1st Edition

The Religious Function of the Psyche

By Lionel Corbett Copyright 1996

    Traditional concepts of God are no longer tenable for many people who nevertheless experience a strong sense of the sacred in their lives. The Religious Function of the Psyche offers a psychological model for the understanding of such experience, using the language and interpretive methods of depth psychology, particularly those of C.G. Jung and psychoanalytic self psychology. The problems of evil and suffering, and the notion of human development as an incarnation of spirit are dealt with by means of a religious approach to the psyche that can be brought easily into psychotherapeutic practice and applied by the individual in everyday life.
    The book offers an alternative approach to spirituality as well as providing an introduction to Jung and religion.

    List of figures, Acknowledgements, Introduction: The new psychological dispensation, 1 THE RELIGIOUS ATTITUDE IN PSYCHOTHERAPY, 2 PERSONAL SPIRITUALITY BASED ON CONTACT WITH THE NUMINOSUM, 3 THE TRANSPERSONAL SELF, 4 THE ARCHETYPE AS SYNTHETIC PRINCIPLE, 5 MYTHICAL, SYMBOLIC AND IMAGINAL ASPECTS OF THE PSYCHE’S RELIGIOUS FUNCTION, 6 A PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW OF SOME TRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS IDEAS, 7 A DEPTH PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING, 8 SUFFERING, 9 SIN AND EVIL, 10 PSYCHOTHERAPY AND SPIRITUAL PRACTICE, 11 THE RATIONALE FOR A CONTEMPLATIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Appendix, Notes, References, Index

    Biography

    Lionel Corbett