God Biblical Stories And Psychoanalytic Understanding

In every process of reading there is interaction between text and reader. Religious texts speak about God; readers of religious texts have their images of God. Thus, in the process of reading religious texts we have a triangle with text, reader and God at the extreme points. But how are these points connected? The articles in the book discuss this question. They focus on biblical texts, and they make use of different psychoanalytic approaches. The book deals with the biblical subjects of the «bloody bridegroom» in Ex 4, the Oedipus complex in the book of Esther, the Saul-David story from a Kleinian perspective, and the creation of woman. This work also examines the question of interiorization and the images of God. The contributors are scholars from several European countries and from widely differing scholarly and denominational backgrounds, who discussed their papers in the course of a European SOCRATES intensive program.

In every process of reading there is interaction between text and reader. Religious texts speak about God; readers of religious texts have their images of God. Thus, in the process of reading religious texts we have a triangle with text, reader and God at the extreme points. But how are these points connected? The articles in the book discuss this question. They focus on biblical texts, and they make use of different psychoanalytic approaches. The book deals with the biblical subjects of the «bloody bridegroom» in Ex 4, the Oedipus complex in the book of Esther, the Saul-David story from a Kleinian perspective, and the creation of woman. This work also examines the question of interiorization and the images of God. The contributors are scholars from several European countries and from widely differing scholarly and denominational backgrounds, who discussed their papers in the course of a European SOCRATES intensive program.

Compares and contrasts the beliefs of two famous thinkers, Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, on topics ranging from the existence of God and morality to pain and suffering.

Integrate Biblical spirituality into psychotherapy and examine centuries-old answers to modern psychological questions! The Joint Commision on the Accreditation of Hospitals now mandates taking spiritual assessments of all patients. This book is devoted to helping therapists employ Biblical spirituality in the actual treatment program. Biblical Stories for Psychotherapy and Counseling: A Sourcebook organizes the wisdom of the Old Testament into episodes that can shed light on specific psychological issues. From the familiar to the obscure, these stories can help us better understand self-esteem, loyalty and obligations, decision making, temptation, anger, morality, various disorders, family dynamics, support systems, developmental issues, recovery issues, aging, suicidal behavior, and more. From the authors: “As brilliant and as penetrating as Freud's insights are, they are limited in the sense that Freud relied heavily on Greek myth and literature for his models and ideas. His view of man was in many ways that of the Greeks—a view that concentrated on the pathological underside of man and on the bedrock of his developmental problems. The Greeks could never really shake the sense of doom, the foreboding and the fatalism that led so many great figures in Greek literature and in real life Greek history to depression and, in a surprising number of cases, to suicide. In contrast, the focus of the Bible is far more optimistic; depression can be successfully dealt with, and suicide is a sad error that should be—and usually can be—avoided. It encourages people to hope and teaches that day-to-day human effort has a purpose and meaning and that heroism is not a fair or useful aim for man to set for himself. The Bible offers the hope of filling every moment of human life with greater meaning and feeling. “New solutions to mental health problems are always welcome. Ours is a new approach, yet a very old one. We present stories that offer a vast treasure of knowledge and wisdom about the way people think and act, and why they do so. The stories are drawn from the Hebrew Bible, a compendium whose latest books are already twenty-four hundred or so years old. Yet, through all those centuries, the basic story of man's searching and yearning has changed little. We shall concentrate on the psychological meaning of these narratives and what they tell us about how their characters dealt with challenges of family, handicap, depression, and more.” You'll also find information drawn from modern clinical research that parallels the Biblical narratives. The wisdom gained from these ancient stories is applied to help people gain self-understanding and deal with their own situations today. For psychotherapists, these Biblical foundation stories can be used as a basis for integrating spirituality into psychotherapy. The story of Moses, who overcame a speech problem, can be applied to the problems of a Midwestern college student, and the account of David and Goliath can help a businessman overcome his fears of “lack of macho.” A small sample of the Bible stories—and their clinical implications—that you'll find in this volume: the foundation of self-esteem: Saul the courage to emigrate: Abraham assuming responsibility for one's self: Lot's wife focusing on one's main aim: Sarah and Hagar dealing with commandments: Abraham and Isaac dealing with temptations: Adam and Eve drunkenness and disrespect: Noah reciprocity between generations: Naomi and Ruth amoral intellectualism: Balaam aging: Ecclesiastes dealing with disability: Moses and Aaron abandonment: David protected regression: Jonah Biblical Stories for Psychotherapy and Counseling: A Sourcebook will become a well-used reference in your professional/teaching collection. These Biblical stories will be helpful to therapists, cle

