The Marriage between Ego and Id: Cognitive Integration and its Relation to Mystical Experience
Archive for the Psychology of Religion 2006 DOI: 10.1163/008467206777832625 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mystical experience |
| Key points | Argues that mystical experience can be understood as a dialectical interplay between cognitive coding systems, combining Loewald's primary process cognition with Teasdale and Barnard's Interacting Cognitive Subsystems model, and applies this framework to historical and contemporary examples. |
Abstract
The author suggests a new model for interpretation of mystical experience, based on a fruitful combination of cognitive psychology and depth psychology. Offering a rather wide definition of mystical experience, the author then turns to two basic assumptions—a general systems approach and an organismic-holistic view of development. Hans Loewald's analysis of primary process cognition is combined with a multi-dimensional model of cognitive activity called “Interacting Cognitive Subsystems” (ICS), presented by John D. Teasdale and Philip J. Barnard. These two complementary theoretical perspectives are applied to the analysis of both historical and contemporary examples of mystical experience, understood as a result of a dialectical interplay between these different coding systems, or the marriage between Ego and Id.