![]() ![]() This dissertation, accepted in January of 1993, develops a constructive critique of the Church through a Jungian analysis of Euro-American women raised in Christian denominations but seeking religious meaning through Native American spirituality-specifically by creating medicine shields. ![]() These first two phases prove amenable to psychodynamic interpretations that help illuminate both the Exercises and our understanding of individual spiritual development. After the first two weeks, psychological language proves inadequate to interpret the spiritual process Ignatius envisaged. I focus on the first and second weeks because I want to draw out how individuals’ experiences in this period of the exercises can be paralleled to stages of psychological development. The central role of the imagination in the Exercises is highlighted. I also suggest a Kleinian interpretation as an additional approach. Particular attention is given to Jung’s interest in the Exercises, which opens the possibilities of elucidating a Jungian perspective. A psychodynamic interpretation of the processes that often occur in individuals during the Ignatian retreat is presented using texts which primarily offer a post-Freudian perspective. ![]() Ignatius’ instructions for the retreat guide/director and the individual’s testing of their inner experience are also shown to be critical. I argue that Ignatius’ guidelines for the ‘discernment of spirits’ are the key to the psychological dimension of the Exercises. The thesis draws on the psychological literature addressing the Spiritual Exercises, together with extensive unpublished lectures, given by Jung between June 1939 and March 1940 in Zurich. The religious and psychological transformations that can occur through engaging with the Spiritual Exercises are explored. I propose the Spiritual Exercises are a form of ‘transformative practise’ based on Christian theology. An overview of the series of meditations and practises of the first two weeks of the Ignatian four week retreat, including vignettes from individual experiences, is presented. The depth of psychological penetration displayed by Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises is examined from a psychodynamic perspective. Egan Ignatius of Loyola has been recognised by modern psychologists as the innovator of Christian developmental psychology. Psychological and Religious Dimensions of Personal Transformation: Psychodynamic approaches to the Ignatian Exercises by Martin J. Parallels, similarities and differences between religious and psychological imagery and concepts are suggested throughout, which may prompt further exploration of areas of convergence and divergence between analytical psychology and Christian theology in particular, and between psychology and religion in general. This practice is adumbrated through a framework of conceptualisation derived from Orthodox Christian spirituality, employing the Jungian archetype of the ‘Wounded Healer’ in parallel to theological claims concerning the suffering of Jesus Christ, and the broader significance of suffering and evil in Christian theology. It is, therefore, argued that creative use of the countertransference implies ongoing, active reflection by the therapist on the meaning and purpose of personal suffering, as occurs in some spiritual disciplines. The concept of ‘creative suffering’ is utilized as a way of describing the process through which personal suffering, when experienced creatively, becomes more than the isolated pathological source of the therapist’s private emotional wounds, being transformed to provide the main psychological background through which deep healing of the client's own trauma may occur on a personal and transpersonal level. As a secondary theme, it attempts to formulate, investigate and explore a theoretical rationale for adopting a depth-psychological approach to working with countertransference dynamics in both psychotherapy and spiritual direction, by including and valuing the spiritual dimension of experience. The primary purpose of this study is to outline a metatheoretical approach to discuss the interface between analytical psychology and Christian theology. Christian theology has been a historical antecedent to modern psychology, and can continue to be of relevance in this field through the scholarly exploration of its anthropological teachings in a contemporary academic and pastoral context. ![]() It is frequently acknowledged that, despite Jung's disclaimers concerning the mutually exclusive boundaries between empirical science and metaphysics, analytical psychology does have important theological ramifications. ![]()
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