Collected Writings Volume 8
Steven Herrmann
October 14, 2025 DOI: 10.4324/9781003664024-10 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Keywords | Dream Transpersonal Eternity Spirituality Analytical psychology Psychoanalysis Art history |
| Key points | Argues that humanity's enduring quest for completion is expressed through a 'dream of wholeness,' and that transpersonal experiences in analysis, where time and eternity intersect, can bring curative love. |
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.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond | 2014 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Shamanism as the Original Neurotheology | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Cognitive Neuroscience, Shamanism and the Rock Art of Native California | 1998 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From Culture to Experience: Shamanism in the Pages of the Soviet Anti-Religious Press | 2020 | Historical analysis | |
| Anthropology, Shamanism, and Alternate Ways of Knowing–Being in the World: One Anthropologist's Journey of Discovery and Transformation | 2010 | Reflective essay or personal narrative |