Morality, Selflessness, Transcendence: On Treatment Goals of a Spiritually Sensitive Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis has historically been understood to evince a suspicion or hostility to all ideas or ideals of “religion.” But in recent years, a new analytic tradition seems to be emerging, characterized by being spiritually sensitive. In this article, I briefly explore the budding theories of development, transference, and psychopathology as they are newly understood by spiritually sensitive psychoanalysts. I expound on the way they see the healthy personality and how this affects their therapeutic goals. I suggest four main clusters of such goals: 1) changing problematic patterns of faith, 2) developing a moral stance of compassion and responsibility, 3) lessening preoccupation with the self, and 4) helping patients get nearer to the numinous. Finally, I show how spiritually sensitive psychoanalysis's contribution to the spiritual person is unique, compared with other spiritually sensitive psychologies or spiritual traditions. I also discuss the tensions arising between this emerging field of thought, and the existing body of psychoanalytic knowledge.