This paper explores the origins and development of the "contemplative psychotherapy" project in the United States, emerging around psychoanalyst Edward Podvoll and the intellectual environment at Naropa University during the 1970s and 1980s. It situates Podvoll's work within the broader dialogue between Buddhism and Western psychotherapy, highlighting how his contributions shed light on this...
This essay reflects on the still-present difficulty in approaching contemporary rural mediumship as coeval with their urban psychotherapeutic counterparts. Drawing on ethnographic work in rural Henan province in central China, I describe how both rurality and spirit mediumship have been rendered anachronistic through national imaginaries, anti-superstition campaigns, and psychiatric discourses....