Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

‘we can never meet the Godhead, but we can feel its shadow by our intuition of its presence
as the Unconscious, which … is as close to God and Godliness as we are ever likely to
reach’ (Grotstein 2000: 276).
Key ideas and developments
All mystical experiences can be understood as a psychological defence against
overwhelming external or internal realities (Meissner 1984a). The classic psychoanalytic
understanding of mystics, such as St Teresa Avila, often focused on eroticism as a
sublimated interpretation excluding all others. In contemporary psychoanalysis a broader
view of the mystical has emerged.
Firstly, the psyche can adopt adaptive and healthy defences as found in forms of grief
(Aberbach 1987) or psychic wounding (Masson and Masson 1978). By activating
regressive infantile experiences the person is defended against ego disintegration, which as a
temporary stage facilitates survival. This regressive experience can also be valuable in
working through aspects of narcissism that hinder adult functioning (Ross 1975). Yet
mysticism like all religious experiences can be used to avoid psychic pain and be an
expression of narcissism that in extreme form is a personality disorder. Symington
distinguishes between true mystics (of which Jesus is an example) that leads to mature
religion and false mystics that cloak their narcissism in primitive religion (Symington 1998:
18f.).
Secondly, mysticism is viewed as a unifying experience that allows psychoanalytic and
religious engagement without the complications of religious belief. Eigenwelt was a term
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