Groundwork for a Transpersonal Psychoanalysis Spirituality,
Relationship, and Participation 1st Edition
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contemporary psychoanalysis and analytical psychology. Written in an
articulate, well-referenced, and insightful manner, Brown’s text has far-
reaching implications for relational thinking. His argument is also carefully
grounded in clinical examples. The volume is a cutting-edge, thought-
provoking ‘must’ read for psychoanalytic scholars and psychoanalytic
practitioners of all theoretical orientations.”
Mark Winborn, PhD, NCPsyA, author of Interpretation in
Jungian Analysis: Art and Technique
Groundwork for a Transpersonal
Psychoanalysis
This book explores how a deeper engagement with the theme of spirituality
can challenge and stimulate contemporary psychoanalytic discourse.
Bringing relational psychoanalysis into conversation with Jungian and
transpersonal debates, the text demonstrates the importance of questioning
an implicit reliance on secular norms in the field. With reference to
recognition theory and shifting conceptions of enactment, Brown shows
that the continued evolution of relational thinking necessitates an embrace
of the transpersonal and a move away from the secular viewpoint in
analytic theory and practice.
With an outlook at the intersection of intrapsychic and intersubjective
perspectives, Groundwork for a Transpersonal Psychoanalysis will be
a valuable resource to analysts looking to incorporate a more pluralistic
approach to clinical work.
Robin S. Brown, PhD, LP, NCPsyA, is a psychoanalyst in private
practice and a member of adjunct faculty for the Counseling and Clinical
Psychology Department at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is
the author of Psychoanalysis Beyond the End of Metaphysics: Thinking
Towards the Post-Relational and the editor of Re-Encountering Jung:
Analytical Psychology and Contemporary Psychoanalysis.
Psyche and Soul: Psychoanalysis, Spirituality and
Religion in Dialogue Book Series
Series Editors: Jill Salberg, Melanie Suchet & Marie Hoffman
The Psyche and Soul: Psychoanalysis, Spirituality and Religion in
Dialogue series explores the intersection of psychoanalysis, spirituality
and religion. By promoting dialogue, this series provides a platform for
the vast and expanding interconnections, mutual influences and points
of divergence amongst these disciplines. Extending beyond Western
religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the series includes Eastern
religions, contemplative studies, mysticism and philosophy. By bridging
gaps, opening the vistas and responding to increasing societal yearnings
for more spirituality in psychoanalysis, Psyche and Soul aims to cross
these disciplines, fostering a more fluid interpenetration of ideas.
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit the Routledge website:
www.routledge.com/Psyche-and-Soul/book-series/PSYSOUL
Groundwork for a
Transpersonal Psychoanalysis
Spirituality, Relationship, and
Participation
Robin S. Brown
First published 2020
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Robin S. Brown
The right of Robin S. Brown to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 57188- 4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 57189- 1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 0- 429- 46731- 8 (ebk)
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Contents
Preface ix
PART I
Foundations 1
1 The spiritual ground of psychoanalysis 3
2 Where do minds meet? 24
3 Being psychological 51
PART II
Clinical reflections 65
4 Panpsychism and psychotherapy 67
5 Imaginal action 106
6 Therapeutic nonaction 127
PART III
Participation 159
7 Towards a participatory psychoanalysis 161
viii Contents
8 Bridging worlds 174
Afterword 197
Index 202
Preface
My formation as a clinician has reflected an undertaking to synthesize
relational ideas with my interest in Jungian and transpersonal thinking. In
my first book, Psychoanalysis Beyond the End of Metaphysics: Thinking
Towards the Post-Relational, I offered an initial outline of what I con-
sider to be a necessary shift in relational psychoanalysis. The focus of
my concern was a sense that relational thinking has often tended to insuf-
ficiently address its own foundational commitments, and that this failure
may subtly promote a reductively secular outlook on treatment. In service
of both clinical and theoretical diversity, I argued for the need of a “post-
relational” perspective which would entail a reconciliation with analyti-
cal psychology and transpersonal theory. Subsequent to the publication
of this text, I edited a volume of papers entitled Re-Encountering Jung:
Analytical Psychology and Contemporary Psychoanalysis. This collection
sought to draw lines of communication between Jungian psychology and
the psychoanalytic mainstream. Building on this work, the present text
situates my approach more categorically in terms of spirituality. An inevi-
table shortcoming of this endeavor is that I have often been forced to paint
with broad brushstrokes. For example, in blithely speaking of “relational-
ists” or “Jungians” it may very well be objected that these schools are far
too diverse as to be addressed in such generic terms. While I have consid-
erable sympathy for such objections, it is unfortunately the case that any
interdisciplinary undertaking that aspires to more than mere comparison
must risk throwing caution to the wind in order that the reader not be
bogged down in endless qualification. Another challenge is reflected in
the question of the reader’s assumed exposure to the literature. This book
is not intended as an introduction to Jungian or transpersonal theory for a
mainstream psychoanalytic audience, nor is it intended as an introduction
x Preface
to contemporary relational analysis aimed at a Jungian or transpersonal
audience. Therefore, the uninitiated reader may at times find themselves
needing to refer to the relevant literature. The “groundwork” that the title
of the present work so grandly announces is not, in a final analysis, my
own. Rather, my intention is to show how a cross-pollination of ideas
between the relational, Jungian, and transpersonal fields might challenge
received ideas and perhaps stimulate further conversation.
