Incorporating Lonergan's Method of Self-Appropriation and Doran's Psychic Conversion

216 Pages·2013·1.23 MB·English

Via Intention to Personal Authenticity:
Incorporating Lonergan’s Method of Self-Appropriation and
Doran’s Psychic Conversion into the Clinical Practice of Depth Psychology
Paul Ruefli
Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
School of Psychology
College of Arts
University of Western Sydney
October 2009
Dedication
Fr.TimothyMichel,O.C.S.O.,MyGodfather
傅曼青Man-ChingRuefli,MyWife
David Russell,AWonderful Supervisor
ii
Acknowledgements
I would like to express mythanks to Dr. David Russell who over a period of eleven years
has spent manyhours with me in deep and intimate discussion of the material of mythesis. In
so doing he has maieutically assisted me, in the best traditions of warm friendship, to
discoverthedepthofmyownthought.
Special thanks also go to my wife Man-Ching who has patiently endured the changes
which have occurred in me as a result of this work, and who has given me great assistance in
listeningtoanddiscussingthe concepts presented herein.
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Statement of Authenticity
I hereby certify that the work contained herein is original and the result of my own
endeavour and that it has not been submitted elsewhere for a higher degree at any other
institution.
Paul Ruefli
5August,2009
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Table of Contents
Dedication..............................................................................................................................................ii
Acknowledgements..............................................................................................................................iii
StatementofAuthenticity....................................................................................................................iv
TableofContents..................................................................................................................................v
Abstract................................................................................................................................................vii
ChapterOneIntroduction...................................................................................................................1
1.1 BernardLonerganandRobertDoran........................................................................................1
1.2 Self............................................................................................................................................6
1.3 Psychology’sConstraints..........................................................................................................7
1.4 ARenaissanceofDepthPsychology.........................................................................................8
1.5 RelationofThesistoPraxis......................................................................................................9
1.6 IntroducingMethodtoPraxis..................................................................................................10
1.7 JungianLimitations.................................................................................................................11
1.8 AChallengetoDepthPsychology..........................................................................................14
1.9 Jung’sSelf-Appropriation.......................................................................................................15
ChapterTwoDepthPsychology’sRole,PurposeandProfession...................................................20
2.1 Spirit,Soul,Heart,Mind,AuthenticityandStrength..............................................................22
2.2 Heart........................................................................................................................................29
2.3 Mind........................................................................................................................................33
2.4 Authenticity.............................................................................................................................34
2.5 ConsiderationsforPraxis........................................................................................................36
ChapterThreeLonerganandDoran’sContributionstoDepthPsychology.................................39
3.1 BernardLonergan’sMethod...................................................................................................44
3.1.1 ACommonGround..............................................................................................45
3.1.2 Experience,Understanding,Judgement,Decision andAction............................50
3.1.3 Intent.....................................................................................................................51
3.1.4 Empirical, Intellectual,Rational andResponsibleLevels ofConsciousness.......53
3.1.5 Value.....................................................................................................................54
3.1.6 ValidJudgement,SelfAffirmation,Beingand Knowing....................................54
3.1.7 Biases andScotosis...............................................................................................57
3.1.8 LiberationandTranscendence..............................................................................58
3.2 RobertDoran’sPsychicConversion.......................................................................................59
3.2.1 Psyche...................................................................................................................61
3.2.2 DecidingOur Being..............................................................................................62
3.2.3 Contrition..............................................................................................................62
3.2.4 Conversion............................................................................................................64
3.2.5 Self-Appropriation................................................................................................65
3.2.6 TheDualityofConsciousness..............................................................................69
3.2.7 TheFinalityofthePsyche....................................................................................71
3.2.8 AffectiveSelf-Transcendence..............................................................................72
3.2.9 Change..................................................................................................................74
3.2.10 Censorship............................................................................................................74
3.2.11 Soul andSpirit......................................................................................................76
3.3 ClinicalVignette–WorkingThroughCensorship..................................................................82
ChapterFourRelationshipandtheDevelopmentofSelf................................................................86
ChapterFiveAlterity,AlienationandtheOther.............................................................................93
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ChapterSixAnxietyandAuthenticity............................................................................................101
6.1 DysfunctionalAnxietyanditsConsequences.......................................................................103
6.2 AnxietyandDeath.................................................................................................................112
6.3 FunctionalAnxiety................................................................................................................113
ChapterSevenAcquisitionofAttentionthroughDisciplineandMindfulness...........................115
7.1 Wait.......................................................................................................................................115
