Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

Figure 3. A dominant sacred interpretative framework
In this framework there is the dominance of sacred traditions, with allied beliefs, values,
traditions, liturgies, or spiritual practices. Even if there is an intellectual assent to other
ways of being and thinking, they become split off from any form of engagement. While
there has been a long history of a critique and rejection of Freud by theologians within
different traditions (Macquarrie 1966; Ross 1993), more often Freud is simply ignored or
appears as a footnote under a discussion of the nature of humanity (Erikson 1987; Migliore
1991; McGrath 1996; McFadyen 2000). 514 While many early critiques were limited to a
surface reading of Freud’s texts, they are often subsumed in a Christian response to the
emergence of psychotherapy and counselling as secular disciplines that replaced traditional
religion (Rieff 1966; Wells 1993; Hurding 2003). There were however a few people, such
as Pfister who pioneered a creative dialectic between the two, as seen in figure 4 that
follows.
514 I am focusing on the work of Christian theologians, as this is the field I am most knowledgeable about.
There are exceptions such as that found in the work of Paul Fiddes (Fiddes 2000a, 2000b). However each
religious tradition has critics of psychoanalysis.
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