Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

2006; Cook 2004; Blass 2006). However its origins lie earlier, particularly in the work of
Winnicott and Bion, who provided the theoretical foundations for the evolution of new
forms of engagement examined in chapter six.
A reflexive methodology
The genesis of this research was a conversation that led to further conversations offering
critical and contextual knowledge, autobiographical insight and reflexive engagement. 35
These conversations encompass the intellect, the emotion, the spirit and the unconscious as
a way of discovering who I am in the company of others as a form of intersubjectivity.
Intersubjective approaches utilize reflexivity as a key aspect of contemporary
psychoanalysis (Elliott 2004). Although Freud justified the development of psychoanalysis
through his own self-analysis (Anzieu 1986), reflexivity requires a step further by moving
outside particular philosophical and cultural contexts. 36 Such a reflexive methodology ‘can
take various forms, including “counter-histories” of psychoanalysis that offer alternatives to
conventional narratives about the psychoanalytic past or critical accounts of received
theories or practices’ (Rubin 1999b: 68) thus challenging what psychoanalysis formerly
deemed taboo. 37
Reflexivity has become a preoccupying theme in social sciences as part of the maturing of
qualitative research methodologies (Holland 1999; May 1999). Among the disciplines it has
35
I am indebted to former theological colleague, the Rev. Dr. Kenneth Wilson who helped me more fully
understand theology as conversation. The metaphor of ‘conversation’ in theology has found increasing
acceptance and heuristic value (Haers and De May 2003) and is being developed further by Pattison.
36
‘Because blindness constitutes our very historical being, the crucial challenge for psychoanalysis and
psychoanalysts is not how to eliminate self-blindness, which is impossible, but how to cultivate greater selfreflexivity.
We have to pursue knowledge of the human condition while retaining an awareness of both its
complexity and its inevitable incompleteness’ (Rubin 1999b: 68).
37
An example of this that covers wider areas than religion and spirituality is to be found in Taboo or Not
Taboo? (Willock, Curtis, and Bohm 2009).
18