Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

unnameable, always the immeasurable … they try to see it from a psychological
perspective’ (JBR 259-261). 477
Spirituality as “Coming Out”
A powerful metaphor used to describe spirituality in psychoanalysis was ‘coming out’, with
specific cultural parallels to gay or lesbian sexual orientation. 478 It implies: fear; rejection;
misunderstanding; uncertainty; and concerns about being labelled or marginalized.
Yes I think it happens as part of this … this upsurge of interest in religion and
spirituality in 70s, 80s and 90s … psychoanalysts starting to come out of the closet
and say “Yeah I have a religious practice too but don’t tell anybody you know shhh
kind of keep it under cover” … people felt free to … “come out of the closet to,
come above board” about some of their own interests and practices (JJ 914-921).
‘Psychoanalysts weren’t immune from these trends they too … came out of the closet’ (JJ
933-934). ‘Yes I have been practising psychoanalysis and Buddhism for more than 30 years
… on psychoanalysis and Buddhism … more and more analysts … are coming out of the
closet and admitting that they meditate’ (JR 338-341). 479 The Freud Museum’s (London)
publication of a book on religion, the first of its kind from an iconic psychoanalytic centre,
was viewed as ‘a sort of religious coming out’ (PM 583) driven by external demand rather
than internal desire. 480
This metaphor offers a profound parallel. Just as there are still ongoing struggles for
equality and acceptance by gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered peoples within society
477
O is a concept developed by Bion and expanded by Grotstein and Eigen. See later section on mysticism/O.
478
The term is also used in relation to bisexual or transgendered sexualities.
479
Several words added at the request of JR to render clearer meaning.
480
See (Ward 1993, 2006).
286