Exploring The Spiritual Self In Therapy Theology Essay
INTRODUCTION
In psychotherapy, we deal with the experience of the physical and emotional self but often overlook any significance to the Spiritual Self. While a physician is dealing with the human person as a body with flesh and blood, being informed by the physical anatomy, a psychologist thinks of human person very much in line with the concept of a body with emotional, cognitive functioning. A psychotherapist confronts very often with the spiritual questioning of the clients. Every profession is working under various presumptions about pathology and healing. In psychotherapy we have different constructs to explain the pathology of a maladaptive behaviour and ways of possible healing. The most famous, though, is the Freudian construct of conscious-subconscious-unconscious functioning. Though Freud agrees to the overwhelming influence of spiritual experience mostly expressed through religion in the human civilization, he considered them as mere projections.
My hypothesis is that, we need to discover Spiritual Self as a therapeutic construct which could be placed at par with the current constructs, like that of the unconscious. The challenge, though, is to explain how this construct can explain pathology and healing? It was Carl G. Jung who admitted the limitation of the Freudian construct to explain pathology and helped many in spiritualistic interpretation of human being. Thus the Jungian insight operative in the working of the Alcoholics Anonymous movement can present us an empirical evidence for Spiritual Self, as a workable construct in a therapeutic context. Thus Spiritual Self, a construct tested against a therapeutic context, over time in history, can be accepted as an explicit therapeutic construct in psychotherapy. And this will have its implications in the growth of humanity, who so far have been subjected to the denial of the body-mind-soul experience as something legitimate.
SPIRITUAL SELF: A THERAPEUTIC CONSTRUCT
The way one speaks of him or herself is very important in psychotherapy. Self perception is a filtering net for events and experiences in one's life. Finding a connection for the selfhood with the divine reality, is not unknown to humanity. Ann B Ulanov in The Self as Other calls it as "how the God within connects or relates to the human experience of God without…(Ulanov 1988, 84)". The primitive caves always bore expressions of their self understanding as connected to spirits and souls. Philosophy from the time of Aristotle and others had the soul construct which was considered something spiritual. But somehow, we see over the long period of history, there has never been, a full recognition of the Spiritual Self construct. The argument always has been that the spiritual realities are not empirically testable. However one needs to be aware that the various psychological constructs like; the unconscious, id, ego, super-ego etc. are never amenable to empirical validation. To my knowledge, philosophical speculation was a great instrument in the growth of psychology in Freud. Therefore no one can under-estimate the role of a spiritual reality in human, which is gaining more and more acceptance in the modern world. In psychotherapy a particular experience is accessed and assessed by using a specific therapeutic assumption which I shall call a therapeutic construct. Considering such a need, a lack of an accepted, efficient construct will always cause the therapists to ignore such experiences as lacking validation and thus mere projections. Therefore my argument is that we need to give recognition to Spiritual Self as a workable therapeutic construct.
In psychotherapy, one of the useful concepts to assess coping and competency is "locus of control (Erickson 1983, 74)". The ultimate center of strength and hope serves, for the person, as the locus of control of his/her actions. Accepting Spiritual Self has in fact the benefit of helping the person to discover a lasting locus of control in life. There are essentially two understanding of the Spiritual Self; something within the person or something that is transcendent. The first kind situates the locus of control within the person and the second has locus of control in a transcendent realm. Stevi Woolworth speaks about this in the context of the 12 steps of AA and the Eastern spirituality, "The locus of control that appears to be the fundamental difference between the solution of the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and that of the Eastern-influenced resolution of mindfulness … (Woolworth 2009, 3)". These two understandings are subject to extensive philosophical and theological speculations. However for us with an eye of utilitarian philosophy which aims at the well being of the person, both the understandings of Spiritual Self is equally acceptable.
