Mystical Moments and Unitive ThinkingState University of New York Press, 1999 M02 11 - 188 páginas Merkur proposes an alternative to the traditional psychoanalytic explanation of mystical experiences as regression to the solipsism of earliest infancy. He does this by viewing unitive thinking as a line of cognitive development, and mystical moments as creative inspirations on unitive topics. Utilizing classical self-reports by Christian, Jewish, and Muslim mystics, Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, and modern Western peak experiences, Merkur argues that experiences of mystical union are manifestations of a broader category of psychological processes that manifest in scientific and moral thought, as well as in mysticism. Unconscious as well as conscious, unitive thinking is sometimes realistic and sometimes fantastic, in patterns that are consistent with cognitive development in general. Mystical moments of unitive thinking may be considered moments of creative inspiration that happen to make use of unitive ideas. Building on the psychoanalytic object-relations theory that the self is always in relationship with an object, Merkur argues that the solipsism of some varieties of mystical union always implies unconscious ideas of a love object who is transcendent. |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
Términos y frases comunes
abstract accommodation adaptive symbols Angela of Foligno anthropomorphic Arbman attained ayin beauty beri'ah Buddhist Christian cognitive coincidence concept consciousness cosmological argument cosmos creative Deikman desolation experiences divine ecstasy ecstatic death ego ideal ence everything existence expe experienced external fantasies fascinans felt following self-report Freud Hasidic idea images imagination impersonal infant infantile initial integration International Inuit jhana kabbalah logical manifest meditation mental Merkur metaphoric metaphysical miracles moral thinking mother motion mysterium tremendum mystical experiences mystical moments mystical nothingness mystical union nature numinous observation occur oceanic feeling Otto Patanjali perceptible world perience physical postulate psychic psychoanalytic psychological reality reality-testing regression religion religious experiences rience samadhi scious seemed sense of presence sense perception significance solitary soul speculations spiritual sublimation suggested superego term theistic theory things thought tion trance Trans transcendent uncon unio mystica unitive experiences unitive schemas unitive thinking unity University Press Unmanifested vision York