Freud and Augustine in Dialogue
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A01=William B. Parsons
archaic modes
archetypal self
atheism
Author_William B. Parsons
baptism
basement theology
biographies of Hindu saints
Buddhism
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clinical space
concubine
consciousness
contemplation
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Eros
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Jewish mysticism
love
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neuroscience
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Oedipus
philosophy
Platonists
rational religion
reflection
religion
sexuality
sin
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the soul in ascent motif
Western introspection
women's role
Product details
- ISBN 9780813934792
- Weight: 337g
- Dimensions: 155 x 228mm
- Publication Date: 15 Nov 2013
- Publisher: University of Virginia Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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It is arguably the case,"" writes William Parsons, ""that no two figures have had more influence on the course of Western introspective thought than Freud and Augustine."" Yet it is commonly assumed that Freud and Augustine would have nothing to say to each other with regard to spirituality or mysticism, given the former's alleged antipathy to religion and the latter's not usually being considered a mystic.
Adopting an interdisciplinary, dialogical, and transformational framework for interpreting Augustine's spiritual journey in his Confessions, Parsons places a ""mystical theology"" at the heart of Augustine's narrative and argues that his mysticism has been misunderstood partly because of the limited nature of the psychological models applied to it. At the same time, he expands Freud's therapeutic legacy to incorporate the contemporary findings of physiology and neuroscience that have been influenced in part by modern spirituality.
Parsons develops a new psychological hermeneutic to account for Augustine's mysticism that will capture the imagination of contemporary readers who are both psychologically informed and interested in spirituality. The author intends this interpretive model not only to engage modern introspective concerns about developmental conflict and the power of the unconscious but also to reach a more nuanced level of insight into the origins and the nature of the self.
Adopting an interdisciplinary, dialogical, and transformational framework for interpreting Augustine's spiritual journey in his Confessions, Parsons places a ""mystical theology"" at the heart of Augustine's narrative and argues that his mysticism has been misunderstood partly because of the limited nature of the psychological models applied to it. At the same time, he expands Freud's therapeutic legacy to incorporate the contemporary findings of physiology and neuroscience that have been influenced in part by modern spirituality.
Parsons develops a new psychological hermeneutic to account for Augustine's mysticism that will capture the imagination of contemporary readers who are both psychologically informed and interested in spirituality. The author intends this interpretive model not only to engage modern introspective concerns about developmental conflict and the power of the unconscious but also to reach a more nuanced level of insight into the origins and the nature of the self.
William B. Parsons, Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University,USA is the author of The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling: Revisioning the Psychoanalytic Theory of Mysticism, editor of Teaching Mysticism, and the coeditor of Mourning Religion (Virginia).
