Paper Session D
Religion and Spirituality (Third in a Series of 3)

1. Beyond Self-Cohesion:
Taking Spirituality Out of the Self Psychology Closet

Self Psychology Page | 22nd Conference Program

Summary

The reawakening of a severely depressed woman's religious faith changed the course of her self-psychologically informed treatment and powerfully affected the lives of both therapeutic partners. Efforts to understand this case provided the impetus for an exploration of spirituality in self-psychological treatment and a reexamination of some fundamental tenets of self-psychological theory.

Kohut's emphasis on the need for experiences of self-cohesion tends to obscure the pervasiveness and depth of the human longing to transcend bounded selfhood, an aspect of spirituality. Although self-cohesion appears to be the antithesis of self-transcendence, Kohut's own writings suggest that selfobject experience engenders both; they are inextricably intertwined.

This paper attempts to show that the intellectual/philosophical foundations of self psychology and intersubjectivity theory support openness to spirituality within the therapeutic dialogue. Building on a conceptualization of trauma as the betrayal of self-trust, the authors examine faith and the strong reliance on spirituality often found among survivors of severe trauma. The case of an incest survivor hopefully demonstrates that treatment may promote a sense of self-cohesion at the same time that it furthers the quest for spiritual transcendence for both therapeutic partners.

Self Psychology Page | 22nd Conference Program