution."
—Rev. Dr. Tom Owen-Towle, Unitarian Universalist Minister