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Religion as social glue
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Austin Sayira (PUG)
Psychology and Spirituality
Fr Kenneth Makamure
22/09/2017.
Examine Jung’s thesis that the search for the sacred contributes to human intergration
In the examination of Jung’s thesis on the search for the sacred one might discover many things that are very efficient in terms of human integration. The main aim of this question is to discuss whether the thesis of Jung ever brought any integration in human life. This can only be done considering what are the elements that shows the orient and integration to the human life. Therefore, this paper shall explore a myriad of factors, views, theories and ideas of Jung in his way trying to show his position in helping the people. However, the paper will evaluate these ideas expressing
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If this is true then the theory of the God archetype gains support from well over a large number of people. Religion helps to balance the unconscious and conscious mind which leads to happiness and self-fulfillment. This theory is in line with many religious ideas about God. Becoming closer to God and having a relationship with God leads to happiness and self fulfilment. This is regarded as a great movement because if one looks in the society even in the family, the virtue of happiness is at the central of every individual thereby promoting the social integration within the society or family (Aziz 58). In other words, since religion helps to balance the opposing forces of conscious and unconscious, there is a glimpse of agreement which is the greatest thing to evolve among the …show more content…
According to some scholars like Johnson, spirituality is the quest for ultimate meaning, and transcendence in relation to the sacred. But trying to define the sacred in this context still remains a problematic task, and our attempt to do so, further blurs the line between religion and spirituality. For example, the American psychologist William James defined the religious experience as those feelings, acts and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine or sacred (Johnson
Jung, Carl Gustav. Abstracts of the Collected Works of Carl G. Jung. Rockville, Maryland. 1976.
Primarily, one of the dominant and fundamental theoretical variances concerning Freud and Jung’s personality theories was that relating to their opposing notions regarding the unconscious human mind. Firstly, Freud understood that the centre of ones inhibited beliefs and distressing recollections was found in the unconscious mind. Freud stated that the human mind focuses on three constructs: namely the id, the ego and the super ego. He claimed that the id shaped ones unconscious energy. Freud said that it is not limited by ethics and morals, but as an alternative simply aims to fulfil ones desires. The id strives to keep with the “pleasure principle, which can be understood as a demand to take care of needs immediately.” (Boere) The next unconscious
In my original paper on Carl Gustav Jung, I took a rather skeptical view of the doctor and his work, for several reasons that I will reiterate. However, after studying further into his work, I realized that these objections only related to his early psychiatric cases, and I found myself to be far more intrigued and impressed by his later work and theories. While I had stated in my first consideration of Jung that, “there is a frustratingly limited, almost biased quality to much of… his work”, I was pleasantly surprised later on to find that many of his later theories and assumptions were anything but limited. I still believe that in his early case work he took tremendous risks, both clinically and professionally, yet it is that risk-taking aspect of his personality that ultimately allowed, or rather, propelled him to boldly go forward with some of his most groundbreaking and controversial contributions to the fields of psychology, and philosophy as well. It can even be said, and has been, that Dr. Jung is the father of modern “new-age” thinking. He also laid the groundwork for those who were inspired by his thoughts, perhaps much in the way that he himself was originally inspired by Freud. Once again, while my original opinion of Dr. Jung caused me to “wonder how much of Jung’s work was truly visionary, and how much of it benefits from a positive hindsight bias because of the successes he was able to achieve” in his early casework, I must say that my current opinion, early casework aside, is that Jung was in fact truly visionary, and was the originator of some of the most revolutionary conceptual thinking that the human experience has to offer.
To answer the set question I will explore Freud’s Totem and Taboo looking at his theory of the primal horde and Oedipus complex and his theory on religion as an illusion. Also looking at Freud’s theory that religion is unhealthy psychologically. To conclude I will explore his relationship with Jung and the affect his criticism of Freud’s theory had on their professional collaboration.
Similar to Freud, Jung’s understanding on personality are arranged as three components: the ego, the personal conscious and the collective unconscious. The ego represents the mental processing, the personal conscious comprises of our memories, as well as the ones we subdue, while the collective unconscious encloses all of our understanding and incidents that we encounter. It looks as if they are in agreement of the unconscious so far, but then Jung developed his Arche...
Religion has 7 core attributes that allow someone to call it a religion, these include Narrative, Doctrine, Emotional, Material, Ethical, Ritual and Social. These seven attributes help individuals identify what can be classified as a “religion”, however spirituality has no “easy way” to identifying it. Spirituality can be found within the individual looking for their “meaning” but not physically expressed.
