Humanistic psychology, with foreground figures such as Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers?, arose, among other things, as a reaction against reductionism in both psychoanalysis and behaviourism. The view of things like "spiritual experiences" was one of the areas where contemporary psychology was perceived to have too narrow a framework.

Abraham Maslow was interested in people's so-called "highlights", which possibly overlap with things that respondents tell about and think about. Maslow claimed to be able to distinguish a category of individuals he called "self-realization":

"In a brief summary, the most important characteristics of self-realization people can be said to be as follows: A more precise conception and acceptance of reality, including human nature; spontaneity, a healthy appreciation and creativity in everyday activities; relative seclusion from the immediate physical and social environment and from the culture at large; deeper, more satisfying personal relationships, most likely with a small number of other self-realization people; strong feelings of identification and sympathy with all other people; democratic (non-authoritarian) character structure; non-hostile, philosophical humor; centering around problems outside themselves that reflect a broad set of values; clear moral and ethical principles that are applied consistently as well as an experience of having dissolved prominent dichotomies and opposite pairs." (from Maslow, 1970; ref in Wulff, p.521)

This branch of humanistic psychology has now been transferred to what is now called Transpersonal Psychology (yyy?). As the name suggests, representatives of this branch of psychology envision a higher instance in the psyche, "beyond personality."

Lukoff & Co

Some believe that there are experiences that are at risk of being assessed such as psychotic reactions or such illness, which have a different etiology and often another (more favorable) prognosis. Prior to working on the DSM-4, psychiatrist Lukoff and more put forward arguments that an upcoming version of the manual should be able to differentiate these experiences. And mixed forms (Lukoff).

(Lukoff, ?) More pathologizing or dismissive in the DSM-3. Better in the DSM-4 (who writes about it? Rizzuto?) Lukoff and colleagues worked to introduce a "Spiritual emergency" category into the DSM-4, and partially succeeded

Assagioli.

An early representative of such a view was the Italian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Alberto Assagioli, who, like Carl Gustav Jung, early on taught Sigmund Freud but eventually, partly because of a lack of consensus on spiritual issues, broke with him. In an interview in Psychology Today (December 1974), with a Sam Keen, Assagioli explains how his approach differs from Freud's:

"We pay more attention to the higher unconscious and to the development of the transpersonal self. Freud said, "I am interested only in the basement of the human being." Psychosynthesis is interested in the whole building. We try to build an elevator which will allow a person access to every level of his personality. After all, a building with only a basement is very limited. We want to open up the terrace where you can sun-bathe or look at the stars. Our concern is the synthesis of all areas of the personality. That means psychosynthesis is holistic, global and inclusive"

(http://synthesiscenter.org/articles/0303.pdf, page visited 2014-12-19).

Freud & the First Psychoanalysts (Rizzuto)

Sigmund Freud.

Freud has had a great influence on the view of human religiosity. In the nearly 100 years since his death, many things have happened, in theory and practice, but that it was not so easy for the first generations of psychoanalysts writes Ana-Maria Rizzuto, herself an analyst:

"Freud himself […] insisted that people should not need religion, called it a cultural neurosis, and set himself up as an example of those who could do without it. Intentionally or unintentionally, he gave the world several generations of psychoanalysts who, coming to him from all walks of life, dropped whatever religion they had at the doors of their institutes. If they refused to do so, they managed to dissociate their beliefs from their analytic training and practice, with the sad effect of having an important area of their lives untouched by their training. If they dealt with religion during their own analyses, that was the beginning of the end of it" (Rizzuto, yyyy?, p4).

Winnicott.

(Winnicott, 1981/2003) "It [the object of transition] originates from external reality from our point of view, but not from the child's. Nor does it come from internal reality; "It's not a hallucination," he said. 25

(Jemstedt, 1993, in the foreword to Winnicott) "The child's relationship to the object of transition is an incipient ability to maintain a dialectical process, between union and seclusion, between the symbol and what it symbolizes, between inner and outer, etc., and this dialectic creates mental space."

The subject of paradoxicality appears in Winnicott when he deals with the transition area and the transition object. He calls on the adult world to be careful as they approach the child's relationship with the paradoxical. "I would like to draw attention to the paradox that is part of the child's use of what I have called transitional objects. My contribution is to call for this paradox to be accepted, tolerated and respected, and not to try to resolve it. By resorting to a destified intellectual function, it is possible to solve the paradox, but the price of this solution is the loss of value of the paradox itself." (Winnicott, 1981/2003, p16) Elsewhere in the same writing, he elaborates on the theme further: "It [the object of transition] originates from external reality from our point of view, but not from the child's. Nor does it come from internal reality; it is not a hallucination" (p. 25)

Winnicott really makes himself a spokesman for the paradox. In his book Play and Reality, he returns to the subject time and time again. There is more already in the foreword, and the very last sentences in the afterword address this subject. That the paradox of the child's experience must be respected.

), I am content to point out that – regardless of how our childhood has been – an emphasis on the concrete, the simple, in the way we view life, should be able to tempt the psyche so that certain inconveniences arise reminiscent of an unfortunately established "true and false self-structure" in childhood. I think this may be relevant when discussing a thought system like NA and the attitude to existence that this can stimulate.

