Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

facets of which I drew out from the interviews. A spontaneous expression of this occurred
when four interviewees revealed that they came from Jewish backgrounds (AL, AP, AN,
JG) - which though cultural in expression has powerful religious influences mirroring
Freud’s experience and the ongoing experience of psychoanalysis (Yerushalmi 1991;
Meghnagi 1993; Frosh 2006). This information is not something they revealed in their
writings but chose to share in this context of locating their being - consciously or
unconsciously. 383 All but one had been influenced culturally, socially, philosophically by
religious backgrounds in Judaism, Christianity (PM) and Christian Science (JG) leading
some to a wider adoption of spiritualities apart from religion (JB, AN). There was however
concern about being labelled ‘spiritual’ as a reductive vision of the self that did not do
justice to the person (JB).
There was a convergence of views of human nature as evolving (AP), experiencing a
developmental process that balances internal (AL, JG) and external socially constructed
realities (JB, AN) engaged in the search for meaning (PM) 384 and offering a being capable
of enduring the cruelties of life (AL, AN). All talked about clients in a way that revealed
empathy, compassion, pride, respect, hope, love and passion, even if that passion was at
times expressed as a desire to remove religious beliefs that were deemed harmful (AN) or
the power of psychoanalytic institutions acting as religious authorities (JG). Tensions did
emerge related to the notion of other/Other. Some held an over-arching atheism that there is
no identification with other/Other (AP, AN), some held a spiritual perspective that there is a
383 This is not to suggest this was something hidden rather an aspect of self that is accepted but not questioned
or examined. I have not read all AP’s work so cannot authoritatively say he has not spoken of this.
384 Frosh argues that it is this that links psychoanalysis and religion, specifically Judaism (Frosh 2006).
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