Worthington et. al. (2011) says historically, religiousness involved individual and institutional elements; however, now spirituality is thought of as an individual phenomenon and linked with meaningfulness, New Age beliefs, and personal transcendence. Additionally, spirituality is described in personal terms like one’s relationship with God, and as a result, spirituality is more highly regarded than religion. The authors define spirituality as a feeling of closeness and having a relationship or dedication to God or a higher power; this can be a religious experience or a nonreligious one. They state that what one considers sacred is usually related to the awareness of social influences. According to the authors, four types of spirituality have been identified based on closeness to God. First, is religious spirituality. Religious spirituality’s connectedness to God is based on one’s specific denomination and the closeness is specific to the deity identified. Second is humanistic spirituality. Humanistic spirituality involves closeness to humans. This type of spirituality fosters a loving connection with a specific group of people and a sense of selflessness and concern
Spirituality refers to the perspective of that which is valued in life, and that which must to be upheld and defended under any and all circumstances, regardless of the social environment and surrounding conditions.
For William James, his perspective on religious experience was skeptical. He divided religion between institutional religion and personal religion. For institutional religion he made reference to the religious group or organization that plays a critical part in the culture of a society. Personal religion he defined as when an individual has a mystical experience which can occur regardless of the culture. James was more focused on the personal religious experience, “the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine” (Varieties, 31), and had a sort of distain for organized and institutional religion.
In this paper two topic from the Psychology and Spirituality course will be discussed in regards to spirituality and their influence on my personal life. I will examine how I have grown and what I have learned from the week on Spring Lake ranch and how I wish to continue moving forward in my attempt to be spiritual and build a closer relationship to God.
Jung's analytical psychology can be divided into two parts: theory and practice. The focus of this prose will be on the former, which pertains to the structure of the psyche and the laws of psychic processes and phenomena and includes his theories of archetypes and the unconscious (Jacobi, 1942; Jung, von Franz, 1964). His practice involved the inclusion of his theory in therapy and consisted of four methods: association method, symptom analysis, anamnestic analysis, and analysis of the unconscious (Jacobi, 1942). The goal of all four of these methods was to reveal the patient's unconscious to themselves as well as the therapist. Jung found that one of the easiest and most effective ways of revealing a patient's unconscious was through the actions of archetypes in the patient's dreams (Jacobi, 1942). However, Carl Jung's idea of archetypes was not an entirely original one. Literature suggests Plato’s Forms, Kant’s Categories, Schopenhauer’s Prototypes, as well as Greek mythology and symbolism heavily influenced Jung.
Religion is an organized collection of beliefs and cultural systems that entail the worship of a supernatural and metaphysical being. “Religion just like other belief systems, when held onto so much, can stop one from making significant progress in life”. Together with religion come traditions that provide the people with ways to tackle life’s complexities. A subscription to the school of thought of great scholars
According to Jung, who throughout his life especially the latter half of his life, strived to become one with himself and integrate all the components of himself (Storr, 1991). Jung states that the first part of a person’s life is to have a place in the world. He goes on to state that one must cut ties with their parents and start their own lives, with their significant other (Storr, 1991). Jung had to abandon mundane things to reach his individuation (Storr, 1991). He proposes that a person must leave mundane things in order to become whole. For example, a scholarly person must leave his academic work in order to self-analyze. Jung let go of his academic career in his process of becoming whole. Jung states that there comes a point in the middle of a person’s life that he or she may have to ask themselves what the point of their existence is (Storr, 1991). One has to self-analyze and let all parts of themselves become one. At the end of this process a person is an integrated individual (Storr,
Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung started out their relationship as mentor and mentee, respectively. Jung diverted from Freudian thought to create his own theories after discovering how many ways he did not agree with Freud. The differences between these two psychologists are extremely visible with the use of application and comparison. Numerous examples of Freudian practice and analysis are found in A.A. Brill’s The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud. Freud’s no-holds-barred form of therapy, commonly known as free association, is radical in its own right; let alone when compared to Jung’s analytical approach. Robertson Davies’s The Manticore provides a storyline that exemplifies Jung’s analytical therapy. Although both schools of psychology provide a belief or practice of therapy, projection, and religion, they are extremely unique, and can shed light on the core differences between Freud and Jung.
Ganga and Kutty stated (2013) spirituality refers to a path of life that enables people to seek reason of their existence and helps people explore challenges. Ganga and Kutty (2013) conducted a study on adults to see if spirituality had positive effects on their life, meaning did their life have purpose or value. Each participant partook in a study that asked questions about their life and purpose. The study consisted of a daily spiritual experience scale, it was a point scale that consist of 16 items to be rated on a 6-point scale. The results concluded that spirituality has positive effects on their life when seeking their purpose. Each participant felt that he/she had a purpose and that their life was valuable and meaningful (Ganga and Kutty, 2013). According to Ganga and Kutty (2013), spirituality is a way for people to discover the meaning of their life. Spirituality is a personal adventure to understand answers to the questions they seek to find about their spirituality and purpose in life. It says spirituality is a set of beliefs and practices that concludes with life changing paths that make a person’s life meaningful. Spirituality has been viewed as an important factor when realizing the purpose of life. Ganga and Kutty (2013) expressed spirituality enhances our emotions, thoughts, beliefs, relieves stress and it finds meaning and purpose of one’s life. I believe