Document Detail


From the numinous to the sacred.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  19344312     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Jung took the idea of the 'numinous' from Rudolf Otto's book Das Heilige (E.T. The Idea of the Holy) and made it central to his understanding of religion. However, as Lucy Huskinson has recently pointed out, this involves a misreading of Otto's work in which we have to look beyond the numinous (which is the non-rational factor in religion) towards the 'holy' which, like a symbol, holds the rational and non-rational aspects of religious experience together in a personally transformative way. This understanding of the spiritual and psychological journey is supported by case material in which a numinous experience, arising in the context of intensive analytical psychotherapy, proved to be but the first step in a process which led, through a period of mourning, towards the development of the patient's capacity to symbolize. In the light of this, the author suggests that the sacred is to be found in the capacity for a certain quality of symbolic relatedness--to self and other--which may or may not be attended by numinous experience.
Authors:
Christopher MacKenna
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  The Journal of analytical psychology     Volume:  54     ISSN:  1468-5922     ISO Abbreviation:  J Anal Psychol     Publication Date:  2009 Apr 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2009-04-06     Completed Date:  2009-08-13     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  0376573     Medline TA:  J Anal Psychol     Country:  England    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  167-82     Citation Subset:  IM    
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Dreams
Humans
Jungian Theory
Religion and Psychology*
Spirituality
Symbolism

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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