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In Relating to God: Clinical Psychoanalysis, Spirituality, and
Theism, Dan Merkur conceptualizes religious discourse within
psychoanalysis. He proposes that God be treated as a transferential
figure whose analysis leads to a reduction of the parental content
that is projected onto God. Merkur notes that religious conversion
experiences regularly involve theological intuitions that are
either rational or, owing to morbid complications, have undergone
displacement into irrational symbolism. Analysis renders the
religiosity more wholesome. Traditionally, psychoanalytic thought
has been dismissive of religion. Freud is on record, however, as
having called psychoanalysis a neutral procedure. He argued that
religion, with its dependency on a providential God who punishes
disobedience, imagines spirituality on the model of human parents
and fails to approach spirituality in an appropriately scientific
manner. He wrote little of spiritual phenomena, but mentioned both
the rationality of the universe and the parapsychological
occurrence of thought transference. Occasionally, later
psychoanalysts used different language in order to contrast
wholesome and morbid forms of religion. Erich Fromm distinguished
authoritarian and humanistic religions, while D. W. Winnicott
condemned fetishistic behavior while approving of playful illusions
that require "belief-in." These formulations constructed a middle
position for clinicians, neither categorically opposed to religion
as classical psychoanalysis was, nor do they embrace cultural
relativity as "spiritually oriented" psychotherapists are currently
advocating. What sorts of spiritual practices does psychoanalysis
find unobjectionable? As examples of humanistic religion, Fromm
named Zen Buddhism, Buddhist mindfulness meditation, and the via
negativa or "way of negating" that some Christian and Jewish
mystics have followed. Because the Bible-based approaches are
little known, Merkur discusses their histories, procedures, and
psychoanalytic understanding.
This volume presents the first organized study of Jung's ethics.
Drawing on direct quotes from all of his collected works,
interviews, and seminars, psychoanalyst and religious scholar Dan
Merkur provides a compendium of Jung's thoughts on various topics
and themes that comprise his theoretical corpus-from the personal
unconscious, repression, dreams, good and evil, and the shadow, to
collective phenomena such as the archetypes, synchronicity, the
psychoid, the paranormal, God, and the Self, as well as his
contributions to clinical method and technique including active
imagination, inner dialogue, and the process of individuation and
consciousness expansion. The interconnecting thread in Merkur's
approach to the subject matter is to read Jung's work through an
ethical lens. What comes to light is how Merkur systematically
portrays Jung as a moralist, but also as a complex thinker who
situates the human being as an instinctual animal struggling with
internal conflict and naturalized sin. Merkur exposes the tension
and development in Jung's thinking by exploring his innovative
clinical-technical methods and experimentation, such as through
active imagination, inner dialogue, and expressive therapies, hence
underscoring unconscious creativity in dreaming, symbol formation,
engaging the paranormal, and artistic productions leading to
expansions of consciousness, which becomes a necessary part of
individuation or the working through process in pursuit of
self-actualization and wholeness. In the end, we are offered a
unique presentation of Jung's core theoretical and clinical ideas
centering on an ethical fulcrum, whereby his moral psychology leads
to a cure of souls. Jung's Ethics will be of interest to academics,
scholars, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of Jungian
studies and analytical psychology, ethics, moral psychology,
philosophy, religious studies, and mental health professionals
focusing on the integration of humanities and psychoanalysis.
This volume presents the first organized study of Jung's ethics.
Drawing on direct quotes from all of his collected works,
interviews, and seminars, psychoanalyst and religious scholar Dan
Merkur provides a compendium of Jung's thoughts on various topics
and themes that comprise his theoretical corpus-from the personal
unconscious, repression, dreams, good and evil, and the shadow, to
collective phenomena such as the archetypes, synchronicity, the
psychoid, the paranormal, God, and the Self, as well as his
contributions to clinical method and technique including active
imagination, inner dialogue, and the process of individuation and
consciousness expansion. The interconnecting thread in Merkur's
approach to the subject matter is to read Jung's work through an
ethical lens. What comes to light is how Merkur systematically
portrays Jung as a moralist, but also as a complex thinker who
situates the human being as an instinctual animal struggling with
internal conflict and naturalized sin. Merkur exposes the tension
and development in Jung's thinking by exploring his innovative
clinical-technical methods and experimentation, such as through
active imagination, inner dialogue, and expressive therapies, hence
underscoring unconscious creativity in dreaming, symbol formation,
engaging the paranormal, and artistic productions leading to
expansions of consciousness, which becomes a necessary part of
individuation or the working through process in pursuit of
self-actualization and wholeness. In the end, we are offered a
unique presentation of Jung's core theoretical and clinical ideas
centering on an ethical fulcrum, whereby his moral psychology leads
to a cure of souls. Jung's Ethics will be of interest to academics,
scholars, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of Jungian
studies and analytical psychology, ethics, moral psychology,
philosophy, religious studies, and mental health professionals
focusing on the integration of humanities and psychoanalysis.
This book delineates how medieval meditation on the passion of
Christ was intended to transform personality - a practice with
affinity for the goals of modern psychotherapy.
Is Moses Maimonides an unacknowledged ancestor of the
psychoanalytic movement? In this book, David Bakan, Dan Merkur, and
David S. Weiss look at the great medieval Jewish philosopher's
prescription for the cure of souls and its psychological
significance. In the Guide of the Perplexed, Maimonides, who was
also a physician, describes the soul's illness: when sinners
rationalize evil as good, they limit their capacities to reason,
imagine, and behave well, which also produces physical symptoms.
The cure depends on repentance in love and fear of God that is
attained through philosophical knowledge, the interpretation of
dreams and visions, and mystical contemplation. The authors look at
the Aristotelian background of Maimonides' psychology, Maimonidean
mysticism, his beliefs about prophecy and sexuality, and what is
known of Maimonides' client population. A final chapter discusses
Maimonides and Freud, noting that many distinctive features of the
cure of souls are shared by Freud's original formulation of
psychoanalysis. Indeed, the many points of convergence suggest
Freud's direct or indirect contact with Maimonides' legacy.
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