Abstract
It’s ironic that psychoanalysis, which focuses on the individual’s “unknown”—the unconscious—is a field where religion and spirituality have been suspect ever since Freud discounted religion as a collective neurosis. Yet even patients who don’t practice traditional religion usually have spiritual sensibilities. Despite the difficulty of putting such ethereal matters into words, to not acknowledge or address our patients’ spiritual yearnings and beliefs is to cast them off as inconsequential and to ignore and deny them a potentially rich, deep exploration of a significant and complex part of their lives. In this presentation, I discuss the most common ways religious references surface in psychotherapy, the five main paradigms psychoanalysts adhere to which inform their clinical work, and why sensitizing psychotherapists and psychoanalysts to signals of spirituality is so important. Psychoanalytic work is not merely intended to analyze the linear and logical. We are dedicated to acknowledging the sub-lingual, unconscious, and oceanic sensations that are intangible but very real to our patients. Enhancing clinical awareness of the ways religion and spirituality influence our patients’ personal narratives, thinking, behavior, and personality is especially important today because we no longer live in a world where belief systems are solely focused on institutional religion. The spiritual sensibilities our patients bring into the office may not fit into traditional definitions. It’s the psychoanalyst’s job to be attuned to the spiritual dynamics at work in our patients’ psyches and avoid the professionally-honed tendency to think analytically and reductionistically about spiritual feelings and experiences.
Presenters
Samuel L. Pauker, M.D.Faculty, Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, Columbia University, New York, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
PSYCHOANALYSIS, PSYCHOTHERAPY, RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY, BELIEF, FAITH, PSYCHOLOGY, UNCONSCIOUS, SPIRITUAL YEARNINGS
