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of living’ (Akhtar 2009: 298). However as we can see in figure 7, Meissner offers a very
different form of religious and spiritual engagement to Winnicott.
Figure 7 Meissner (WM1-4)
Meissner holds a belief in an objective God (WM1), a commitment to a Roman Catholic
faith position (WM2), a belief in psychoanalysis (WM3), and acknowledges the importance
of both the unconscious and the mystical (WM4). Yet Meissner’s theology is held apart
from psychoanalytic scrutiny, as his focus was on developmental theory, religious
experience and a form of transitional experience as an expression of grace (Meissner 1987).
Expressed diagrammatically in figure 7, Meissner’s engagement takes on a particular shape
and reveals areas as yet unexplored. So, extensive and seminal as Meissner’s work is, this
framework offers understanding as to why still more can be written as other analysts,
theologians, spiritual practitioners and religious thinkers engage in this ‘space’. 520 One such
520 Meissner reflecting on his contribution to this field over forty years concluded, ‘the multiplicity of
viewpoints remain divergent and oppositional … I would urge consideration of any approach that offers the
possibility of facilitating the continuing dialogue between psychoanalysis and religion’ (Meissner 2009: 240).
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