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Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

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CHAPTER NINE. PATTERNS OF ENGAGEMENT – NATURAL<br />

RELIGION<br />

Spero, Symington and Kristeva believe that psychoanalysis has something to gain by being<br />

seen as a mature or natural religion. A natural religion that includes an objective God as the<br />

source <strong>of</strong> Truth (Spero), a natural religion that rejects an objective God but embraces a<br />

truthful moral dimension (Symington), and a natural religion that locates objectivity in<br />

tradition, embodiment and language (Kristeva).<br />

<strong>Psychoanalysis</strong> – a monotheistic natural religion<br />

Moshe Spero, an observant Jew and psychoanalytic practitioner, <strong>of</strong>fers a unique account <strong>of</strong><br />

psychoanalysis as an expression <strong>of</strong> deeper underlying religious dimensions found in human<br />

personhood. 239 Spero focuses specifically on object relations (with reference to Freud),<br />

adding Jewish perspectives previously neglected. He adopts orthodox, religious belief as<br />

the source <strong>of</strong> revealing that allows a creator God to be experienced within human selfhood.<br />

Such ontology is rooted in the past and the role <strong>of</strong> psychoanalysis is to point to deeper<br />

religious strivings and aid their development. Spero finds accord with Eigen, ‘God is … a<br />

relational being in the depths <strong>of</strong> His own nature, a dynamic movement that supports our<br />

openness to revelation and response, and requires us to live on the cutting edge <strong>of</strong> faith’<br />

(Eigen quoted in Spero 1992: 80).<br />

He reverses the traditional reductive psychoanalytic engagement with religion and <strong>of</strong>fers<br />

instead a model <strong>of</strong> how religious-based psychology, in his case Halakhic metapsychology,<br />

239<br />

Spero has lived and practised in the USA and Israel and when in the USA was associated with the Michigan<br />

and Cleveland psychoanalytic communities.<br />

104

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