The mutual redemption of divine and human being.
A clinical experience with a religiously-minded patient is presented, in which an unthinking observation made by the analyst-based on the mistaken belief that he and his patient had evolved a shared God language-proved nearly catastrophic for the work. Subsequent analysis revealed the complicated intertwining of maternal and paternal material in previously unconscious aspects of the patient's god image. Analysis of these components and greater understanding of transference dynamics brought limited therapeutic gains, until the patient was able to overcome her resistance to speaking about a core sexual fantasy. This achievement was the prelude to a vision that revealed the common root of her sexual and spiritual eros. Working through these understandings led both to greater personal integration and to the "humanizing" of her primitive god image.
Director of the St. Marylebone Healing & Counselling Centre, London, UK. cmackenna@stmarylebone.org
Christopher
C
Mackenna
D000328:Adult; D002835:Christianity; D003142:Communication; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003379:Countertransference; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D014167:Transference, Psychology