The Relevance of a Psychoanalytic Perspective in Exploring Religious and Spiritual Identity in Psychotherapy

The attempt to make meaning of the soul is inherent to psychoanalytic inquiry, despite its historical diminution of religion and spirituality. Feminist ideology and multicultural psychology have played a critical role in challenging traditional psychoanalytic conceptions of the practice of religion and spirituality as pathological and/or regressive. Contemporary psychoanalysis that emphasizes two-person psychology, and the intersubjective aspects of the analytic space has also allowed for more open inquiry into the spiritual lives of clients and therapists. Both psychoanalysis and spirituality share the goal of a search for particular aspects of one's identity. This search for one's real or true self becomes particularly poignant for both the therapist and the client, as it is highly reliant on the therapist's and the client's specific religious and spiritual contexts. This paper examines the development of identity as influenced by religious and spiritual beliefs. The author discusses a clinical case to illustrate the complex interaction between religious traditions and individual experiences of religion and spirituality, and related implications of a contemporary psychoanalytic approach to psychotherapy.