Meetings of the New York Psychoanalytic Society

November 15, 1960. PSYCHOANALYTIC THERAPY OF RELIGIOUS DEVOTEES: A THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTION. Sandor Lorand, M.D.

In this paper the author presents some general conclusions, drawn from clinical observations, regarding the influence of religion and religious upbringing on the psychopathology of certain patients. While the clinical material deals with the analysis of one patient, the conclusions were arrived at as a result of the lengthy analyses of patients of various religious affiliations. The following technical and theoretical considerations are stressed: 1. Patients in this group show an extreme submissiveness—rooted in the earliest ego-ideal identifications and superego development—, the principal purpose being to secure love and protection as well as to deny unconscious hostility. 2. The roles of guilt, confession, and sanctifying grace make free association particularly difficult, especially when the analysis is equated with confession but without the reassurance of 'selecting' what to confess and the ensuing absolution. 3. Because of marked negative therapeutic reactions, such patients require a long period of reconstruction before they can accept the unconscious, tolerate interpretation, and adhere to the basic rule of free association.

The paper is divided into four sections. The first, on ethics, relates the ethical precepts of religion and early childhood situations. The heart of the neurosis of religious communicants is seen as the conflict caused by the struggle between their desires for instinctual gratification and their rigid moral code. This conflict is implanted in the child by the parents, teachers, and church, and calls for constant renunciation, obedience, and submission. As a reward for such renunciation and for suffering, these individuals feel especially protected and loved. The second section, on reconstruction, elaborates a phase of the analysis deemed of utmost importance for the successful outcome of therapy. Such patients are