An earlier version of Chapter 2 was published in my book Re-Encountering
Jung: Analytical Psychology and Contemporary Psychoanalysis (Brown,
2018b). Chapter 3 includes excerpts from an earlier paper “On the
Significance of Psychodynamic Discourse for Consciousness Studies,”
which was published in CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the
Twenty-First Century (Brown, 2015). Chapter 4 features a few brief pas-
sages that originally appeared in my paper “Evolving Attitudes,” which
was published in the International Journal of Jungian Studies (Brown,
2014). Chapters 5 and 8 were first published in the Journal of Analytical
Psychology as “Imaginal Action: Towards a Jungian Conception of
Enactment, and an Extraverted Counterpart to Active Imagination” (Brown,
2018a) and “Bridging Worlds: Participatory Thinking in Jungian Context”
(Brown, 2017). Both papers have been lightly revised and expanded for
republication. Thanks go to Allan Combs, Lucy Huskinson, and William
Meredith-Owen for editorial guidance and copyright permissions. In bring-
ing the present text to publication, special thanks go to Melanie Suchet,
Kate Hawes, and Marie.
References
Brown, R. S. (2014). Evolving attitudes. International Journal of Jungian Stud-
ies, 6(3), 243–253.
Brown, R. S. (2015). On the significance of psychodynamic discourse for the field
of consciousness studies. Consciousness, 1.
Brown, R. S. (2017). Bridging worlds: Participatory thinking in Jungian context.
Journal of Analytical Psychology, 62(2), 284–304.
Brown, R. S. (2018a). Imaginal action: Towards a Jungian conception of enact-
ment, and an extraverted counterpart to active imagination. Journal of Analyti-
cal Psychology, 63(2), 186–206.
Brown, R. S. (2018b). Where do minds meet? Intersubjectivity in light of Jung. In
R. S. Brown (Ed.), Re-encountering Jung: Analytical psychology and contem-
porary psychoanalysis (pp. 160–179). Abingdon, UK & New York: Routledge.
Part I
Foundations
Chapter 1
The spiritual ground of
psychoanalysis
Establishing a basic sense of theoretical orientation, this introductory
chapter focuses on conceptualizations of the unconscious in relation-
ship to the notion of a transpersonal psychoanalysis. I argue that a
spiritually receptive approach to psychoanalysis entails that “the
unconscious” be considered transpersonal and in some degree accessi-
ble to conscious experience. To address this theme invites a rapproche-
ment between Jungian psychology and contemporary psychoanalysis.
Identifying the insufficiency of efforts to promote spirituality merely by
endorsing the creative value of fantasy, I begin to articulate how the
fear of paranoia has limited the field’s development.
Seeking to define what makes a therapeutic approach “psychoanalytic”
has become a surprisingly complex task. Historically, efforts to circum-
scribe the field have often been undertaken for political reasons and
in order to preserve professional advantage – a tendency that can be
traced at least as far back as Freud’s Secret Committee.1 Wherever the
task of defining the field has been undertaken by a self-identified “psy-
choanalyst,” the results of this inquiry are liable to be reflective of the
standards to which the clinician has been made subject over the course
of their own professional development. Disputes concerning training
and technique have tended to be central, and it is along such lines that
one’s entitlement to identify as a practicing psychoanalyst has often
been claimed to rest. Emphasis has thus been placed on debating such
variables as use of the couch; the frequency with which patients attend
treatment; and the pedigree of a clinician’s training analyst, supervisors,
and teachers.