An idea can become a therapeutic construct in so far as it is able to explain psychopathology and healing. Can the Spiritual Self explain psychopathology? When a person is not feeling to get up early in the morning, rather wants to sleep all day, we call it a strong symptom of depression. But, if we ask the person the answer may be, that he doesn't find a meaning for his existence or that he fears the day etc. What can really give meaning and purpose in one's life? The point is, often that we ask questions which are apparently dealing with the day to day affairs, but really are ultimate questions. Those experiences of emptiness and meaninglessness go well beyond the realm of body and mind to find a solution. In this journey one may reach his Spiritual Self which becomes a constant experience and source of healing in one's life.
Carl G. Jung seems to me, a person who genuinely made an effort to establish the construct of Spiritual Self through his relentless efforts of developing the analytical psychology. "Among all my patients in the second half of life, there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life… and one of them has really been healed who did not regain his religious outlook (Jung 1958, 334)". Jung considered the encounter with numinous, as the way to healing from the pathological maladaptive behaviours. According to J. Harley Chapman, "The numen or the object present in or to the numinous state of mind is experienced as a powerful and meaning-filled other (Chapman 1940, 89)". Jung seems to answer the questions, namely; how to recognise the presence of the numen? How should one deal with it in its presence? The first thing is to be aware to what extent one is "...in a numinous situation, surrounded on all sides by God (Jung CW 10, 467)". Secondly the therapists, patients etc. have to "put their trust in the higher power (Jung CW 10, 467)". Therefore we come to understand with some conviction the experience of the numinous is central to the understanding of Jung. It is this experience that Jung later suggests to Rowland Hazard, which in turn became the foundational step in the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous.
The following words of Jung in the letter written to P. W. Martin on 28 August 1945 substantiates my argument that Jung could be considered the person who seriously has given thought to the possibility of considering the Spiritual Self as a therapeutic construct. "You are quite right; the main interest of my work is not concerned with treatment of neuroses but rather with the approach to the numinous. But the fact is that the approach to the numinous is the real therapy, and inasmuch as you attain to the numinous experiences you are released from the curse of pathology. Even the very disease takes a numinous character (Adler 1984, 62)". According to Jung the pathological change of personality takes place within the person and that an experience of conversion is also very similar inner process, and in-turn able to address the issues of the inner core of the person. "Hence, for psychiatry, the essential etiological factor is the inherited or acquired pathological make-up. The same is true of most creative intuitions…similarly all religious conversions…rest upon interior processes culminating in a change in personality (De Laszlo 1959, 145)".
In Jung, Individuation was another way of becoming aware of one's true self. Individuation brings into the person, wholeness. Murray Stein states that "Jung's notion of individuation, which guides human psychological and spiritual development, is oriented by the presupposition that its aim is wholeness…Jung's myth is the myth of wholeness (Stein 1996, 18)". According to Jung individuation is a process by which a man becomes "the definite unique being, he in fact, is (De Laszlo 1959, 144)". Our effort here is, not to define what is individuation, rather to understand how it explains addiction and pathology? At this point, let's recall the experience of addiction and I can very well remember one of my clients, who is an addict, who has lot problems with individuation. Co-dependency and addiction are just like brother and sister. The nature of co-dependency is that, it is detrimental very much to the normal psychological process of separation-individuation; at the same time experience tells us that it is also affecting the internal Jungian process of individuation. So the point is that one needs to get away from the false sense of self, its fragmentation and reach a coherence where by, he or she can relate to the inner most self, and in that sense to God. It also helps the person to be free of the internal compulsions probably coming from the sphere of spirits. Jung speaks of the aim of individuation in this way, "the aim of individuation is nothing less than to divest the self of the false wrappings of persona on the one hand, and the suggestive power of the primordial image on the other (De Laszlo 1959, 144)".
