Freud and Augustine in Dialogue: Psychoanalysis, Mysticism, and the Culture of Modern Spirituality

INTRODUCTION

1 I t is arguably the case that no two figures have had more influence on the course of Western introspective thought than Freud and Augustine . As they wrote centuries apart, we might assume that it would be Freud, the more contemporary of the two, who would have the last say. But the primordial wisdom contained in Augustine’s substantial written corpus and the unpredictable nature of cultural eddies have ensured the continuation of numerous long and protracted debates revolving around the very different perspectives on human nature each bequeathed to culture. Traditionally, Freud is considered to have had little, if any, sympathy for religion, much less for what today passes under the rubrics of “mysticism ” and “spirituality.” But things are rarely simple with Freud, and there is some evidence to think otherwise.1 Augustine, on the other hand, is often characterized as an apologist and ecclesiastic, but Abbot Butler, writing many decades ago in his classic book, Western Mysticism, read Augustine not merely as a mystic but, as he put it, as the “Prince of Mystics .” This designation has been furthered more recently by Bernard McGinn and John Peter Kenney, both of whom have unveiled Augustine’s sustained teachings on mystical contemplation.2 Even so, it seems unlikely that Freud and Augustine would have anything to say to each other with regard to mysticism and spirituality. This book argues the contrary position. It does so by calling attention to a contemporary cultural movement that has commanded the allegiance of many and is succinctly summed up by the phrase, “I’m spiritual but INTRODUCTION 2 FREUD AND AUGUSTINE in DIALOGUE not religious.” The proponents of this movement have a deep distrust of orthodoxy and its institutional enforcement, yet also claim there are genuine pearls of wisdom to be found in any and all traditional religions. They are decidedly psychological, seek wholeness and individuation, and are willing to cobble together practices and ideas from multiple traditions in an effort to satisfy their desire for personal insight and growth. It is precisely this cultural milieu that welcomes Augustine’s personal reflections on the mystical as part of a wider and enduring religious quest for wholeness and meaning. Along similar lines, if Freud and indeed multiple theorists in the psychoanalytic tradition are seen within this emerging cultural perspective, then a new relationship of psychoanalysis to religion begins to emerge. This book aims to show that the methodological perspectives on and insights into the human personality Freud bequeathed us have, even against his wishes, played an instrumental role in the cultural ascendancy and personal orientation of those professing to be spiritual but not religious. Both the suspicion of religious orthodoxy, on the one hand, and the construal of religion in psychological and therapeutic terms on the other owe no small debt to the psychoanalytic tradition. The question before us, then, is how to bring into true dialogue insights into the depths of the mind as enduring as those of Augustine and the mystics yet also as imaginative and potentially destabilizing as those of Freud and his heirs. In pursuit of such a dialogue, we may find there is something distinctly Freudian about Augustine and something distinctly Augustinian about Freud. Certainly it is this kind of progressive exchange of ideas that characterizes modern spirituality at its best. But this is to telescope things to come, to provide a bird’s-eye view, so to speak. To properly engage with the argument to come, we need to take each element in turn. Turning first to Augustine, the initial move must be to articulate more precisely what we mean when we speak of his mysticism. And that entails beginning with one central text, the Confessions. The Prince of Mystics Augustine’s Confessions has been designated a classic for many reasons , not least its continued ability to speak to generations of seekers over the centuries. From his early socialization into Christianity (described in books 1 and 2) and adolescent attraction to the dualism of Manichaeism (books 3–6) to his encounter with Neoplatonism (book 7), conversion to INTRODUCTION 3 Christianity, and reflections on scripture (books 8–13), Augustine depicts the journey of a religious pilgrim guided by “faith seeking understanding .” Ostensibly the reflections of a single man seeking wholeness, the narrative of this classic text, punctuated by numerous episodes laced with literary motifs and trenchant philosophical insights, transcends Augustine’s own biography. It offers a prognosis...