Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

Molino 1997). While Coltart combined Buddhism and psychoanalysis, she did not believe
it easily fitted within the analytic space. 104
Margaret Arden pursued a holistic vision for psychoanalysis, seeking truth and
enlightenment, combining psychoanalysis, Eastern religion and Christian mysticism, finding
support from Coltart, Parsons and Bollas. Arden identified Winnicott as ‘the most
important holistic thinker’ (Arden 1998: 78). She was a member of the British Psycho-
Analytic Society from 1964 and also a member of the London Bi-logic group led by Rayner.
Arden produced an eclectic combination of papers spanning 1980-1997, with ideas from
Goethe, Matte-Blanco, Rupert Sheldrake, Jung, Bohm, and others were published as
Midwifery of the Soul (1998). ‘The ideas that came into her mind – uninvited, as she says –
in psychoanalytic sessions were … the ideas of Christianity she had been immersed in’
(Spillius in Foreword Arden 1998: ix). One review of her work avoided any mention of a
holistic or spiritual perspective (Robinson 1999), whilst another identified the shared goal of
psychoanalysis, religion and spirituality to attend to the soul and the striving to be part of a
whole (Ulman 1998).
Michael Parsons added an Eastern dimension comparing psychoanalytic waiting with
aspects of Zen Buddhism found in martial arts, later advocating the paradox of the analyst’s
non-attachment drawing on Zen, the Bhagavad Gita, Tao Te Ching, Judaism, Christianity,
Islam, Bion’s K and O, as well as Matte-Blanco’s Bi-logic (Parsons 1984, 1986). Parsons
found parallels in psychoanalysis with universal spiritual truths, but believed that few
analysts, other than Eigen, were willing to explore these. His later work focused on
104 Religion was not ‘technically or ethically a part of any analytic therapy … if it is not raised by the patient,
and even if it is, teaching or conversion is contraindicated’ (Coltart 1996: 138).
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