Psychoanalysis and Faith

This paper briefly examines some aspects of faith in the light of object relations theory. Faith as a uniquely human experience is frequently encountered in psychoanalytic practice and overlaps with it in bringing about healing. Conversely, the absence of faith in the self or the loss of it in the analyst is associated with despair and the resultant expression of aggression. The analyst facilitates the development of faith by consistent adherence to the principles of strict analytic technique while emphatically working through the transference. Although in psychoanalysis faith proceeds in leaps and is the eventual outcome of the extensive work done within the relationship, it cannot be created by making it the prime focus, nor is it expected that a religious belief in God be it's prime object.

Although faith is a frequently encountered phenomena, it remains as yet an inexplicable experience in mental life. It can appear suddenly in the communications of our patients and unfortunately is all too often passed over by us. Patients who profess to have strong religious beliefs and adhere to rigorous practices are often found to have little real faith, and others with little religious feeling can be strongly faithful. By and large, psychoanalysis has dealt with faith in theory only and has avidly avoided it in clinical practice. Therefore, we will endeavor to understand faith and its relationship to psychoanalytic theory, its contribution through its absence to aggression, and its necessity for growth in analysis.

Despite the diversity of psychoanalytic perspectives that have been pursued worldwide, perhaps the most significant clinical debate over many years has occurred between proponents of classical drive oriented, conflict/ego-defense theory and proponents of modern, self-psychological, deficit based theory (Tuttman, 1987; Aron, 1990). This debate is a reflection of a larger philosophical approach long argued between advocates of part mechanisms developing