This course will explore the common distinction between psychological and spiritual experience, both in our own lives and in our work with our patients.  What constitutes a spiritual experience?  Is it fundamentally distinct from something psychological?  How do we work with what our patients might regard as spiritual?  How do these three traditions, psychoanalysis, Christianity, and Buddhism, as well as other traditions of spiritual/psychological growth, interrelate?  We will use as our background resource chapters from Michael Eigen's book Psychoanalytic Mystics.  Eigen is a contemporary New York psychoanalyst greatly influenced by Bion and the British tradition and in this book he explores what he regards as the mysticism of Bion, Winnicott and Lacan.  This course is cosponsored with The Center for Object Relations. Please contact the instructor directly to enroll.

Fee:  $150.

Learning Objectives:

1.  Describe some of the mystical tradition within psychoanalytic writings.

2.  Compare aspects of spiritual and psychological experiences.