Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

components of spirituality identified in chapter one. 303 Rubin later addresses the
individualistic nature of psychoanalysis, where Buddhism and religions add another
dimension. ‘Seeing oneself in a more expansive and interconnected yet differentiated way -
as a self-in-community, instead of a selfless spiritual self or an isolated, imperial
psychological self - might foster both connectedness to the polis and self-enrichment, thus
decreasing alienation and anomie’ (Rubin 1997: 105).
3) Buddhist and psychoanalytic engagement.
Rubin characterizes the existing approaches to psychoanalytic and Buddhist engagement as:
incompatible worldviews; a dominant paradigm approach; and a respect for and valuing of
difference, but no real engagement (Rubin 1996). Rubin addresses these failings by offering
an integration based on the two-stage dialectic process developed by MacIntyre (MacIntyre
1988). Stage one is a radical critique of a discipline applying its own rules of interpretation
for developing knowledge, truth and meaning, which Rubin argues psychoanalysis has
failed to do until recently. Stage two follows where in this case psychoanalysis or
Buddhism has,
found it difficult to develop its enquiries beyond a certain point, or has produced in
some areas insoluble antimonies, ask whether the alternative and rival tradition may
not be able to provide resources to characterize and explain the failings and defects
303 Rubin identifies the following components of a spiritual-psychoanalytic method.
1. cultivate enhanced self-observational capacities and thus heighten self-awareness
2. express urgent wishes and aspirations
3. offer guidelines for morally acceptable behaviour, provide a rationale for self-punishment, and reduce
self-recriminative tendencies
4. enhance one's effort to cope with difficulties or crises
5. protect, repair, or restore self-representations … enduring images of self, which had been threatened
or damaged
6. facilitate self-demarcation and enhance affect regulation and tolerance
7. impede awareness of disturbing thoughts, feelings, or fantasies
8. foster “de-automatization” of thought and action (Rubin 1992: 94)
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