Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

The third strand was the use of Winnicott’s theories in two different forms. Meissner uses
‘transitional space’ to accommodate mature and healthy religious, spiritual and mystical
experiences that inform and enable human personhood. He also utilized traditional
psychoanalytic theories for dealing with pathological developments in human personhood.
Holding both together allows for an understanding of personhood through concepts of the
psyche and grace in overlapping theoretical systems represented by psychoanalysis and
theology. 184
Rizzuto focuses on a specific kind of transitional object that emerges out of the creativity of
the mother/baby dyad, as the baby evolves a sense of self through transitional processes.
This special object representation Rizzuto terms a god-representation, which precedes
orthodox psychoanalytic development of the Oedipal phase, and remains throughout the life
of the person. Rizzuto is careful to say that such god-representations do not necessarily
equate with adult religious belief, though in Freud’s case it does offer a plausible account
for his unbelief (Rizzuto 1998).
Peter Gay adopted a similarly credal approach in response to Meissner: however, it was a
credal atheism where he disputes any attempt to offer creative engagement with religion.
Meissner, Rizzuto and Gay’s work can now be examined in more detail.
Parallel Lines - Meissner’s contribution
Meissner was the first to advocate the idea that psychoanalysis, religion and spirituality are
best understood as parallel systems focused on a common goal of freeing human
184 Meissner expresses both in his insightful psycho-biography of Ignatius of Loyola (Meissner 1994).
79