Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

and her revealing interview with Anthony Molino (Molino 1997). The fundamental theme
in all her work is the importance of being a good human being supported by faith, ‘a
developed faith in the therapeutic process, in one self as a therapist, and religious faith’
(Arundale 1995: 213) while recognising that at the heart of the analytic encounter is mystery
(Kohon 1986: 186). Coltart’s seminal paper ‘Slouching towards Bethlehem’ (Coltart
1993a) 283 begins with Yeats ‘The Second Coming’ but makes clear that her focus is not on
religion, messianic dogma or Christian symbolism, rather ‘the anarchic depths of the
unconscious’(Coltart 1993c: 2), the mystery of being an analyst and the mystery of being a
person (Coltart 1993c: 14). 284
Talking generally about religion and psychoanalysis Coltart believed that she had always
had a religious temperament and had been a devout member of the Church of England until
a loss of faith in God led to a spiritual search arriving at Buddhism (Coltart 1993c: 164f.;
Molino 1997: 179, 200f.). 285 Coltart viewed her desire to be an analyst as a vocation and an
expression of her religious beliefs, although other analysts might prefer the term ‘living out
one’s true destiny’ (Bollas quoted in Coltart 1993c: 115; Molino 1997: 181); yet her
experience of analysis was that while it dealt with her depression, it did not help with her
anxiety. Meditation within a Theravadian tradition did (Coltart 1993c: 164f.; Molino 1997:
201). Coltart believes that psychoanalysis started a healing process that Buddhism
completed (Molino 1997: 192). 286 Coltart found that Buddhism and psychoanalysis were
283
First presented as a paper in 1982, it was later published in (Kohon 1986) and (Coltart 1993c).
284
‘But in all of us there are some things that will never be within our reach; there is always a mystery at the
heart of every person, and therefore in our job as analysts’ (Coltart 1993c: 14)
285
Coltart’s writings show a good theological and biblical understanding of the Christian and Jewish
traditions. For example see ‘Sin and the superego: Man and his conscience in society’ (Coltart 1993c).
286
A key factor was a growing ability to enter into the depths of a meditative process than Coltart describes as
a twelve-year apprenticeship.
128