Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

discovered the religious instinct which he felt’ which ‘was as powerful if not more powerful
than the libidinal instinct’ (JG 1265-1267).
What has changed is an appreciation of Freud in context, seen in the light of idealized
Modernity, flawed secularization, and ‘hard materialistic’ but failing science (DB 405).
There is greater appreciation of his Jewish origins 396 and status as a cultural Jew and an
outsider to the establishment enabling Freud to develop revolutionary ideas. Interviewees
specifically mentioned Freud’s religious engagement including his Catholic nanny, his long-
standing correspondence with Pfister 397 , and his ambivalence towards the experience of
oneness and spirituality around the term ‘oceanic experience’ (JR 27). 398 Yet Freud as the
fundamental atheist remains a potent influence in psychoanalysis, then and now.
Theme 2: Key Psychoanalytic Thinkers 399
Freud’s paradigm for psychoanalytic and religious engagement has been adapted by four
influential figures that have shaped contemporary psychoanalysis.
The polarization of Klein
Melanie Klein - her person, her ideas and her followers form distinct groupings in GB and
the USA but with similarly conflictual histories. Klein elicits strong feelings and a Kleinian
orthodoxy sustained by a group of followers has emerged in GB. ‘I am a Kleinian and if I
were in London I wouldn’t be a Kleinian … I don’t like the attitude that prevails there …
396
Especially the rabbinical tradition brought from Martha’s family. See Behling’s biography (Behling 2006).
397
To whom Freud declared himself a godless Jew and Pfister ‘did preach to Freud’ (AMR 482).
398
The quotations made by JR were edited following discussion in order to fully clarify the narrative context
in which these were made.
399
Klein/Kleinian – 47 references, Bion/Bionian – 42 references, Winnicott/Winnicottian – 18 references,
Jung/Jungian – 13 references.
247