Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

descriptive and explanatory. 341 This requires adopting methods that are transparent and
consistent unique to the researcher but able to inform the work of existing and future
researchers.
3. Engaging with the stories that are told. The story of the universe is a universe of stories
where the human race has sought meaning and expressed meaning through stories,
myths and narratives that are told, retold and forgotten across millennia, continents and
cultures (McLeod 1997; Orsi 2004; Harrison and Young 2008). Stories in the past have
been used to address every dimension of human existence and are still used to create: a
meaning filled universe; a structured world of thought, feeling and action; the whole
gamut of human emotions - hope, fear\terror, love\intimacy, despair, joy and sorrow,
wonder and imagination; a means of uniting the outer and inner worlds of other and
Other; a capacity to embrace the finite and infinite; and the potential to touch the
soul\psyche (Ross 1997, 2008). Psychoanalysis and religion/theology are two examples
of very particular forms of narrative (Spence 1982; Schafer 1992; McLeod 1997;
Higgins 2003). 342 Both psychoanalysis and religion/theology have within their
narratives the potential for a revealing/revelation or the unconscious becoming
341 While there is a complex interplay between the meaning of the terms ‘story’ and ‘narrative’, they can be
viewed synonymously (Polkinghorne 1988) functioning in a dialogic form of engagement. McLeod uses the
term ‘narrative’ to refer to the overall discourse as a whole located within a wider social and cultural context,
and the term ‘story’ to accounts - usually of an individual – of specific incidents/events (McLeod 1997).
Within qualitative research generally and counselling, psychotherapy and narrative psychology research
specifically the term ‘narrative’ is commonly adopted to define the contextual frame of the research focus
(Crossley 2000; McLeod 2001; Denzin and Lincoln 2005; Swinton and Mowat 2006).
342 ‘It is clear that psychoanalysis can be seen - and has been seen - as a special type of storytelling. The
structure of the ‘talking cure’ is similar to that of the modern novel, or rather, the modern novel is coming ever
closer to the psychoanalytic process ... on the development of a new discourse and the creation of new
meanings by and within the analyst-analysand dyad ... above all, the analyst listens. He is the one to whom the
story is told and in whom it should produce the effects desired (by the narrator) ... The analyst’s listening is of
a special kind and it allows the analysand to have a special experience: that of being able to tell his story with
no end to someone who does not interfere, does not interrupt, does not expect anything and so is completely
ready to participate’ (Kluzer 2001: 57).
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