Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

‘I think clearly for a lot of people in the world, religious language is the language that
enables them to talk about the things that matter most to them’ (AP 396-398)
‘Finally it is my belief that psychoanalysis is more mystical, spiritual and religious than its
followers realize and religion especially spirituality is more psychoanalytic’ (JG 728-730)
‘I respect religiosity, I never respect religion … religion is used … like alcohol. It is
something omnipotent to hold onto that has rules and regulations they can hide behind
rather than the free spirit’ (JG 1260-1265)
‘I think many of us who are psychoanalysts would have an objection to religion, especially
Jews because we have a knee jerk reaction when it comes to Christianity’ (JG 1780-1783)
‘When I say I am anti-religious, I meant I am anti-institution’ (JG 1798-1799)
By contrast responses to spirituality were:
Jungians ‘really are much more spiritual’ (JB 55)
Yet ‘just because you have a spiritual practice that doesn’t make you a knowledgeable
person to talk about religion and spirituality’ (JJ 704-705)
‘an analyst can say well spirituality is really psychopathological and they may be referring
to an aspect of spirituality like masochistic surrender to a teacher, a spiritual aspirant
masochistically surrendering’ (JR 312-313)
‘I think there’s an embarrassment about anything spiritual amongst most psychoanalysts in
Britain’ (PM 61-62)
‘I have always found spiritual matters … exciting … I’m not entirely happy with that word
but it’s the closest I can come to it, there is a sort of spiritual excitement about getting a
sense of something more’ and ‘a sort of spiritual curiosity… being able to explore and
enquire freely has always been … important to me’ (PM 478-481, 422-424)
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