Does God Help? Developmental and Clinical Aspects of Religious Belief

by Akhtar, Salman; Parens, Henri,

• ISBN13: 9780765703194
• ISBN10: 076570319X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-06-01
• Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc.

Summary

At long last there is a book that brings the issue of religious belief into the consulting room. Deliberately avoiding the one debate about whether or not God exists, the editors have marshaled papers that take seriously the fact that patients are affected by their religious convictions. Experts on Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Islam refract the clinical process through the prisms of these religions, and commentaries on their papers are offered by distinguished psychoanalysts who provide vigorous challenges and supplementary visions. Therapists will be informed by reading this book and will find their understanding of patients enriched. --David M. Sachs

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Contributors	xiii
Is God a Subject for Psychoanalysis?	1	(18)
Henri Parens
Salman Akhtar
Does God Help? What God? Helping Whom? The Convolutions of Divine Help	19	(34)
Ana-Maria Rizzuto
The God Representation and the Inner Dialogue as Transitional Phenomena	53	(22)
Discussion of Rizzuto's Chapter, ``Does God Help? What God? Helping Whom? The Convolutions of Divine Help''
Ruth M. S. Fischer
So Help Me God! Do I Help God or Does God Help Me?	75	(52)
William W. Meissner
Does God Help Me or Do I Help God or Neither?	127	(26)
Discussion of Meissner's Chapter, ``So Help Me God! Do I Help God or Does God Help Me?''
J. Anderson Thomson
Psychoanalytic Reflections on the Sacred Hindu Text, the Bhagavad Gita	153	(24)
Satish Reddy
God Playing Psychoanalyst: Some Lessons from the Bhagavad Gita	177	(20)
Discussion of Reddy's Chapter, ``Psychoanalytic Reflections on the Sacred Hindu Text, the Bhagavad Gita''
Dwarkanath G. Rao
Three Archaic Contributions to the Religious Instinct: Awe, Mysticism, and Apocalypse	197	(38)
Mortimer Ostow
A to Z: Awe, Cabalism, and Zohar	235	(18)
Discussion of Ostow's Chapter, ``Three Archaic Contributions to the Religious Instinct: Awe, Mysticism, and Apocalypse''
Philip J. Escoll
The Median: Islamic Faith and Mental Health	253	(38)
Yasser Ad-Dab'bagh
A Matter of Faith	291	(30)
Discussion of Ad-Dab `bagh's Chapter, ``The Median: Islamic Faith and Mental Health''
M. Hossein Etezady
God and the Unconscious: Eternal Antonymies or Long Lost Twins?	321	(40)
Concluding Reflections
James S. Grotstein
Index	361