The Devil We Know

Abstract

Spiritual psychoanalysis is a difficult concept to define. Traditional Buddhist psychologies and philosophies warn about some of the most common traps. In particular, they caution against reifying ecstatic experiences and turning those reifications into more entrenched notions of self. This approach plays into dissociative defenses and creates a spit between the “spiritual” and the everyday. Joining Buddhist and psychoanalytic thought requires an appreciation of the central psychological insight of the Buddha: that of shunyata or “emptiness.”

Keywords:

• peak experience
• authentic self
• emptiness