Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

eflects Eigen’s experience of Buber. Eigen heard Buber, then in his mid-eighties, speak at
a synagogue when visiting America.
I don’t remember much about what he said … But I was fascinated by the way
Buber spoke … entrancing-the way he lowered his head into his arms after saying
something, waiting for the next revelation. He took this time between utterances,
time to pause, to listen. For Buber, speaking was a way of listening … By speaking,
Buber was teaching listening. My memory has Buber with a white flowing beard …
thick boned with the thunder and lightening of Sinai crackling off him … Light
reflected off Buber … for Buber, listening was electrifying. There was rest, quiet,
pause between, but expect to be burnt by the tongue’s fire. Buber’s death between
utterances was anticipatory. One emptied self in order to be ready for the next time
Thou surge, from moment of meeting to moment of meeting, waves of impacts
(Eigen 1998: 154).
This interpretative framework offers insights into the way religious, spiritual and
psychoanalytic engagement takes place, while illustrating similarities and differences
between exponents.
The conclusion to this chapter, offering a critical and contextual examination of religious,
spiritual and psychoanalytic engagement, is that a unique form of engagement can be
identified within contemporary psychoanalysis, termed ‘sacred psychoanalysis’. Within
sacred psychoanalysis the focus is on relationship with the self, between self and other, self
and Other, being and Being, and I-Thou. Yet any attempt to fully capture this dimension of
psychoanalytic being of psyche/soul is limited by language. Multiple terms drawn from
psychoanalytic, religious and spiritual traditions are used to embrace what is paradoxically
inexpressible but cries out for expression. These terms include,
• Transcendent position
• Transitional space
approaching each session without memory, desire, and understanding. This resonates with the approach to
prayer described by St John of the Cross’ (Joyce 2005: 108).
321