Faith and destructiveness
Michael Eigen
Routledge eBooks March 21, 2018 DOI: 10.4324/9780429474804-9 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that psychoanalytic concepts are steeped in a phenomenology of psychosis, that ineffable mystical awareness is a real capacity shaping creativity and transformation as well as individual and group catastrophe, and that dreaming functions as part of a psychic digestive system; also contends that insensitivity spirals into national and global harm. |
Abstract
A lot of therapy is about the slow recovery of faith, at least more of it, a more informed faith, wiser, fuller, ready for anything. Although S. Freud ostensibly developed a theory and clinical approach to neurosis, the author points out in The Psychotic Core that his concepts are heavily steeped in a phenomenology of psychosis. Freud spoke of flooding as a primal trauma. Mystics also attest to impalpable, ineffable awareness. This is a very real capacity that stamps experience. It plays an important role in creativity, personal transformation and deformation, and also horrendous individual and group scenarios. In Cogitations , W. R. Bion develops the notion that dreaming is part of our psychic digestive system. Tradition tells us death haunts lust and this notion is no stranger to psychoanalysis. Feeling Matters shows how insensitivity spirals, wreaking havoc on a national and global scale.