4 Foundations
With the changing nature of the clinical, intellectual, and economic
landscape, however, psychoanalysis has shifted from a profession of pres-
tige to one that has been significantly marginalized. The psychoanalytic
community has thus been forced circumstantially to take a more relaxed
attitude towards the question of professional membership. As the field has
slowly become less preoccupied with defining a limiting stance on what
psychoanalysis ought to be, it becomes apparent that the task of definition
is aided in seeking to establish commonalties rather than defining a basis
for exclusion. Antonino Ferro offers a minimally dogmatic definition of
the field as follows:
In my view, in order for the term “psychoanalysis” to be used legiti-
mately, three invariants are indispensable: first, the conviction that an
unconscious exists (even if it may assume a variety of forms); second,
respect for the unvarying elements of the setting; and, third and last,
an asymmetry, with the analyst taking full responsibility for what hap-
pens in the consulting room.
(Ferro, 2009, p. 210)
Of the three points identified, the latter two are concerned with the tech-
nicalities of clinical practice. If we are to inquire, more simply, what
makes a particular approach to the mind psychoanalytic, then the one
pertinent feature Ferro identifies is the conviction that an unconscious
exists. It is with this foundational idea of an unconscious mind that any
psychoanalytic practice ultimately organizes its claims. Attending to the
origins of this idea offers the possibility of a fundamental reconfiguration
in our understanding of psychoanalysis, for while the technical prescrip-
tions Ferro eludes to might cogently be traced to the specific nature of
Freud’s intellectual contribution, the idea of the unconscious is by no
means a Freudian invention. Freud himself states: “The poets and phi-
losophers before me discovered the unconscious; what I discovered was
the scientific method by which the unconscious can be studied” (quoted
in Trilling, 2008, p. 34). This statement makes clear that Freud’s own
claim to importance hangs upon the development of a “scientific method”
that furnishes us with the proof of an idea that was already widespread.2
The practice of psychoanalysis is itself grounded in a theoretical notion
not of Freud’s making.
The spiritual ground of psychoanalysis 5
The philosophical unconscious
In considering how “the unconscious” [das Unbewusste] came to emerge
as an idea, we might first turn to René Descartes (1596–1650). It is in the
work of Descartes that we recognize a shift in Western consciousness that
would later be expressed in the emergence of “psychology” as a distinct
discipline. Descartes is known for theorizing that the mind is an entity
that should be conceptualized in distinction from the physical body. His
famous statement cogito ergo sum – “I think therefore I am” – identifies
selfhood with the conscious mind. Any question of an unconscious would
thus appear to destabilize the basis upon which Descartes’s philosophical
enterprise rests. Nevertheless, a forerunner to the idea of the unconscious
is still discernible in Descartes’s thinking. In order to preserve the self-
transparency of the mind, this conception is associated with the domain of
matter. As Eshelman (2007) states:
Descartes’s account of unconscious psychic life centers upon the claim
that mental transparency does not hold for material causes of our emo-
tional lives. Since the subject has no awareness of these causes, there
will be cases where it cannot tell that its thoughts are by secret impres-
sions implanted in the brain (due to a traumatizing experience), but
not from current sensory perceptions (someone who resembles the
offender).
(p. 299)
For Descartes, the unconscious is conceptualized in terms of an environ-
mental event resulting in a physical trauma registered upon the brain.
However, despite Descartes’s willingness to recognize the possibility of the
past impacting our perceptions of the present, the main thrust of his phi-
losophy hinges upon establishing the self-transparency of consciousness.
This is why it is necessary for Descartes’s outlook that he consign uncon-
scious processes to the material domain of the body. Yet in separating the
mind from the body and emphasizing the role of thought in his definition of
selfhood, Descartes’s philosophy inadvertently casts doubt upon the soul’s
constant activity. This is most evident with respect to the phenomenon of
sleep. If the soul is to go on existing, Descartes’s approach requires that we
always be thinking. How, then, are we to explain the state of dreamless
sleep? Descartes is required to offer a rather convoluted justification:
