Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

Klein (Grotstein 1982), 79 Winnicott (Rodman 2003), Khan (Willoughby 2004), Kristeva
(Kristeva 1987a), 80 Fairbairn (Sutherland 1989), the Robertsons, 81 Gillespie (Sinason 1995)
and Suttie (Suttie 1988).
Thirdly, there were a number of psychoanalytic practitioners who valued religious beliefs
and spiritual practices as part of their adult life and therapeutic practice: notably, Freud’s
correspondent Pfister (Freud and Meng 1963), alongside Zilboorg (Fountain 1960), Semrad
(Rako, Mazer, and Semrad 1980), Hanaghan (Skelton 2006), Rickman (Rickman 1957;
Fairbairn 1959), 82 Menninger (Hall 1960; Friedman 1990), Lee (Lee 1948, 1955), 83 Guntrip
(Hazell 1996; Markillie 1996; Dobbs 2007), Markillie (Dabbs 1997), Pruyser (Maloney and
Spilka 1991), Laing (Miller 2004) 84 and Jacobs (Jacobs 2000). 85 For those in the
psychoanalytic community, Pfister was the earliest pioneer of holding psychoanalysis and
faith together in order to enhance each other (Pfister 1917, 1948; Freud and Meng 1963;
Pfister 1993).
79 ‘Segal gives us an interesting glimpse into Klein's religious feelings. Meltzer, another of her analysands,
also has commented recently on the religious nature of Kleinian metapsychology. Klein herself, although
Jewish by birth and rearing, was, as a child, powerfully attracted to Catholicism. In her later life she became
agnostic and was critical of parents who hypocritically offered religious education to their children although
they themselves do not believe in it. Klein arranged her own funeral, stipulating that it be a nonreligious one’
(Grotstein 1982: 152).
80 A case could be made for Kristeva to appear in all three categories.
81 Highly influential in the development of child-care through a series of films produced in the 1950s that
demonstrated Bowlby’s emerging theories on attachment.
82 Rickman had presented a paper to the British Psychoanalytic Society in 1936 on Quaker beliefs, which he
also delivered at the IPA Congress in Marienbad, Czecho-Slovakia.
83 For an intriguing review of Lee’s work see (Jones 1955).
84 Miller focuses on Scottish analysts including Laing, Fairbairn, Suttie, and Sutherland, and well as
psychiatrists such as Maxwell Jones, and Esterson. He examines the influences in Scottish culture of the rite
of communion, and the philosopher John Macmurray (Miller 2008).
85 Of the people mentioned, Jung split with Freud and left the psychoanalytic community while Hanaghan,
though influential in Ireland, was never formally recognized as an analyst, denying psychoanalysis there the
value of wider theoretical, philosophical and theological engagement. Guntrip, while playing an important
part in psychoanalytic history, never formally trained as an analyst and, with Markillie, was geographically
isolated in Yorkshire, limiting their impact within the analytic world. Laing’s maverick character was highly
creative but controversial, drawing very mixed responses from the psychoanalytic world.
41