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The Life of the Self in Christian Spirituality and Contemporary Psychoanalysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2014

John McDargh
John McDargh*
Affiliation:
Boston College
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Abstract

This article explores modern psychoanalytic object relations theory as a potential resource for Christian spirituality in the development of an integrated theological and psychological model of the self. The necessity for such a model is first suggested by considering some potential dangers within the current revival of modes of “imageless” prayer. A suggestive effort that has already been made to construct a “spectrum” model of self development that combines psychoanalytic insight with the psychology of Theravada Buddhism is then examined. The final section assesses the interpretive power of a similar model worked out for the distinctive religious vision of Christian spirituality.

Type
Articles
Information
Horizons , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , Fall 1984 , pp. 344 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © The College Theology Society 1984

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References

1 For a review of the Freudian critique of religion as well as an assessment of the implications for the study of religion of subsequent revisions within psychoanalysis see Meissner, William S.J., , Psychoanalysis and Religious Experience (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984).Google Scholar

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