This article addresses the research finding that there is a relative absence of empathic inquiry regarding patients' religious experiences in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. D. Stern's (1985) concept of selective attunement and J. Benjamin's (1988) assertion-recognition processes are used to understand and offer hypotheses about this absence and its consequences. We argue that selective attunement to and recognition of the patient's religious experiences communicates a prohibition to the patient. We hypothesize that the results of this process are that religious expressions are excluded from the intersubjective area; patients associate shame or guilt with their religious representations; and patients will not assert significant and meaning-laden religious experiences, which may lead to nonintegration of aspects of the self.