Therapeutic Impasse in a Famous Zen Case: Memorial Tribute for Jeremy Safran

ABSTRACT

In this article, I examine the iconic Zen story of a meeting of the Buddhist master known as Bodhidharma with a Chinese emperor called Wu, in a paradoxical encounter about the nature of wisdom. I use the case as an example of a “therapeutic failure” because the two parties were never in contact with each other, but instead appeared to be locked into a projective identification. I set the stage for my analysis of this case by discussing Safran’s work on therapeutic impasse and my own understanding of idealization, splitting, and projective-identification as they apply to the case, as well as the many scandals in the contemporary Buddhist world that are framed by the desire for a flawless, pure and “enlightened” master.

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Polly Young-Eisendrath

Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D., is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Vermont and the founder and director of the Institute for Dialogue Therapy. She is past president of the Vermont Association for Psychoanalytic Studies and a founding member of the Vermont Institute for the Psychotherapies. Polly has published sixteen books, as well as many chapters and articles, that have been translated into more than twenty languages,