Convergence: maturation and integration in the course of a religious conversion.
The process of religious conversion has not been the focus of psychoanalytic understanding. This article examines one conversion narrative, a spiritual autobiography, in which, the author asserts, evidence can be found that the conversion described involved a process of maturation of the subject's internal god-representation, with an integration of maternal and paternal aspects of that internal object representation. Such a process as one aspect of a religious conversion, has implications for psychoanalytic work with religious patients, including the necessity of acknowledging the psychological and deeply believed reality of God for religious patients.
Cohen
Mariam
M
Institute for Behavioral Medicine, Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
D005260:Female; D005619:Freudian Theory; D006801:Humans; D009813:Oedipus Complex; D011572:Psychoanalysis; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D012069:Religion and Psychology