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This chapter forms part of a symposium on prayer viewed from several different angles, including the biblical, theological, scientific and pedagogic. Gert Sauer is a pastor and analytical psychologist in Freiburg, and responsible for the teaching of pastoral psychology to teachers of religion in the Evangelischen Landeskirche in Baden.
For his theme he draws upon his clinical experience with patients, a large number of whom seem to present with primarily religious difficulties, not least in respect of the practice of prayer. As a minister and psychotherapist myself I find my own experience different, and therefore difficult to relate to his, as very few of my patients present with anything but explicitly neurotic difficulties. I assume that Sauer's practice lies nearer the pastoral-psychological end of the psychotherapeutic spectrum, although he clearly does lead back in his interpretations from the religious to the more purely psychological needs of his patients when necessary.
In a section on ‘The conception of religion in C. G. Jung's psychology’ Sauer treats prayer from the psychic standpoint, as he would any imaginative activity, including dreams, poetry, dancing or painting. He argues that the practice of prayer is no guarantee of psychic health and recognises that much religious activity is sick or fosters sickness. He sees public prayer as an expression of the ‘collective persona’ of its participants, and he warns of the danger that collective forms of prayer might quench the uniqueness of the individual. On the other hand, collective prayer is a necessary container of psychic experience, as are all forms of religious expression.
In his discussion of the ‘archetypal background to prayer’ Sauer warns of the danger of the Christian teaching of prayer leading to what I term ‘depressive religion’. As one who revolted against prayer as the expression of ‘works’ rather than faith, I warmed to this section. He also stresses that the capacity to pray depends upon the p