
Object Relations Theory and Religion
Clinical Applications
Praeger Publishers Inc
Published on 10. December 1992
Book
Hardback
208 pages
978-0-275-93518-4 (ISBN)
Description
Until now, little attention has been paid to the application of contemporary psychoanalytic theory to religious experiences. In this edited collection, the contributors provide examples that illustrate both theoretical insights and clinical techniques that are relevant to clinicians who face religious issues in psychotherapy. This work follows in the footsteps of Ana-Maria Rizzuto who took the bold step of employing object relations theory to the clinical study of an individual's religious representations and argued that religious representations profoundly reveal a person's relational world. Dr. Rizzuto provides a detailed afterword for this volume.
While several of the authors maintain religious commitments which vary from Christian to Jewish to Buddhist, a critique of the recruitment of object relations theory in the service of religious apologetics is also included. The importance of a religious aspect to psychoanalysis becomes evident when we consider whether an effective therapy with the religiously committed patient is possible without the clinician's willingness to accept that God and other religious experiences are real phenomena, exerting a unique impact upon the personality. Or when we ask if by thinking too concretely and too statically about images of God, the clinician who is also a believer errs by focusing on the theological adequacy or inadequacy of a given representation. This book will interest mainstream clinicians who are eager to pursue the psychology of religion, as well as the traditional pastoral counseling community.
While several of the authors maintain religious commitments which vary from Christian to Jewish to Buddhist, a critique of the recruitment of object relations theory in the service of religious apologetics is also included. The importance of a religious aspect to psychoanalysis becomes evident when we consider whether an effective therapy with the religiously committed patient is possible without the clinician's willingness to accept that God and other religious experiences are real phenomena, exerting a unique impact upon the personality. Or when we ask if by thinking too concretely and too statically about images of God, the clinician who is also a believer errs by focusing on the theological adequacy or inadequacy of a given representation. This book will interest mainstream clinicians who are eager to pursue the psychology of religion, as well as the traditional pastoral counseling community.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
College/higher education
ISBN-13
978-0-275-93518-4 (9780275935184)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
MARK FINN is Associate Director of Training for Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at North Central Bronx Hospital.
JOHN GARTNER is Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychology at The Johns Hopkins University.
JOHN GARTNER is Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychology at The Johns Hopkins University.
Content
Introduction The Deep Structure of Religious Representations by John McDargh The Capacity to Forgive: An Object Relations Perspective by John Gartner The Functions of Faith: Religious Psychodynamics in Multiple Personality Disorder by David G. Benner God Representation as the Transformational Object by Edward P. Shafranske God Representations in Adolescence by Mark R. Banschick Psychoanalytic Treatment with a Buddhist Meditator by Jeffrey Rubin Transitional Space and Tibetan Buddhism: The Object Relations of Meditation by Mark Finn Between Religious Psychology and the Psychology of Religion by Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi Images of God: A Study of Psychoanalyzed Adults by Marilyn S. Saur and William G. Saur Religious Behavior in the Psychiatric Institute 500 by Michael H. Stone Afterword by Ana-Maria Rizzuto Bibliography