In Relating to God: Clinical Psychoanalysis, Spirituality, and Theism, Dan Merkur conceptualizes religious discourse within psychoanalysis. He proposes that God be treated as a transferential figure whose analysis leads to a reduction of the parental content that is projected onto God. Merkur notes that religious conversion experiences regularly involve theological intuitions that are either rational or, owing to morbid complications, have undergone displacement into irrational symbolism. Analysis renders the religiosity more wholesome. Traditionally, psychoanalytic thought has been dismissive of religion. Freud is on record, however, as having called psychoanalysis a neutral procedure. He argued that religion, with its dependency on a providential God who punishes disobedience, imagines spirituality on the model of human parents and fails to approach spirituality in an appropriately scientific manner. He wrote little of spiritual phenomena, but mentioned both the rationality of the universe and the parapsychological occurrence of thought transference. Occasionally, later psychoanalysts used different language in order to contrast wholesome and morbid forms of religion. Erich Fromm distinguished authoritarian and humanistic religions, while D. W. Winnicott condemned fetishistic behavior while approving of playful illusions that require “belief-in.” These formulations constructed a middle position for clinicians, neither categorically opposed to religion as classical psychoanalysis was, nor do they embrace cultural relativity as “spiritually oriented” psychotherapists are currently advocating. What sorts of spiritual practices does psychoanalysis find unobjectionable? As examples of humanistic religion, Fromm named Zen Buddhism, Buddhist mindfulness meditation, and the via negativa or “way of negating” that some Christian and Jewish mystics have followed. Because the Bible-based approaches are little known, Merkur discusses their histories, procedures, and psychoanalytic understanding.

In this study, the author reviews and reorganizes data about Freud's development and life circumstances to provide a psychodynamic interpretation of his rejection of God. She contends that Freud's early life made it impossible for him to believe in a provident and caring divine being.

In the Image of God is a compilation of lectures by Stanley Leavy, a psychoanalyst approaching retirement, reflecting on his experience as a follower of Freud and his method and also as a lifelong, faithful Episcopalian. The overarching idea linking the individual lectures is Leavy's belief that "the deliberate study of the operations of the mind must yield results that are not just compatible with religious faith but amplify it," eschewing the faith versus science argument for a more inclusive worldview.

Drawing from culture, stories, and his own personal experience, John Sowers presents the desperate reality of fatherlessness in his generation. Fatherless Generation is a hard-hitting, descriptive look at this issue, showing how awareness, compassion, and mentoring are the keys to writing new stories of hope.

Originally published in 1956, this survey of the interpretations of sex by the major figures in Christian thought and in psychoanalysis made an important contribution to the re-thinking of our sexual morality at the time. The author refutes the common belief that the negative attitude toward sex and the body, which had been predominant in western civilization, originated with Christianity. He shows that such a viewpoint was widespread in the early Hellenism Age, nearly three centuries before Christ. He emphasizes the essentially positive view which Biblical religion demands and shows how Christianity’s attitude early became corrupted by the dualism of the Orient. He points to the need for a return to essential naturalism and the Biblical interpretation of sex. The first part of the book consists of a historical treatment in the Christian tradition, touching upon the teaching of Jesus, Paul, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin and others. He analyses the classical and contemporary attitudes and ideas in both Catholic and Protestant circles and shows how Christian understanding comes into conflict with psychoanalysis. In the later portions of the book the author discusses sex and psychoanalysis and the major problems in sexual mores. He ends with a synthesis of the religious and psychoanalytic points of view and a critical reconstruction of a Christian interpretation.