Abstract
A frequency analysis of psychological sources demonstrates that contemporary North American writing about spiritual direction is grounded psychologically in early psychodynamic and depth psychologies; this finding is supported by a content analysis of 67 texts. Although pastoral theologians have thoroughly critiqued these psychologies and their inherent anthropologies, the contemporary literature of spiritual direction has not assimilated these critiques or expanded its use of psychological resources to attend more adequately to social and relational aspects of both human identity and spiritual/religious experience. As a result, the ministry of spiritual direction in North America functions primarily in the classical and therapeutic traditions of pastoral care, with limited attention to communal‐contextual and intercultural paradigms.
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