Though the process of individuation looks very much similar to Christian understanding of spiritual growth there is a crucial basic difference in it. The individuation process, integrates every part of the self including the evil while the Christian spirituality tries to remove the evilness from the person. "The difference is that individuation attempts to include the dark, instinctual, shadow aspects of the unconscious, while spiritual development is usually aimed at eliminating them (Stein 1996, 55)". So I guess, this is the reason for the experience of denial and guilt with regard to the inner most cravings in the Christian spirituality. However, Jungian-process acknowledges the inner cravings, and integrates them, without giving in to the archetypal evil and thereby ruining the wholeness of the person.
It is interesting to note that Jung was way ahead of psychological theories and understanding of pathology, and was able to place human's ultimate search for self or soul in the forefront of things. Jung write in the introduction to his basic writings, "A nodding acquaintance with the theory and pathology of neurosis is totally inadequate, because medical model of this kind is merely information about an illness, but not knowledge of the soul that is ill (De Laszlo 1959, 6)".
APPLICATION OF THE CONSTRUCT IN A THERAPEUTIC CONTEXT
The Freudian constructs gained popular acceptance in the context of psychoanalysis and the Jungian constructs within the analytical psychology approach. Almost the same way, we need to see any construct against a therapeutic context. All these have been tested and re-tested over the years, with considerable amount of success. Surprisingly Spiritual Self also has been experienced in the flow of history, though not in a precise methodological manner. In history, we see constant use of the construct of Spiritual Self, in the experience of the movement of Alcoholics Anonymous. The following would explain the way in which it all started, the healing implication of Spiritual Self in the treatment of addiction and thus the successful application of the construct.
JUNGIAN INSIGHT INTO ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
In order to understand, how and what Jungian influence has survived over time, in the history and concept of Alcoholics Anonymous, we need to first look into the historical development related to Carl G. Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous. The historical happenings are presented in the "Big Book" of AA, with out the proper names of the persons. In the Three Talks to Medical Societies by Bill Wilson, Co-Founder of AA, publication by AA, we can get a complete reconstruction of the historical happenings centered on the founders of AA and Carl Jung.
A well known American business man, named Rowland Hazard, had gone to Zurich, Switzerland, to meet Dr. Carl G. Jung probably in the year 1930, as the last resort desperately wanting to stop his alcoholic addiction. The author, Amy Colwell Bluhm argues the pivotal event in relation to Rowland Hazard and Carl G. Jung, happened in the year 1926 rather than 1930 as commonly believed (Bluhm 2006, 313). After the treatment, Rowland believed to have gained some sobriety returned to the world only to return to Dr. Jung in a week's time. On his return, Dr. Jung humbly confessed that he had poor success with alcoholics, that he was capable of doing nothing for Rowland. Dr. Jung pictured the situation as "helpless (Wilson 1961)" and in answer to Rowland's question of whether there is any hope, Carl Jung made another statement that "occasionally, alcoholics have recovered through spiritual experience, better known as religious conversions….the kind of religious experience that reaches the into the depths of man, that changes his whole motivation (Wilson 1961)". Rowland returned and joined the "oxford movement (Mullins 2010, 153)".
Bill Wilson, the founder of AA, happened to know about Rowland's gaining sobriety through the 'oxford movement' form one of his friends Ebby Thacher. It was Ebby, who by that time a follower of the "oxford movement" informed and inspired Bill Wilson. He had even given Bill copy of William James's Varieties of Religious Experiences(Three Talks 1980). Bill now have a similar experience from his dear Dr. Silkworth, who admitted his situation to be helpless. While in the hospital Bill in deep depression undergoes the experience of "hot flash (Mullins 2010, 153)", experience which the Dr. Silkworth affirms as a religious experience, strong enough to provide him sobriety. In fact Bill desperately desired for such an experience. Later Bill meets with Dr. Bob Smith, who joined him in establishing AA in 1935. After several years Bill Wilson acknowledged the contribution of Carl G. Jung in AA, in a letter written in the year 1961(The Three Talks 1980). Interestingly, during these years, Bill Wilson tried some experiment with drugs like LSD and Niacin as capable of eliciting psychic conversion experience in people, strong enough to stop addiction. But, those substances never proved to be really helpful, and were outlawed later (Cheever 2004, 239-245). The refusal of Carl Jung, to treat Rowland further, is accepted as the first defining moment in the history of Alcoholics Anonymous (Galanter & Kaskutas 2008, 39).
