Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

CHAPTER TWELVE. PATTERNS OF ENGAGEMENT – BUDDHIST
PERSPECTIVES
This chapter on Buddhism begins with one word of caution. ‘Buddhism’ does not possess
one monolithic definition and comes in multiple forms therefore this chapter focuses on how
psychoanalytic practitioners have used Buddhist ideas, each reflecting different Buddhist
and psychoanalytic traditions where they need to translate one term into another. A scholar
of Buddhist religion may well disagree with the way ideas are used in relation to
psychoanalysis. 276 However the psychoanalytic engagement with Buddhism has two clear
advantages in terms of historic debates about religion. It allowed the debate to become
wider than just the Judaeo-Christian tradition, which fitted with the evolution of postmodern
approaches to religion and the independent emergence of spirituality as a smorgasbord of
beliefs and practices detached from specific religious traditions (Lyon 2000; Flanagan and
Jupp 2007).
In a similar vein Finn argues that transpersonal psychology ‘has rescued spirituality and
religion from reductionist contempt’ (Finn 2003: 103). 277 It also allowed religion without
God. ‘Buddhism is of special interest to psychoanalysts because it allows us to have a
spiritual life and seemingly sidesteps the traditionally embarrassing question of belief in
God’ (Finn 2003: 103), which is of considerable cultural relevance in the USA (Sorenson
2004: 16). Leavy noted that alongside a rejection of traditional religion, there was the
emergence of non-theistic spiritualities, including Buddhism (Leavy 1988).
276 This point came out in my interview with James Jones.
277 For example, Epstein’s first contribution was in the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology (Epstein 1989).
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