The changeful Relationship of Spirituality and Psychotherapy: A jungian Perspective

Authors

  • Joachim Raack

Keywords:

Spirituality, history of psychology, psychotherapy, psychology of religion, paradigm shift

Abstract

In this historical review, the complex and intertwined history of psychology, psychotherapy, religion, and spirituality is examined in order to assess current developments in the relationship between spirituality and psychotherapy. In particular, this review refers back to the psychology of religion movement, which won many active supporters from 1880 to 1930 in the U. S. – including the grandfathers of American psychology William James and G. Stanley Hall. Two paradigm shifts followed: first, a shift away from the topic of religion and spirituality and toward a strictly empirical science modeled on physics, and then, in the late 1960s through the 1990s, a return to an attempt to integrate spirituality into psychotherapy processes. This latter shift is characterized by an increasing secularization and deconfessionalization within psychology and psychotherapy and a focus on inner, subjective experience.

Author Biography

Joachim Raack

Joachim Raack, Psychoanalytiker (DGPT, DGAP), Gruppenanalytiker. Studium der Philosophie, vergleichenden Religionswissenschaften und Politologie in Bonn und Paris (Paris IV/la Sorbonne) und Psychologie in Berlin. Maîtrise in Philosophie und Diplom in Psychologie. Dozent am IPR und am C. G. Jung-Institut in München. Niedergelassen in eigener Praxis in Köln.

Published

2017-07-28

How to Cite

Raack, J. (2017). The changeful Relationship of Spirituality and Psychotherapy: A jungian Perspective. Psychotherapie-Wissenschaft, 7(1), 59–67. Retrieved from https://psychotherapie-wissenschaft.info/article/view/1501

Issue

Section

Titelthema: Intersubjektivität