Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

work of Winnicott (Winnicott 1965, 1971) and crucially Rizzuto (Rizzuto 1979) who
attributed a positive role to a transitional god-representation. 195 Meissner introduces the
work of Schafer to develop a new meta-psychology that overcomes the limitations of a
static scientific model. Meissner does not adopt Schafer’s personal language and meaning
model (Richards 1992), but accepts Schafer’s critiques of Freudian metapsychology. In
adopting hermeneutic approaches, 196 Meissner sees a creative possibility for understanding
the underlying philosophies of human nature that allow religious experience. He concludes
that the inherent tensions between the psychoanalytic and religious understanding of human
nature are not easily resolvable. A dialectical approach requires movement and
development on both sides in order to fulfil a greater vision going beyond that offered by
psychoanalysis which,
does not seek merely to liberate man from the chains of his inhibitions, compulsions,
doubts, and erotic self-importance. Rather, it seeks to liberate man for the purpose
of becoming something greater - more dynamic, more creative, more a force in the
world - in order to realise not only his own potential but the betterment of all
mankind (Meissner 1984a: 222f.). 197
195 Meissner draws on Vergote (Vergote 1969), Gedo and Goldberg (Gedo and Goldberg 1973) and Fowler
(Fowler 1974) to support his ideas. ‘Consequently, the institutionalization of the divine figure, proposer and
guarantor of the moral order, can be seen as a creative effort to reinforce and sustain the more highly organized
and integrated adaptational concerns ... the religious enterprise, then, must be seen in its existential and
adaptive context. From the point of view of intrapsychic dynamics, authentic religious inspiration serves a
uniquely integrative function ... the god of the ancient Hebrews must be seen, as a projection of the maternal as
well as the paternal image. He was not only a god of power and majesty, punishing those who disobey his
law, but also a loving god, protecting and caring for his people, feeding and guiding them. He is a jealous god,
but slow to anger and merciful’ (Meissner 1984a: 131).
196 Based on Ricoeur and Schafer.
197 ‘Therapy is a process of coming to grips in terms of stark existential reality and human concreteness with
the forces of psychic determinism and personal responsibility ... the psychoanalytic view of man is limited
freedom in the same sense a realistic constraint on the extent to which the theological vision of the meaning of
freedom can be realised in the actual human condition ... Christian theology asserts the basic postulate that
man's nature does not in itself possess the potentiality to overcome its intrinsic limitation and defect. The
power of God through grace is required ... insight into the human conditions of freedom is the preserve of
psychoanalysis and its related disciplines. In essence, then, theological reflection cannot take place in a
vacuum, as it too often has done in the past. It necessarily involves a theological anthropology that cannot
sustain itself without psychoanalytic input’ (Meissner 1984a: 239f.). Meissner returned to this theological and
psychoanalytic task in Life and Faith (Meissner 1987) to address more specifically theological questions on
the nature of grace, a theology and psychology of hope, faith and psychological development, and the
emergence of religious values using his theological and psychoanalytic insights.
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