The "Big Book" speaks about the experience of higher power as the central element of healing together with accepting the helplessness of the addict. Dr. Jung's humble words that the situation was helpless one, and needs to look for conversion like experience, are core to the 12 steps of AA. In the course of history this focus was never lost in AA. Though in the initial stages of the development of AA, strong religious faith as was seen in the "oxford movement" was replaced by a broad understanding of spirituality, and the various ways of experiencing the "conversion" as explained then by William James is part of the AA spirituality . However the latest understanding of the twelve steps, where those who don't believe in a higher power consider AA as the higher power (Mullins 2010, 155), seems to be much away from the Jungian understanding of higher power. This stand, is justified in the third step of the 12 step program with the addition done to the original namely "Made a decision to turn our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him (AA 1980, 59)".
When going through the history of AA and the experiences of various people enumerated in the "Alcoholics Anonymous" the Jungian insight into addiction remains the central piece of the organisation, its way of healing. Alcoholics Anonymous states the shortest form of the 12 steps, namely; a) That we were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives; 2) That probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism; 3) That God could and would if He were sought (AA 1980, 60). These three ideas are very clearly articulated by Jung, in his interaction with Rowland Hazard. And it is quite fascinating to see how the 12 steps retain those core elements in their program which aims at spiritual progress not perfection (AA 1980, 60). And the success of such adaptation is surprising that today there are more and more researches being done, about the spiritual influence in the healing of addiction (Galanter 2006; Galanter & Kaskutas 2008)
SPIRITUAL SELF AND ADDICTION IN JUNGIAN WAY
A search into the experience of addiction would reveal that the person who is an addict, is puzzling with an unavoidable compulsion to act, which are apparently promising pleasure in the first place but causes misery and a complete downturn of self esteem in the second phase. The existential experience of the cause of addiction is expressed differently by people. Some call it a deep felt pain; some call it the feeling of emptiness; a feeling of helplessness and disappointment etc. Deborah Huisken speaks of addiction as a medicine for pain, "Addiction is fundamentally about medicating pain. Whatever the substance, person, or process, it is about using something or someone to lessen the discomfort a person feels in their lives. The greater the pain the higher the likelihood of addictive behaviour (Deborah 2005, 1)"
James Hollis speaks of addictions as "reflexive anxiety management systems (Hollis 2009, 1)" in the first place, and secondly coping with the "repeatedly invading unbidden ideas"(Hollis 2009, 2). The first explains that when a person is suffering unacceptable level of distress in life, he/she through connection with "other", feels a lowering of the disturbing affect. The other stands for substances, behaviours or persons. The second concept tells us that certain element in life (substance, behaviour or person), brings into life a threatening existential idea from the unconscious. It in turn brings into light the hidden desire for a permanent connection to the spiritual world. According to him this "hidden spiritual desire", a need to connect to the transcendent was identified in a letter exchanged between Carl G. Jung and Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (Hollis 2009). Stevi Woolworth writes in the article Spiritus Contra Spiritum: A Yogic Approach to Alcoholism that "It is as though the alcoholic quenches his spiritual thirst with a different kind of 'spirit,' attempting to fill the void with something that could never replace what is actually missing-a meaningful connection with the Divine. It is this dilema that prompted Carl Jung's formula "Spiritus Contra Spiritum" (Woolworth 2009).
