Integrating the Bible’s Wisdom
With Psychology & Psychoanalysis
What does it mean to be psychologically healthy? What constitutes a life well lived? What are the most important lessons to teach our children? Why should we be moral? What does moral mean? How can we reach our fullest potential? What does it look like? Some turn to religion and spiritual teachings to answer these questions. Others turn to psychology and psychoanalytic theory.
Do we have a soul? What is a soul? What role does it play in a healthy, fulfilled life? Where could we place the notion of the soul within Freud’s system of “id,” “ego,” and “superego?” How are Jung’s notions of “archetypes” and the “collective unconscious” relevant to spiritual enlightenment? Freud scientifically explained psychosomatic contributions to medical conditions. But Maimonides, a great Rabbi and medical doctor from eleven hundred years earlier, already understood how people can cause their medical problems by living by poor values, goals, and practices.
Should it be surprising God’s teachings and modern man’s wisdom arrive at nearly identical views of human potential and development? In contrast to Religion, much of Science up until now has vehemently omitted the notions of God and Soul from its thinking. Psychology and psychoanalytic theory, as insecure newborn Science, have distanced themselves from formally acknowledging God and the Souls He’s given us, as they seem less “rigorously objective” than the notions used by other established Sciences.
But only Psychology and Psychoanalytic theory have “the human being” to study. Humans are infinitely more complex than anything else in our universe. So a Science studying humans—their experiences, development, and functioning—needs special tools and notions. When we removed God and Soul from a scientific study of Man, we rendered Psychology incapable of understanding Man’s more complex functions and potentials. Yes, the presentation of these spiritual notions needs to be redrawnworded to be scientific. But we must put the Soul back into Man, and God back into the Science of Psychology, if we want to understand his deepest passions, yearnings, and potentials.
Do you want to self-actualize? Has your soul’s evolution gotten stuck in an incarnation? Would you like you and your children to keep developing socially and morally? Do you seek more peace, joy, and fulfillment? Do you think love is a feeling… or is it a learned ability? Do you want to belong to a community that lives by “higher spiritual values?” Spiritual Psychoanalysis integrates the language and wisdom of Psychology and psychoanalysis with the notions of God and the Soul which were first defined in the Bible. The Bible introduces and defines core values for 85% of all people believing in religion: the Hebrews, Christians, and Muslims.
While those belonging to one of these “Abrahamic religions” might be interested in spiritual psychoanalysis, others who don’t believe in God might also be. For example, those who value meditation, yoga, and eastern spiritual traditions like Buddhism often do believe in the Soul—or the idea of the essence of one’s being—and that we’re morally obligated to grow, become enlightened, and live in loving harmony with the World. Yet, they usually don’t believe in a God who created us and watches over us. Others have different notions of God or use notions like “cosmic” and “Divine” energy.” Spiritual wisdom remains universal.
Spiritual Psychoanalysis integrates ancient spiritual wisdom with modern science.
