Inventing God - Psychology of Belief and the Rise of Secular Spirituality (Hardcover)

In this controversial book, philosopher and psychoanalyst Jon Mills argues that God does not exist; and more provocatively, that God cannot exist as anything but an idea. Put concisely, God is a psychological creation signifying ultimate ideality. Mills argues that the idea or conception of God is the manifestation of humanity's denial and response to natural deprivation; a self-relation to an internalized idealized object, the idealization of imagined value. After demonstrating the lack of any empirical evidence and the logical impossibility of God, Mills explains the psychological motivations underlying humanity's need to invent a supreme being. In a highly nuanced analysis of unconscious processes informing the psychology of belief and institutionalized social ideology, he concludes that belief in God is the failure to accept our impending death and mourn natural absence for the delusion of divine presence. As an alternative to theistic faith, he offers a secular spirituality that emphasizes the quality of lived experience, the primacy of feeling and value inquiry, ethical self-consciousness, aesthetic and ecological sensibility, and authentic relationality toward self, other, and world as the pursuit of a beautiful soul in search of the numinous. Inventing God will be of interest to academics, scholars, lay audiences and students of religious studies, the humanities, philosophy, and psychoanalysis, among other disciplines. It will also appeal to psychotherapists, psychoanalysts and mental health professionals focusing on the integration of humanities and psychoanalysis.

General

Imprint:	Routledge
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Series:	Philosophy and Psychoanalysis
Release date:	July 2016
First published:	2017
Authors:	Jon Mills
Dimensions:	234 x 156 x 20mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	236
ISBN-13:	978-1-138-19574-5
Categories:	Books > Humanities > Philosophy > General Books > Social sciences > Psychology > Philosophy & theory of psychology > Psychoanalysis & psychoanalytical theory Books > Medicine > Other branches of medicine > Clinical psychology > Psychotherapy Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > General > Philosophy of religion > General Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Alternative belief systems > Humanist & secular alternatives to religion > Agnosticism & atheism Books > Philosophy > General Books > Religion & Spirituality > Alternative belief systems > Humanist & secular alternatives to religion > Agnosticism & atheism Books > Religion & Spirituality > General > Philosophy of religion > General
LSN:	1-138-19574-X
Barcode:	9781138195745

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