A proper analysis of the letter, written by Carl Jung to Bill Wilson on 30 January, 1961 would reveal the Jungian understanding about addiction and possible ways of sobriety. Jung wrote this letter in reply to Bill Wilson's letter dated 23 January 1961, which recounts how Jung's remark in 1931 to Rowland Hazard, that his situation was hopeless unless "he become subject of a spiritual or religious experience-in short a genuine conversion (Wilson 1961)" was instrumental in his own cure and how he came to found Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935.
Jung recalls the experience with Rowland and defines his addiction in a new light in the above said letter. "His craving for alcohol was the equivalent on a low level of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in medieval language: the union with God (Adler 1984, 198)".
The Jungian understanding proposes the need for attaining a fine tuned relationship with one's self so as to experience wholeness. Jung speaks of individualism as a place of "emptiness and alienation" as against individuation (De Laszlo 1959, 143-144). Deldon Anne McNeely states in her work on Jung in this way, "For Jung, by becoming aware of a relationship with the Self, each individual is not abandoned to suffer the existential emptiness of individualism, but ultimately finds in his individual soul the presence of a whole universe and a relationship to its timelessness (Anne McNeely 2011)". In fact the "psychic fragmentation (smith 1990, 27)" which Jung apparently addressed through the process of individuation of the self, explains well the state of an addict who desires a spiritual wholeness. Interestingly Murray Stein quotes Jung in Practicing Wholeness that this wholeness is "a combination of I and You, and these show themselves to be part of a transcendent unity (Jung n. d. 454)". According to Jung individuation is the way to wholeness; becoming a "single, homogeneous being (De Laszlo 1959, 143)" which can be the solution for the addict's psychopathology, thus an ultimate remedy for addiction.
Jung in the 1961 letter, further states three ways of attaining this, "higher understanding" namely, "by an act of grace or through a personal and honest contact with friends or through a high education of the mind beyond the confines of rationalism (Adler 1984, 198)". Jung also admits that Rowland chose the second option. This indeed explains how the Jungian insights are truly embedded in the working of Alcoholics Anonymous. I also constantly wondered why Jung never suggested the process of individuation for Rowland in the first place.
In the following paragraph of the letter Jung unveils the evil character of addiction as a possible result of "unrecognised spiritual need (Adler 1984, 198)" when it is not counteracted by religious insight or protected by human community. It is well narrated by David Schoen in a concept called "addiction Shadow Complex (Cronin 2009, 162)". According to him the individual often over identify with the persona, instead of dealing effectively with the content of the shadow self, and when some substance or person are introduced the persona finds consolation in it, in the way of de-stressing itself. This process becomes the part of the individual psyche, to cope with stress. Meanwhile the Archetypal Shadow/Evil emerges from the collective unconscious and over-powers the person to the effect of him ending up a slave to the addictive behaviour (Cronin 2009).
Jung Concludes the letter reminding Bill that the Latin word for alcohol is spirit and therefore the helpful formula is: spiritus contra spiritum (Adler, 1984, 198), meaning that it takes the spirit of God to overcome the spirit of alcohol. David Schoen goes on to say that by purposefully surrendering to the "Archetype Shadow/Archetype Evil" one can attain a relationship with the self which in the AA considered as higher power, which in turn would help one to over-come the "Addiction Shadow Complex" (Cronin 2009).
THE SUCCESS STORY OF AA
Alcoholics Anonymous has survived almost 76 years from the time of its founding in 1935. According to the AA website, there are estimated to be 117,000 groups and over 2,000,000 members in 180 countries. The fellowship has adopted a policy of "cooperation but not affiliation" with other organisations concerned with the problem of alcoholism. It is also interesting to note that the organisation is a fully self helped one and never receives any monetary assistance from any one out side AA, and maximum contribution of a member is limited to $3,000 a year (AA Website 2011) .
