The Recovery of Self: Regression and Redemption in Religious Experience"Sigmund Freud believed that regression to primitive behavior was a pathological escape from reality. However all religions, in some manner or another, have urged their adherents to return to a simple way of being. Some have declared child-like behavior to be a high form of holiness. So is religion pathological or not? Or better yet, how and when does religious regression support psychological growth, and when does it not?" "The Recovery of Self is a pioneering study of regression in religious experience. It maintains that certain kinds of regression offer opportunities to confront unresolved childhood processes and repair them. Just as an artist may be put in touch with his or her primal self during the creative process, so a religious seeker can journey backward into primitive modes of being and recover there a sense of original unity which, when carried into the present, can be redemptive and transforming."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
Contents
| 7 | |
| 10 | |
| 14 | |
| 16 | |
| 19 | |
PRIMITIVIZATION OF EGO AND THOUGHT REFORM | 26 |
RELIEF AT LOSS OF EGO | 31 |
Instinctual Regression and Religious Experience | 32 |
MEDITATION | 110 |
ADAPTIVE DARKNIGHT PURGATION OF EGO | 115 |
Illumination and Adaptive Regression in the Service of the Ego | 117 |
RECOVERY OF PRIMARY PROCESS CREATIVITY | 118 |
ARTISTIC INSPIRATION | 120 |
RELIGIOUS ILLUMINATION | 121 |
JUNG AND REGRESSIVE PRIMARY PROCESS | 123 |
INTUITION AS AN EXAMPLE OF CREATIVE PRIMARY PROCESS | 124 |
PRIMITIVE INSTINCTS | 34 |
ELATION | 35 |
ELATION AND SUPEREGO REGRESSION | 42 |
RETREAT FROM REALITY AND FLIGHT INTO FANTASY | 45 |
Symbiotic Regression The Experience of Unity | 52 |
SUPEREGO REGRESSION AND UNITIVE EXPERIENCE | 54 |
EGO IDEAL AND GROUP UNITY | 56 |
SYMBIOTIC UNITY | 58 |
PARADISE RESTORED AND LOST | 63 |
AGGRESSION THREATENS UNITY | 67 |
SPLITTING OF AGGRESSION AS DEFENSE AGAINST LOSS OF UNITY | 71 |
PROJECTION OF SPLITOFF AGGRESSION | 76 |
ABSENCE OF AGGRESSION DIMINISHES UNITIVE EXPERIENCE | 80 |
Regression and Adaptation | 85 |
REGRESSION IN SERVICE OF THE EGO | 87 |
CREATIVITY | 88 |
FROM REGRESSION TO PROGRESSION | 90 |
Adaptation in EgoRegressive Dying to Self | 92 |
THE FALSE SELF | 94 |
THE DEFENSIVE SELF | 96 |
DISMANTLING THE DEFENSIVE EGO | 98 |
DISMANTLING OF EGO IN ART | 99 |
RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND PURGATION OF THE DEFENSIVE EGO | 100 |
ADAPTIVE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES | 105 |
Regressive Restoration and Reparation of Symbiotic Unity | 128 |
MORATORIUM | 131 |
INCUBATION | 135 |
RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND BASIC TRUST | 139 |
NEW BEGINNING | 143 |
THE SAFE ENVIRONMENT OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND TRANSFERENCE | 145 |
THE SAFE ENVIRONMENT OF THE ARTIST | 148 |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF REPRESSED FEELINGS AND WITHDRAWAL OF THEIR PROJECTIONS | 151 |
CONFRONTING BASIC FAULT | 152 |
Elaboration of Religious Experience | 158 |
EMERGENCE OUT OF UNITIVE EXPERIENCE | 159 |
RECOVERED PRIMARY PROCESS LEADS TO PSYCHOSIS AS WELL AS TO ILLUMINATION | 165 |
ELABORATION OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE GIVES CRITICAL SHAPE TO UNBOUNDED PRIMARY PROCESS | 169 |
FREEDOM IN STRUCTURE | 177 |
MAKING SENSE OF THE EXPERIENCE | 179 |
FROM PASSIVITY TO ACTIVITY IN ART | 184 |
FROM PASSIVITY TO ACTIVITY IN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE | 186 |
Conclusion | 192 |
Regression in Service of the Ego or Expansion of Ego? | 197 |
References | 201 |
Notes | 224 |
| 245 | |
Common terms and phrases
abandoned adult aggression all-good anxiety archaic artist autonomy basic trust become Buddha Buddhist cesses child communion feelings confront consciousness creative dark night defensive discipline divine drives e. e. cummings ego control ego functions ego ideal elicited ence environment Erikson example experienced expression external false fantasy fears Freud frustration gratify hallucinations Hence Hogarth Press illuminative impulses infant inner inspirational Jesus Jung koan Kris learns logical Mahler mature meditation Merton mother mystic needs Nirvana one's oneself passive pathological perception person feel precognitive primary process Psychoanalysis psychological psychosis psychotic purgation purgative reactivation reality regression in service regressive return regressively restores relationship religious experience result rience S.E. Vol scious secondary functions secure separate sexual spiritual stage of religious stimuli structures superego surrender symbiosis symbiotic unity T. S. Eliot Tao Te Ching thereby thinking Thomas Merton tion uncon unconscious processes unitive experience Universities Press unresolved conflicts vision Winnicott York
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