Good/Bad Splitting in the Religious Experience

The disciple of Muktunada spoke blissfully of peace and love, yet when her focus shifted to the world's suffering, that smile of serenity never perceptibly changed. She reminded me of a client in therapy whose smile remained frozen, even when talking of her mother's death.

The disciple of Krishna lectured to the crowds not only in a monotone but in a voice reminiscent of every other Krishna; and during the serving of dinner, the Maharaji's student's eyes were beset by a glazed look of rapture. I reflected on a patient who spoke with a dull affect, another who always gave the impression that while looking at me he did not really see me, and a third who appropriated the vocal and facial patterns of the people around him.

When the follower of Reverend Moon who had been discoursing tranquilly and eloquently, suddenly and inappropriately responded in anger to an innocuous question, it brought to mind the client who always gently spoke of love but would burst into anger when anyone would mistakenly sit in his chair.

Raptured eyes, frozen smiles, dull affect, repressed aggression: there was a correlation between certain repetitive symptomatologies in cult disciples who appeared to be otherwise functioning normally, and the schizophrenic population with whom I worked. The connection became evident in the research I had been doing in the psychology of religious experience. There is a process in early infancy whereby the mother is split into a separate good and bad mother. A similar dynamic emerges in adult religious experience when the individual bifurcates his or her world into an analogous dichotomy: a guru who is omniscient, while nonbelievers are in the “dark”; a God who is exclusively good, with a devil who is totally bad. The following pages will analyze the nature of the good/bad split in infancy and describe that phenomenon's reappearance in the religious experience of certain individuals.