Limitations of objectivity.

"Moreover, there are a large number of adults who never attain a reliable capacity for objectivity, and those who are most reliably objective often have poor contact with the wealth of their own inner world" (Winnicott, 2004, p.69)

The bio about "precision", etc…

"Negative capability."

"The negative capability" which is an ability to endure that one does not know, to be insecure (Stiller, 2007).

Emails that came on the day we went up to Valsan. From Jules Evans' blog, about Joyce and Keats. About negative capability

"John Keats, who suggested the poet needs a negative capability in which they can experience the Sublime without 'an irritable reaching after fact and reason'" (Jules Evans blog, see ref!!)

"The Mystery" in Psychoanalysis

Wilfred Bion has a term he calls "O", which seems to be his attempt to reserve or isolate a deepest aspect of the psyche.

Hans Reiland (yy?) writes about "the object berore the objects" as an instance, a deepest reference point, which is beyond the inner objects (e.g. guardians and others) that were added later.

Bollas is yet another psychoanalyst who, based on object relation theory, tries to discern a reference point that should be beyond the "inner objects" established primarily in relation to the nursing persons. He talks about this deeper foundation as "the transformative object" (yyy?)

Deep religiosity in psychoanalytic light.

Atheist's "Relationship of God"

(Jones, 1991) Jones, about how even the atheist has a relationship with God. When he asks his students, they can always answer how that God is "that they don't believe in." How is the new god when comparing? It may not even be a living "anti-god."

Psychoanalysis can provide a deeper understanding of religion/atheism.

PERSONALITY ORGANIZATION

"An individual's basic personality structure can only be understood if two specific and interacting psychological dimensions are taken into account: the personality structure of the level of development and the type of defense that dominates at this level of development. The first dimension indicates the extent of the individual, or the type of pathology that predominates in the person (psychotic, borderline, neurotic, 'normal'). The second indicates his or her personality type (paranoid, depressive, schizoid, etc.)" (McWilliams, p67)

McWilliams (1994/2005) indicates four levels of personality structure: psychotic, borderline, neurotic, and "normal" (p. 67)

See DSM-4. Does it have four levels? "Mature"?

Other models settle for three levels, with neurotic level being the highest. But of course it is possible to differentiate even at such a level, one should be able to talk about a higher and a lower level of neuroticism. Neurotic and "mature neurotic"? A person with severe neurotic problems, who seeks help, and after a longer psychotherapeutic contact has gained access to greater internal mobility, gained a greater ability to reflect on himself and been freed from bothersome symptoms, can in any case be said to have reached a higher neurotic level.

PDM (2006) defines personality as: "relatively stable ways of thinking, feeling, behaving, and relating to others". (p17)

PDM refers to "not only one's belief systems and ways of making sense of self and others, but also one's moral values and ideals" (p17)

"[A] continuum of severity, from a relatively healthy to a very disturbed level of personality structure. This continuum is conventionally, if arbitrarily, divided into healthy, neurotic, and borderline ranges of personality organization, the borderline range extending from the border of neurotic character organization to the border of psychotic conditions." It is important to point out that "borderline" in a psychiatric context, "Borderline Personality Disorder" (DSM) refers to a certain type of borderline, namely a more outgoing, dramatic form, which was originally delimited for research purposes (p.21). The psychodynamic concept is broader and, if you will, more universally human. It stems from a time in our lives when it was actually normal to perceive and interact with the world in this characteristic, often simplistic way, and which remains as a capacity even in adulthood.

PDM does not include psychotic in its P-axis , as the research situation is unclear.However, it differentiates between borderline at a higher level and a lower level, which in some cases occurs together with psychotic or psychosis-like symptoms, such as conret or overgeneralized thinking (p. 26). "Toward the Psychotic End of the Borderline Spectrum" (p.29)

In addition to this, PDM states "neurotic" and "healthy" (p.27)

It is important to understand that "Psychotic" refers to a kind of preparedness, weakness or fragility, which means that the person in difficult situations will have a greater propensity to react with psychotic symptoms. Not that the person has manifest psychotic symptoms. As I said, it is a level of personality structure.

Personality is what one IS rather than what one HAS. It certainly comprises more than one can see by scrutinizing a person's behaviour" (p17)

PDM points out that we can all exhibit borderline or psychosis-like symptoms during severe stress (p20)

The term "borderline" was coined or conceptualized in the 1950s, for those patients who were too bothered to really fit into the neurotic diagnosis, but were too entrenched in reality to fit in with the psychosis diagnosis (p21)

Psychodynamically based research has come up with three types of borderline, one that is closer to the psychotic, with the risk of psychosis breakthrough, a form similar to that referred to by the DSM, and a third that PDM describes as "over-ideational, characterized by social isolation and withdrawal, more likely to recive the DSM diagnosis of paranoid, schizoid, or obsessive personality disorder". (p21).

PDM describes this as "a person's center of psychological gravity", although it is emphasized that the other levels may be there as well (p23)

Psychoanalytic and other concepts