New Integrative Perspectives from Relational Psychoanalysis.

Strawn, Brad D.

NEW INTEGRATIVE PERSPECTIVES FROM RELATIONAL PSYCHOANALYSIS

Sorenson, Randall Lehman (2004).

Minding spirituality. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press. Hardcover. viii + 191 pp. $39.95. ISBN 0-88163-344-5.

Randall Lehmann Sorenson, Ph.D., Psy.D. is Professor of Psychology at Rosemead School of Psychology, Biola University, and a Training and Supervising analyst at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles.

Integrative perspectives on psychoanalysis, spirituality, and religion have been previously undertaken, although often in edited or thematic books. Not since W. W. Meissner and Anna Maria Rizzuto, however, has a trained psychoanalyst and practicing Christian with theological training ventured a full-length treatment of relition, especially from a Relational Psychoanalytic perspective. In Minding Spirituality, Randall Lehmann Sorenson does it with style. Sorenson not only deals with religion, he is religious--and not merely religious in a quasi-spiritual-new-age way. Sorenson actually believes in God, Christ, and Scripture, and is not apologetic about it. What makes this belief even more amazing is that Sorenson's main target audience is non-religious practicing psychoanalysts and psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists. In one sense, Minding Spirituality is a religious (Christian) apologetic to the secular world of psychoanalysis (which is alive and well despite the current fad of Freud bashing and Managed Care), a world that has at times been very unfriendly to religion. What is perhaps most surprising, and hopeful, is that the book is published by one of the top secular analytic publishing houses--The Analytic Press. This accomplishment is both a testament to Sorenson's credentials, expertise, and skill as a writer, as well as the exciting opening of the secular world of psychology to religious issues.

Sorenson suggests that psychoanalysis has historically dealt with spirituality as a dependent variable (D.V.). Psychoanalysis is then seen as the independent variable (I.V.), which explains all of the variance in the D.V. through psychological processes. Unfortunately, the psychoanalytic explanation of spirituality tends to center around pathology and nothing more. Sorenson suggests that at least two other ways exist in which to conceptualize the relationship. Perhaps neither psychoanalysis nor spirituality are the source of the other but are "complementary approaches to problems in living" (p. 11). A third option, a reversal of the first, is that perhaps spirituality actually influences one's psychology and even how one practices. Whatever the direction of the relationship, Sorenson argues that psychoanalytic theories "cannot avoid reckoning with inherently moral dimensions for what constitutes a good life" (p. 31) and are therefore gravely mistaken if they ignore the complementary activity that can be found in religious faith. Sorenson's main goal is not to create a grand meta-model of analytic/theological integration that engulfs one theory into the other. Rather, he invites secular analysts to take a curious interest in spirituality that creates a "genuine conversation with the other and to welcome ongoing difference" (p. 26).

It is my assumption that most individuals reading this review, however, will not fall within Sorenson's main target audience of secular psychoanalysts, so I will choose instead to focus on why I believe this book is a "must read" for religious psychologists and psychotherapists. First, Sorenson is an interesting hybrid who bridges at least three worlds. As mentioned above, he is a trained clinical psychoanalyst with an earned Psy.D. in psychoanalysis. He is also a Ph.D. clinical psychologist with a faculty appointment at Rosemead School of Psychology, where he conducts empirical research. Lastly, he is seminary trained and widely read in contemporary philosophy, sociology, and the sociology of religion (Many clinicians will be introduced to more philosophy in reading Sorenson's book than in the whole of their graduate school experience!). Sorenson brings these worlds together, making for fascinating and creative integrative connections.

The second reason a religious psychologist/therapist should read Minding Spirituality is that it is an excellent introduction to the ideas of Relational Psychoanalysis (see chapter 2 "Ongoing Change in Psychoanalytic Theory"). This contemporary version of psychoanalysis can be difficult to clearly define as a distinct school, but has evolved a great deal in response to Freud's reductionism. "A central conviction that animates relational psychoanalysis is that it is relationship, both intrapsychic and interpersonal, that structures and sustains all psychological health and psychopathology," (p. 34). Sorenson convincingly demonstrates that Relational psychoanalysis powerfully resonates with modern philosophical and theological concerns and subsequently offers exciting new prospects for integration. Sorenson exhibits his empirical creativity using multidimensional scaling both to demonstrate the distinctiveness of Relational psychoanalysis and the potential fundamentalism of other psychoanalytic schools of thought. He does so by a detailed examination of authors' actual citations in their published articles. He also intersperses throughout the book fascinating clinical material that illuminates the manner in which a Relational psychoanalyst might think about and intervene with patients. Contemporary psychoanalysis is not the esoteric, abstinent, distant, withholding caricature often portrayed in films and literature. The persistence of this caricature, which is often perpetuated at the graduate level by professors pressed by external forces (i.e. Managed Care and subsequent empirically-validated treatment models), has robbed many students of a rich body of clinical literature that can increase their efficacy. This case is particularly true concerning the absence of "real life" patients with complex and multiple problems--unlike the ones found in clinical outcome studies. Perhaps the felt need of graduate-trained clinicians to improve their skills in the real world of clinical practice explains the survival of psychoanalytic training institutes.

