ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book addresses the contributions of pastoral theologians who recognize the value of community in changing unhealthy ways and creating new patterns of wholeness. The idea of changing the system for the good of the patient and treating the patient within the context of all his various systems-family, community, and world-is a familiar one for pastors and pastoral counselors. The foundational ideas upon which this care is based are relevant to the efforts of pastoral counselors to give care to the mentally ill. In particular, they are relevant to the task of assisting the mentally ill toward health and restoration to society. Pathologizing may be important for the medical diagnosis, but it may be more productive for clients to see themselves not as inadequate or incomplete, but as persons in need of change in a system that also needs change.
