Self-reparation in religious experience and countertransference.
The journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry January 1, 2009 DOI: 10.1521/jaap.2009.37.1.45 (opens in new tab) via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractSome people's religious experiences can repair underlying psychological wounds, while others remain fixated in a blissful escape from those wounds. This work examines what makes an experience reparative versus escapist, and how a clinician's intervention—including countertransference issues—affected the potential for three people's religious experiences to be transformative or escapist.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 3 |
| Population | Three individuals in clinical treatment |
| Intervention | clinical intervention |
| Key finding | 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.