Collected Writings Volume 8

Abstract

Stein explores a vast array of world mythologies, religious traditions, and folk imagery to explore humanity’s enduring quest for completion and arrives at a vision of the dream of wholeness. To ground his theory, Stein recounts the dream of a retired psychotherapist. Here, Stein positions vocation at the center of his spiritual quest for meaning. Stein seamlessly integrates Jungian psychanalysis with spirituality in a manner both theological and psychological. Stein then recalls the dream of a young male analysand who came into proper relationship with the Self. The Self had been constellated early in his childhood at the age of four. Stein’s formulation of the Self as the caller to the called could not have been more powerfully affirmed than through this young man’s vocational dream. Such transpersonal experiences are often left unspoken in the analytic setting, as some analysists hesitate to articulate them within the therapeutic relationship. Yet, moments of intersection, when time and eternity touch, are deeply felt. In these rare and profound instances, both patient and analyst may feel touched by the curative powers of love emerging from the depths or heights of the psyche.