Transcendence and Its Shadow: A Depth Psychological Inquiry into Transcendence, the Transcendent Function, and Spiritual Bypassing

Abstract

Depth psychotherapists work toward supporting clients in their process of individuation, not only in moving through the tasks of development but also in gaining access to the world of internal experience, identifying the complexes that drive an individual’s experience of pain and pleasure, and contacting the shadow, to shift toward a Self-oriented experience of life. To take on these grand tasks, depth psychotherapists strive toward co-creating a therapeutic experience that allows the transcendent function to occur within the course of therapy. This article arises out of questions exploring the relationship between the experience of transcendence and the transcendent function, as well as from concerns about the presentation of spiritual bypassing in clinical work. Considering a pattern common to human nature in which crisis is often followed by the desire to transcend, what is the impact of this impulse on the soul? What is the relationship between transcendence and the transcendent function? Do transcendence and the transcendent function contain each other conceptually? What happens to the soul that enters transcendence, and what is the shadow of that? Where does this shadow show up in the therapeutic process? If the shadow revealed is spiritual bypassing, does the transcendent function integrate that in a way that transcendence does not? How can depth psychotherapists support clients with integrating transcendent experiences and address spiritual bypassing? The author draws upon her clinical reflections alongside scholarship from Carl Jung, James Hillman, Thomas Moore, Jeffrey Miller, Joan Chodorow, Edward Edinger, Sherry Salman, John Welwood, and others.

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Notes on contributors

Maura Tousignant

Maura Tousignant, MA, LMFT, is a depth-oriented and somatic psychotherapist with a private practice based in Santa Monica, CA. Her clinical work has a focus on complex trauma, anxiety, grief, and relationship issues, and her therapeutic approach draws upon analytical, psychodynamic, and attachment theories. In addition to training in depth-oriented psychotherapy, she has also studied Hakomi mindful somatic psychotherapy. She serves as adjunct faculty and provides thesis advising at Pacifica Graduate Institute, where she teaches in the Masters of Counseling Psychology program. For more information, please visit her website: www.therapywithmaura.com.