Routledge Toward Mutual Recognition: Relational Psychoanalysis and the Christian Narrative (Relational Perspectives Book Series)

Ever since its nascent days, psychoanalysis has enjoyed an uneasy coexistence with religion. However, in recent decades, many analysts have been more interested in the healing potential of both psychoanalytic and religious experience and have explored how their respective narrative underpinnings may be remarkably similar. In Toward Mutual Recognition, Marie T. Hoffman takes just such an approach. Coming from a Christian perspective, she suggests that the current relational turn in psychoanalysis has been influenced by numerous theorists - analysts and philosophers alike - who were themselves shaped by an embedded Christian narrative. As a result, the redemptive concepts of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection - central to the tenets of Christianity - can be traced to relational theories, emerging analogously in the transformative process of mutual recognition in the concepts of identification, surrender, and gratitude, a trilogy which she develops as forming the "path of recognition."  Each movement on this path of recognition is given thought-provoking, in-depth attention. Chapters dedicated to theoretical perspectives utilize the thinking of Benjamin, Hegel, and Ricoeur. In her historical perspectives, she explores the personal and professional histories of analysts such as Sullivan, Fairbairn, Winnicott, Erikson, Kohut, and Ferenczi, among others, who were influenced by the Christian narrative. Uniting it all together is the clinical perspective offered in the compelling extended case history of Mandy, a young lady whose treatment embodies and exemplifies each of the steps along the path of growth in both the psychoanalytic and Christian senses. Throughout, a relational sensibility is deployed as a cooperative counterpart to the Christian narrative, working both as a consilient dialogue and a vehicle for further integrative exploration. As a result, the specter of psychoanalysis and religion as mutually exclusive gives way to the hope and redemption offered by their mutual recognition. Review "Toward Mutual Recognition is a remarkable work of cross-fertilization. Drawing on her intimate knowledge of both traditions, Marie Hoffman interprets contemporary psychoanalytic theory to her Christian colleagues and conveys the core tenets of Christian theology to the psychoanalytic community. In the process, she explores conceptual and historical links between the two discourses that may surprise readers in both groups. The writing is both scholarly and accessible as Hoffman moves back and forth between explicating broad intellectual issues and illustrating their applicability via a frank, detailed account of her devoted work with a severely traumatized woman. The author's contagious passion, compassion, and erudition make this a must-have text for anyone interested in the history of psychoanalytic thought or in the timeless concerns of the major religious traditions. And it will inspire and console ordinary therapists, who inevitably bear witness, hour after hour, to both the fragility and the resilience of the human soul." - Nancy McWilliams, Rutgers University Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, New York, USA "This moving and challenging book, filled with rich material both scholarly and clinical, will inspire many to rethink the relationship between religious faith and psychoanalysis. Hoffman has created a fascinating, innovative dialogue, using the idea of recognition to build a bridge between two dissonant traditions - relational psychoanalysis and Christian theology. Focusing on intersubjectivity, she finds a conjunction between these two transformational practices while squarely facing their differences. She traces a path that is at once redemptive and unflinchingly honest about the complexities of psychodynamic work, both personal and theoretical. Illustrated by the case of Mandy, a courageous young woman who has suffered scarcely imaginable horrors, Hoffman powerfully su