Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

Thirdly both use the work of Hans Loewald in two different ways. Leavy adopts Loewald’s
emphasis on the mother-child matrix where there is a unique experience of timelessness and
unity within the psyche that Leavy relates to that found in the nature and being of God, as
well as in mystical experiences. Jones rather than developing new theory offers a synthesis
that includes Loewald and Winnicott where timeless space or transitional space incorporate
mature and healthy religious, spiritual and mystical experiences.
Leavy’s psychoanalytic image of God
Leavy’s ideas about psychoanalysis were wide ranging, rooted in literature, language and
translation (Leavy 1990, 2005a). 225 He was also interested in philosophy, narrative, and
hermeneutics, drawing on Lacan (Seidenberg 1971; Shapiro and Leavy 1978; Leavy 1983;
Esman 1984; Olinick 1984; Morris 1993; Thompson 2001; Leavy 2005a). Leavy
challenged the status quo, wanting people to question, and included work on Jung 226 (Leavy
1964, 1988), Fromm (Grey 1994; Leavy 1994), a psycho-biographical reflection on Hitler
(Leavy 1985), a demythologizing of the Oedipus complex (Leavy 1985), Loewald (Leavy
1988), free association (Leavy 1993a) and psychoanalytic training and self-disclosure
(Leavy 1999). He was one of the earliest psychoanalysts to examine homosexuality in a
non-pathologizing way (Isay and Friedman 1986; Leavy 2005a). However, it was Leavy’s
integration of Christian faith 227 with psychoanalysis that is the focus of this chapter. Leavy
225 Leavy translated Andreas-Salome’s Freud Journal, making her work available through ‘an outstanding,
scholarly, careful, and loving, even though sketchy, portrayal of her’ that included her interest in spirituality
(Grotjahn 1965: 274).
226 Leavy’s first psychoanalytic contribution was in response to a passage in Jung’s Memories, Dreams and
Reflections (1964) where the figure of Elijah appears in a dream. He offers an interpretation that Freud is
Elijah, who is understood in a Christian context as a prophet from a previous age that prepares the people to
meet their God. Given the Advent timing of the dreams, Leavy sees this as Jung’s unconscious positioning
Jung as the Messiah, the Christ, who replaces all previous prophets.
227 Leavy grew up in a Jewish home, survived the death of his mother aged five and went on to train as a
doctor (graduating in 1940), then a psychiatrist where he discovered Freud. This led Leavy to train as a
97