Beyond Co-Existence to Mutual Influence: An Interdisciplinary Method for Psychoanalysis and Religion

As the disciplines of psychoanalysis and religion find themselves in a heightened cross-disciplinary context, issues of methodology remain at the forefront. This article constructs an interdisciplinary method based on the image of psychoanalysis and religion as neighbors who border along an “intimate edge”—a space of simultaneously overlapping, yet distinct concern. Using what is termed a “hermeneutic of mischievousness,” this method maintains an interpretive location for that which preserves, transgresses, and transcends the disciplinary boundaries. The article concludes with a brief application of the method to the relationship between the “analytic third” and Christian trinitarian theology.

Amy Bentley LambornEmail:

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Amy Bentley Lamborn   is a PhD candidate in the Program in Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary, New York City. She is also a resident in the psychoanalytic training program at the Blanton-Peale Institute. An Episcopal priest, she has served parishes in Indiana and New York and has worked as a chaplain in both mental health and hospice settings.