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Self-reparation in religious experience and countertransference.

Kevin Fauteux

The journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry 2009 DOI: 10.1521/jaap.2009.37.1.45 (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed
Sample size 3
Population Three individuals in clinical treatment
Intervention clinical intervention
Key points Argues that some religious experiences repair underlying wounds that motivated regression, while others lead to permanent escape, and that clinical intervention can affect whether the experience is reparative or escapist.

Abstract

This work examines the regressive nature of religious experience and suggests that some people's experience repairs the underlying wounds that in part motivated the regression while others remained fixated in the blissful absence of those wounds. It also investigates what takes place in those experiences that become reparative as opposed to what might happen in those that lead to permanent escape. Finally it examines how the author's clinical intervention-including the pertinent countertransference issues-affected the potential of three people's religious experiences to be reparative/transformative or escapist.