7.2 TheTaskofAttentiveness.....................................................................................................118
7.3 Discipline..............................................................................................................................121
7.4 WhyWeShouldAttend........................................................................................................124
7.5 HowtoAttend.......................................................................................................................125
7.6 ACourseinMindfulness.......................................................................................................126
7.7 MindfulnessandPsychicConversion:AClinicalExample..................................................127
ChapterEightTraumaandPlay.....................................................................................................132
8.1 TraumaandtheTraumaticMemorySystem.........................................................................136
8.2 Play........................................................................................................................................141
8.3 TherapyasPlay.....................................................................................................................142
ChapterNineBias.............................................................................................................................149
9.1 DramaticBias........................................................................................................................150
9.2 IndividualBias......................................................................................................................154
9.3 CommonSense......................................................................................................................163
9.4 GroupBias............................................................................................................................165
9.5 GeneralBias..........................................................................................................................168
ChapterTenOperationalisingSelf-Appropriation........................................................................170
10.1 AWordOfCautionAboutGraceAndTruth........................................................................170
10.2 Self-Appropriation................................................................................................................171
10.3 ATranscriptofaSessionofDepthPsychology....................................................................172
10.4 HomeworkExercisesandIn-sessionInsight.........................................................................176
10.5 DiscoveryofIntentExercise.................................................................................................177
10.6 Self-AppropriationExercise..................................................................................................177
10.7 ExamplesofWorkingWithDreams.....................................................................................178
10.7.1 First Example: Averysuccessful buildingcontractor.......................................178
10.7.2 SecondExample: AZen Buddhist Nun,anolder well-educatedwoman..........179
10.8 FlashCards............................................................................................................................181
ChapterElevenConclusion..............................................................................................................182
11.1 ImpactofTranscendentalMethodandPsychicConversionontheDepthPsychologist......182
11.2 ImpactofTranscendentalMethodandPsychicConversiononthePatient..........................185
11.3 ImpactofTranscendentalMethodandPsychicConversiononDepthPsychology’sPraxis186
References..........................................................................................................................................189
Appendices.........................................................................................................................................198
AppendixA–TranscriptofaDepthPsychologySession(Gendlin,1996,pp.28-32)..................198
AppendixB–FlashCard................................................................................................................202
AppendixC–Bodhidharma’sInstructiontoHuiK’o....................................................................203
AppendixD–TheGoldenFortune.................................................................................................208
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Abstract
Depth psychology (psycho-analysis, Analytical Psychology, Jungian psychology,
archetypal psychology) lacks some if not all of the following in clinical praxis: systematic
structure, well defined objectives, a working understanding of the psyche and the relations of
self, subjectivity and objectivity, means of systematically appropriating the mind’s full
functional potential, and a clear understanding of psychopathology’s relation to intentionality
and human authenticity. Patients can be iatrogenically damaged by these shortcomings.
Bernard Lonergan and Robert Doran offer self-appropriation, transcendental method,
intentionality and psychic conversion as means of rectifying the shortcomings; these means
were incorporated into clinical praxis with patients. The thesis describes Lonergan’s and
Doran’s contributions, the means of clinically implementing them and some outcomes. As
well,theimpact onthetrainingofdepthpsychologists is discussed.
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Chapter One
Introduction
Carl Gustav Jung suggests that psychology is challenged by the fact that its mode is the
psyche examining itself as both subject and object. Perhaps the challenge stems from the fact
that depth psychology1 as a praxis has lacked structure in its approach to its human subject
and suffers the absence of a clear focus on purpose and a means of discerning it. The
contention of this thesis is that Bernard Lonergan and Robert Doran offer structure, method
and a path to a life of aesthetic value which can augment depth psychology in its clinical
praxis. What is attempted in this thesis is to build on the foundation laid by Jung by
augmenting and completing his bequest with the work of Bernard Lonergan and Robert
Doran.
1.1 Bernard Lonergan and Robert Doran
Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) was a Canadian philosopher, theologian and Jesuit priest
who is widely acclaimed as one of the most important philosophers and theologians of the
20th century. The significance, importance and precise elegance of Lonergan’s work in the
critical historical period at the end of the second millennium is on a par with that of St.
Thomas Aquinas. Robert Doran is a Jesuit priest and theologian who wrote his doctoral
dissertation Subject and Psyche (1994) on Lonergan and C.G. Jung. Lonergan invited Doran
to be one of the executors of his estate and to help edit his work, tasks which he has fulfilled
inhis life’s workas co-founderoftheToronto Lonergan Instituteand co-editorof Lonergan’s
Collected Works. In addition to his work in theological foundations and systematics Doran
has been fully engaged in pastoral ministry with those living with HIV infection and AIDS
(Letson & Higgins, 1995,p.225et seq.).
We are invited by Lonergan to participate in a venture to discover within ourselves “what
we are doing when we are knowing,” “why that is knowing,” and “what it is that is known.”
This discovery is experiential, personal and transforming; the processes of this discovery are
contained in Lonergan’s masterpiece Insight (1957/1997)2, and continued in his book Method
1Bleuler’stermDepthPsychologywasusedtorepresentanamalgamofconceptsofFreud,Jung,Adler,
Assagioliandothers,andwasusedinteraliabyJunghimselfasanameforhispsychology.
