Epilogue

In this issue, we have attempted to introduce the reader to the transformative potential of five religious/spiritual orientations, as well as define ways that psychoanalysis may aid in the realization of that potential. In so doing, it has been our endeavour to mind spirituality by being respectful but not reductionistic, welcoming but not indoctrinating. We hope that this has been your experience.

A final, though yet unmentioned way, in which suggested we mind spirituality is by caring for it. This doesn't mean that an analyst must become religious to work with a religious patient. In fact, Sorenson described empirical research that suggests that how an analyst behaves in sessions and the attitude he/she conveys is more influential than what he/she believes. But he goes on to claim that his research also indicates that analysts (religious or not) have a greater impact on their patients' spirituality than parents, religious authorities, or the religious tradition in which the patient was raised. We must not be naive: Religion and spirituality matter to many of our patients and we matter to them. And because we matter to them, we impact their spirituality in profound ways. Thus, we have an ethical, and may we say moral, imperative to care for our patients' spirituality the same way we might care for their gender, sexuality, race, culture, or ethnicity.

We conclude with this final reflection by our dear friend and mentor, :

Systematic avoidance or indiscriminate pathologizing of the patient's religious or spiritual life has a toxic effect on the analysand's spirituality, whereas friendly interest has the opposite effect. Sustained empathic inquiry into the patient's work of meaning—which many would argue is no different than what good analysis has always entailed—is what I advocate [p. 31].

Our aim has ultimately been to enhance the consistency of such empathic attunement with religiously/spiritually committed patients, and in so doing weave the transformational benefits