Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

transcend the limitations established by Freud’s patriarchy (Jones 1996; Wulff 1997;
Bingaman 2003a, 2003b).
The resurgence of the early mothering and the elevation of the maternal that feminist
engagement with psychoanalysis has brought about, allowed Winnicott’s ideas on the
internal object world and the external maternal environment to impact religion. This has
provided a rich context for understanding religion in new ways, particularly in the work of
Jones, rooted in theology and the philosophy of religion, and Wright rooted in
psychoanalysis, aesthetics and literature (Wright 1991, 2006, 2009). Jones engages with
feminist theology arguing that ‘a divine person whose primary mode of being is mutual
relationship and connection sounds more like the image of Goddess’ and while Jones sees
this as problematic he wishes to affirm ‘different images of relationship: monistic images of
fusion, dualistic images of distance, pluralistic images of interaction, patriarchal images of
domination, maternal images of nurturance’ (Jones 1996: 87f.). Yet all are encountered in
psychoanalysis and religion, through transitional and transcendent I-Thou space. Wright
believes pre-verbal experiences of the sacred are retained within the unconscious, but find
expression in psychoanalytic, mystical and poetic literature, which represent the quality of
maternal containment and the maternal gaze. Wright examines these developments within
psychoanalysis through the dichotomies of: revealed religion v. natural religion (with
reference to Symington); objective truth v. subjective truth; libidinal love v. agape love;
individual experience v. institutional experience; and paternal religion focused on law v.
maternal religion focused on love. By adopting ideas from Suttie, Winnicott, Bowlby, Stern
and Bollas, Wright ‘makes it plausible to link religion with the attachment/relational axis of
human development … at the centre of spiritual longing … religion, like art and
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