Independent Researcher

Romania

About

Currently, I am searching for a suitable PhD program that will allow me to study
in interdisciplinary terms the issue of prayer and health (see my article for more details).

I am interested in understanding the psyche in a framework that emphasize relationships, social context, cultural setting, and historical background.

Some of the questions related to the complex relationship between culture - subjectivity - health:

* Is it more to prayer than just a coping technique? Could  it aid significantly the healing process in certain conditions?
* Is there a cluster of bio-psycho-socio-cultural factors that could influence clinically significant the cancer survival rate?
* Is there a way to make placebo phenomena more predictable, given the lack of specificity and control over the many variables involved?

Academic interests:

- Religion, Spirituality, Healing and Health Outcomes; Prayer research and health; ASC; Subjectivity; Ritual and healing process; Self and identity (the influence of culture and context on identity construction); Self and illness narrative; Embodiment and mind-body interaction; Faith and health in secular society; Narrative inquiry; Habitus; Autoethnography

- Transpersonal studies; Medical and Psychological Anthropology; Anthropology of Consciousness; Anthropology of Religion; Psychology of Religion; Critical Health Psychology; Cultural Psychology; Sociology of health and illness; Psycho-oncology

2010 - present: Associate Circulation Editor - International Journal of Transpersonal Studies (IJTS).