Faith and the Couch: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Transformation

Abstract

Transformation requires the capacity to leave behind presently held positions in favor of different or new ones, in order to accommodate impingements of new complexity, on a higher level of psychological organization. The object relations course of this developmental capacity is embedded in transitional progression from the early monadic mode of relatedness in the newborn to the dyadic intersubjective experience of the second and the third year, and finally to the triadic narrative mode of relatedness of the oedipal period (years 4–6) and beyond. Transformation in the course of psychoanalytic treatment involves conflict resolution, removal of fixation points, and repair of deficits in self-regulation. Faith as a transformative force claims miracles and is the central core of a Moslem believer's integrity and sense of self. Islam, like other major religions, praises self knowledge, values morality and transcendence, and teaches primacy of meaning. Psychoanalysis similarly seeks deepening of self-knowledge through introspection, searching for value, and the personal meaning of one's experience. To the theological perspective of Islam, psychoanalysis can bring the scientific dimensions of the dynamic unconscious, the developmental view and conflict theory, object relations, transitional experience, and mentalization.