J. Scott Tonigan, in Alcoholics Anonymous Outcomes and Benefits, makes an elaborated study of research materials about the success and effectiveness of AA. Though it is quite is difficult to understand the real success of AA we get some implication and assurance of the success of AA. Tonigan says that "The study of the effectiveness of AA has a long and checked history, with the first empirical paper on the effectiveness of AA appearing in 1945." He goes on to say, "In spite of this intense empirical focus on AA-related processes and benefits, however, substantial controversy remains about the basic usefulness of the organization, to aid problematic drinkers. Not in dispute, however, alcoholics regard AA to be one of the most important and accessible resources for alcohol problems (Galanter & Ann Kaskutas 2008, 357)".
In 1951 AA received 'The Lasker Award' from the American Public Health Association, and the citation read as "to Alcoholics Anonymous in recognition of its unique and highly successful approach to that age-old public health and social problem, alcoholism…(AA 1980, 573)". I feel the strongest support for AA in the word of Dr. Foster Kennedy, a neurologist,
This organization, Alcoholics Anonymous, call on two of the greatest reservoirs of power know to man, religion and that instinct…the "herd instinct". I think our profession must take appreciate cognizance of this great therapeutic weapon. If we do not do so , we shall stand convicted of emotional sterility and of having lost the faith that moves mountains, without which medicine can do little (AA 1980, 571).
CONCLUSION
According to scientists, the modern inventions are already embedded in the nature, just as we learn to fly looking at birds, see the design of a huge train in a centipede etc. Almost in a similar manner, we learn lot many things from the history of humanity. The history of AA should challenge us about our denials, denial of the body-mind-soul experience in therapeutic space, bringing forth their own experience in healing, through the years. My effort in this paper, was to see how concretely the concept of the Spiritual Self is reflected in the AA experience of healing and that be considered a lesson for the modern therapists. The central point of AA, namely, the higher power, remains the unchangeable experience in its history of recovery. Though the concept of higher power has much broader a spirituality in AA, it surely stands for a reality which is more than the so called person, because one should not forget that the idea of higher power is placed against the agony of deep felt helplessness in human person. So obviously, it is not a humanistic approach to healing, rather a journey to discover the inner content of the person either in an imminent or transcendent sphere. However the journey is beyond the body-mind sphere into the soul level. Interestingly the problem and solution are found in the same realm of experience.
Jungian inspiration in the AA is well recorded, and the study shows that the basic understanding of pathology and healing that Jung imparted to Rowland, is very strongly adhered in AA to this day. Carl Jung's therapeutic work was centered on the self understanding and discovery. "As a therapist Jung claimed to discover the deepest self of a patient in veiled symbolic form. His descriptions of the self sound like those of an indwelling God (Bianchi 1988, 25)". The Jungian analysis gives us hope that Spiritual Self could well be accepted as an effective therapeutic construct in psychotherapy. The self search in Jung is understood to be for wholeness; individuation leads one to the necessary integration of the opposites. The ultimate purpose of individuation is in a sense the experience of 'numen'. Thus discovering the Spiritual Self in a person is the style of Jungian therapy. However, unfortunately the Spiritual Self as a valid therapeutic construct has not been accepted by the mainstream professionals.
In the history of psychotherapy, the understanding and healing of human person remains the purpose of it. Each stage in history of psychotherapy has progressed by the introduction of various self constructs. While, modern man hesitates to admit the necessary of accepting Spiritual Self as a valid, effective therapeutic construct, there is no reason that it can't be. When we are not able to see an object in its entirety, our knowledge about it, is partial and so we develop equipments and calculations to get the whole picture of the object. It is in fact an effort to defeat our blindness. If Spiritual Self is not accepted as a valid therapeutic construct, and therapists keep denying such a construct, then we are failing to address our blindness. Our progress and advancement in scientific learning should be a logical reason for us to accept the spiritual sphere of functioning in the person, thus the divide between the secular and non secular can be bridged, and an enlightened society can replace the present. By accepting the proposal of Spiritual Self, we are opening up unlimited possibilities for healing and growth. I can dream a day when every one consciously indulges in the spiritual struggles of the world.