2TheoriginaleditionofInsightisdated1957;theversioncitedthroughoutthethesisisthe1997edition,which
isVolume3ofthecollectedworksofBernardLonergan.
in Theology (1971). Making these discoveries is greatly facilitated by an ascetic discipline of
the mind grounded in mindfulness (called attentiveness by Lonergan and contemplation by
Doran (1995, p. 295)). Personal experience in depth psychology with maieutically fostering
patients’ participation is Longeran’s invitation to know oneself as a knower has shown me
that for patients it is also hard and onerous work, with the added piquancy that one discovers
that one is the source of one’s own biases. An indication of the challenge of achieving this
insight is given by Lonergan himself who recounts an incident, when teaching his course on
Thought and Reality, of “a girl marching in at the beginning of class, giving my desk a
resounding whack with her hand, and saying, ‘I’ve got it.’ Those that have struggled with
Insight will know what she meant” (2005, p. 268). If we find that Lonergan’s work is obscure
it is, for self-diagnostic value, worth examining the possibility that we are, at the point of
obscurity, obscuretoourselves. Lonergan’s entire opus concerns one’s intentional praxis with
oneself: as subject,with culture,intersubjectively, socially,theologicallyand withGod.
The thesis is a work of psychologybuilt on the assumption of faith and belief in Christ. In
working in general practice the depth psychologist must be prepared to accept all comers and
some will be Catholic; notwithstanding the fact that as Jung himself says “in the last thirty
years I have not had more than about six practicing Catholics among my patients” (Jung,
1979, Vol. 18, para. 370). In the same place Jung says of the Catholic Church, among other
religious institutions: “I think it is perfectly correct to make use of these psychotherapeutic
institutions which history has given to us.” To be fair to Jung, by not quoting him out of
context, he also claims that such psychotherapy is medieval, and that he did not consider
himself a medieval man. However, the extent and damaging consequences of Jung’s
disowned medieval thought is precisely what is revealed in the work of Lonergan and Doran.
Russell Meares quotes William James’s warning about protecting the self of a patient where
James says: “The worst a psychology can do is so to interpret the nature of these selves as to
rob them of their worth” (Meares, 2000, p. 64; original italics). Meares goes on to say that,
“James is implying the possibility of a fundamental form of trauma which comes about
through a destruction of the feeling of worth which is central to a sense of an inner life”
(Meares, 2000, p. 64); such trauma is discussed in chapter 8 below. The thesis is not asking
the reader to believe nor to have faith in Christ but to understand this belief and faith.
Achievement of understanding, while not central to Jung’s opus, is the essence of that of
Lonergan and Doran. In the same way that nonbelievers are asked to understand and value
the beliefs of Christians, it is also essential that Christian depth psychologists understand and
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value the position of non-Christians; thus it is not necessary for the position of the depth
psychologist to become a matter for disclosure. Discernment of direction in the movement of
life is also a matter for the praxis of depth psychology, for failure of discernment is a prime
cause of psychological suffering. In the case of Christian patients there is a point in
discernment where the depth psychologist must yield and suggest that the patient go further
indiscussionwithapriest.
However, that said, my position is that depth psychology, augmented as described in the
thesis, in its maieutic approach accompanies the patient through self-appropriation and
conversion of the psyche, thus freeing it from repressive censorship, to the place where the
patient is able to make a decision to act or not to act in accepting the complete subjectivity
leadingto authenticaestheticlifeinthepursuit of valueand good.
Self-transcendence is the objective of Lonergan’s intentional praxis, called
Transcendental Method, which leads to a stadial development of “successive degrees of self-
transcendence” (Doran, 1996, p.87) A sense of the process and its imperative to each of us is
givenbyLonerganinCrowe:
I feel I should indicate roughly, not yet the stages, but perhaps the successive degrees
of self-transcendence. The first is the emergence of consciousness in the fragmentary
form of the dream, where human substance yields place to the human subject. The
second is waking when our senses and feelings come to life, where our memories
recall pleasures and our imaginations anticipate fears, but our vitality envisages
courses of action. The third is inquiry which enables us to move out of the mere
habitat of an animal and into our human world of relatives, friends, acquaintances,
associates, projects, accomplishments, ambitions, fears. The fourth is the discoveryof
a truth, which is not the idle repetition of a “good look” but the grasp in a manifold of
data of the sufficiency of the evidence for our affirmation or negation. The fifth is the
successive negotiation of the stages of morality and/or identity till we reach the point
where we discover that it is up to ourselves to decide for ourselves what we are to
make of ourselves, where we decisively meet the challenge of that discovery, where
we set ourselves apart from the drifters. For drifters have not yet found themselves.
Theyhave not yet found theirowndeedand so arecontent todo what everyone elseis
doing. They have not yet found a will of their own, and so they are content to choose
what everyone else is choosing. Theyhave not yet developed minds of their own, and
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