Prayer as Therapeutic Process Toward Transforming Destructiveness Within a Spiritual Direction Relationship

This article will expand previous conceptualizations (Kuchan, Presence Int J Spiritual Dir 12(4):22-34, 2006; J Religion Health 47(2):263-275, 2008; J Pastoral Care Counsel, forthcoming) of what might be occurring during a prayer practice that creates space within a spiritual direction relationship...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Kuchan, Karen L. (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: Springer Science + Business Media B. V. [2011]
Dans: Journal of religion and health
Année: 2011, Volume: 50, Numéro: 1, Pages: 120-131
Sujets non-standardisés:B Winnicott
B Christian prayer
B Narcissism
B Intersubjectivity
B Agression
B Psychoanalytic Theory
B spiritual transformation
Accès en ligne: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Résumé:This article will expand previous conceptualizations (Kuchan, Presence Int J Spiritual Dir 12(4):22-34, 2006; J Religion Health 47(2):263-275, 2008; J Pastoral Care Counsel, forthcoming) of what might be occurring during a prayer practice that creates space within a spiritual direction relationship for the creation of inner images that reveal a person's unconscious relational longings and co-created representations of God that seem to facilitate therapeutic process toward aliveness. In previous articles, I suggest one way to understand the prayer experience is through a lens of Winnicottian notions of transitional space, illusion, and co-creation of God images. This article expands on these ideas to include an understanding of God as Objective Other (Lewis, The four loves, 1960) interacting with a part of a person's self (Jung, in: The structure and dynamics of the psyche, collected works 8, 1934; Symington, Narcissism, a new theory, 1993) that has capacity for subjectivity (Benjamin, Like subjects, love objects: Essays on recognition and sexual difference, 1995) and co-creation (Winnicott, Home is where we start from: Essays by a psychoanalyst, 1990), of inner representations of God (Ulanov, Winnicott, god and psychic reality, 2001). I also expand on a notion of God as "Source of aliveness" by integrating an aspect of how Symington (Narcissism, a new theory, 1993) thinks about "the lifegiver," which he understands to be a mental object. After offering this theoretical expansion of the prayer practice/experience, one woman's inner representations of self and God are reflected upon in terms of a therapeutic process toward transforming destructiveness, utilizing ideas from Winnicott, Kohut, and Benjamin.
ISSN:1573-6571
Contient:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and health
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10943-009-9287-1