The third and perhaps most important reason for the religious clinician to read Sorenson's book is in chapter 4, "The Patient's Experience of the Analyst's Spirituality." Here he asks the question, "Does it make any difference if the analyst believes in God?" The question of therapist-client matching has been an important one in studies of cultural diversity and in religious circles. Some therapists who identify themselves as "Christian Counselors" actually market themselves to churches by claiming that this matching is not only advantageous but even essential for the safety of religious clients--as if a secular therapist would automatically undermine the Christian's religious beliefs. To explore this question, Sorenson describes his empirical research with doctoral students trained in integrative training programs. In the study, he explored the manner in which students came to experience their own religion. What he found, in summary, was that how religion was approached in student-therapists' own personal therapy was the deciding factor for how their God concepts were developed (even more powerfully than the God concepts they brought into therapy) and how they managed religious issues when working as therapists themselves. Pure clinicians may find the methodology of this section challenging, but Sorenson summarizes it nicely in stating that therapists who demonstrated the greatest openness to religious issues created a deepening and maturing of religion in their student-therapist clients. Those therapists who avoided or ignored religion in their work tended to create patients who quarantined their religious experience and passed this attitude on to their own patients. Most important was how the therapist dealt with religion and the transcendent rather than the religious status of the therapist. Sorenson points out that there indeed may be religious clinicians who, for various reasons, avoid religious issues altogether. Ironically, their patients may suffer the most.

A fourth reason for Christians to read Minding Spirituality is Chapter 6 on "Psychoanalytic Institutes as Religious Denominations." In this chapter, the author examines the status of psychoanalytic training institutions and their typical three-prong approach to training: didactic seminars, supervised control cases, and a personal training analysis. Typically these programs attempt to obtain some form of accreditation (e.g., The American Psychoanalytic Association). Politics abound related to which body will accredit whom, which has numerous implications regarding who can supervise whom, and with whom one can enter a training analysis. What Sorenson eventually argues is that psychoanalytic training programs can suffer from being highly doctrinal in the narrowness of their theoretical orientations, even to the point of fundamentalism. In this regard, he argues that analytic institutes have much to learn from, of all places, schools of theology or seminaries. He suggests that theological training tends to take initially conservative students and mold them into free-thinking liberals--not a bad outcome when considered. Analytic programs may tend to create automatons who think alike and are discouraged from exploring ideas "outside the box," and, at worst, may ostracize them. This concept has important implications for integrative doctoral training programs in clinical psychology, as well as programs at the undergraduate level. For example, are these programs teaching "the way" to integrate psychology and theology, or are they attempting to foster critical thinkers? How do we as Christian educators respond to the student "outlier" who questions our long-cherished beliefs? Do we rate a student as superior because she mastered the accepted corpus of knowledge, or do we actually value creativity and foster independent thinking? Although Sorenson's challenge is to secular analysts, the implication hits close to home for Christian educators and those educated in Christian settings.

More could be said about a book as rich and far-reaching as Minding Spirituality. Clearly this text is a labor of love by Sorenson, who has previously published on religious themes in secular settings. Although one might be tempted to quibble at times regarding some of his empirical methodology (or at least his conclusions) or to accuse him of being too postmodern (really, an argument I do not believe would stand), Sorenson's work is so rich that it demands multiple readings. The sheer breadth of the disciplines that the author integrates is aweinspiring. As alluded to above, this book is a small treatise in philosophy, sociology, sociology of religion, and psychoanalysis. My major critique is not actually a critique at all, but an invitation. I would like Sorenson to write a sequel aimed at Christians. Rather than a religious apologetic to secular analysts, the sequel would be an analytic apologetic to Christians. Further, this integrative work could be done from within a particular theological framework. One thing of which I am certain is that Randall Lehmann Sorenson is among the most qualified contemporary integrative writers to engage in this type of creative work.

REVIEWERS FOR THIS ISSUE

STRAWN, BRAD D., Ph.D. Brad D. Strawn is Associate Professor of Psychology at Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego, California. He is a licensed clinical psychologist, maintains a clinical practice, and is a candidate in psychoanalytic psychotherapy at the San Diego Psychoanalytic Society and Institute.

TISDALE, THERESA C., Ph.D. Associate Professor of Graduate Psychology at Azusa Pacific University where she teaches courses in the integration of psychology, theology and spiritual formation; object relations theory; and applied integration of faith and practice. She is also a clinical supervisor at the Child and Family Development Center. Dr. Tisdale is a graduate of Rosemead School of Psychology at Biola University (1997) and a licensed clinical Psychologist (1999).

Reviewed By BRAD D. STRAWN, Ph.D.