RE348 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Dialectic, Laxative, Potential Space
Document Summary
Idealization, as we saw in earlier lessons, is thought by some psychoanalysts to be a feature of any religion. In this lesson we will look at what are considered to be some of the pathological aspects of religious idealization. We will look both at descriptions of it as well as ways of understanding its origins and functions psychoanalytically. Jones begins this chapter by laying out criteria, from the perspective of self psychology, by which to determine whether a transformative religious experience is mature or unhealthy. Notice in both cases that there is a transformation. The matter that is of interest to a psychological inquiry though is the nature of this transformation. Let"s look closely at the differences, as jones sees them: There is therefore no possibility of transmuting internalizations. Thus the experience will keep one in a infantile, object-hungry addictive state. Devotees remain in a state of infantile dependency. The devotee is in a state of submission.
