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Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

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person was Neville Symington. By contrast figure 8 shows some parallel between Meissner<br />

and Symington.<br />

Figure 8. Symington (NS1-3)<br />

While similar to Meissner in many respects, Symington chose to leave the Roman Catholic<br />

priesthood and a belief in an absolute and objective God (Symington 2004b). He pursued a<br />

career as a psychoanalyst (NS1), while maintaining his interest in religion and spirituality<br />

(NS2) reaching a position where he saw psychoanalysis as a natural religion (Symington<br />

1993a, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2006a) exploring the unconscious and the mystical (NS3).<br />

He evolved a belief in a natural and inclusive religious perspective that embraces all<br />

religious and spiritual insights, seeing psychoanalysis as a natural religion, united in the<br />

pursuit <strong>of</strong> truth and morality. 521 Consequently Symington’s diagrammatic expression <strong>of</strong><br />

engagement, in figure 8, is similar to Meissner’s without the inclusion <strong>of</strong> moving towards<br />

belief in an objective God.<br />

521<br />

See chapter seven for an account <strong>of</strong> Symington’s role in psychoanalysis in GB, and chapter nine for a fuller<br />

account <strong>of</strong> his ideas.<br />

319

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