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W. R. Bion’s quip—Hasn’t anyone seen a psychoanalyst turn into a psychoanalyst?—speaks to the core issue of what happens within the consulting room: transition from as if to being the thing itself. In zazen (the Buddhist term for meditation), this is close to the term suchness and occupies a ground shared by psychoanalysts and Zen practitioners alike.
In Psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism, Seiso Paul Cooper establishes a strong connection between Zen meditation and psychoanalytic experience. As a psychoanalyst, an ordained Zen priest, and transmitted teacher in the Sōtō Zen lineage, he is in a unique position to link the practice of these disciplines and aid their integration, drawing on what he terms a “realizational perspective.”
The book is divided into five parts: “Introduction,” “Review,” “The Definite and the Infinite,” “Realizational Perspectives,” and “Practice.” Each systematically sets the stage for the reader to develop a deeper understanding of how realization operates within the mind both historically and in the pragmatics of practice. Cooper provides a detailed account of the development, rationale, and experience of both zazen and psychoanalysis that goes beyond the often-used cursory generalizations.
“Introduction” focuses on three themes: No Fixed Point, The Primacy of Experience, and Mokusho: Silent Illumination Open to Whole Being.
No Fixed Point refers to an attitude, free of preconceptions and biases, essential to cultivating a clear mind. The Primacy of Experience might be summarized as the basis of our awareness, which comes from the way in which we experience realities in our lives and within the consulting room. Mokusho (silent illumination), although not “an exclusively quietist practice” (p. 21), evolved into the practice shikantaza (just sitting). The interplay between the foundational principles of Dōgen’s zazen and experiential observations in Bion’s writings is a theme refined throughout the text. While summary explanations cannot do justice