Theology and Psychology at the Crossroads as My Mother Waves Good-Bye

Abstract

This writer’s study of the Jung-White letters, her correspondence with analyst-theologian John Dourley, and an apocalyptic dream evoked a psychic upheaval that challenged her belief in a supernatural God. She left Catholicism as a young adult, but remnants of early convictions complicated her thinking, leading to a dualistic relationship to the God-image within and the theological God of her roots. Shortly after her mother’s death, she dreamed of her mother driving away and waving good-bye. Was this a dream releasing the author from the Catholic tradition that still clung? This talk reviews the Jung-White correspondence and White’s inability to free himself from the concrete thinking of his faith. It considers John Dourley as a contrasting figure who is moving theological thought beyond the confines of the three monotheisms. The author relates the transformation in her life that these events have initiated.