Religious Objects as Psychological Structures: A Critical Integration of Object Relations Theory, Psychotherapy, and Judaism (review)

96 SHOFAR Spring 1995 Vol. 13, No.3 Though the volume is clearly directed to an academic audience, the discussions are rarely abstruse and should be accessible to a moderately sophisticated lay reader. All in all, we owe a debt of thanks to the Academy for its continuing contributions to the study of significant issues in Jewish philosophy. Neil Gillman Department ofJewish Philosophy Jewish Theological Seminary of America Religious Objects as Psychological Structures: A Critical Integration of Object Relations Theory, Psychotherapy, and Judaism, by Moshe Halevi Spero. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. 242 pp. $27.50. Spero's ambitious, rigorous, and densely argued book begins by defining his goal as "a completely meaningful reconciliation between psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and religion (and Judaism in particular)" (p. ix), assuming that Judaism and psychoanalysis can significantly contribute to each other in theory and in clinical practice. The book exists within a stream of thought where orthodox rabbis who are also psychoanalysts have struggled to find commonalities between Halakhah and psychoanalysis. Although specifically anchored in Jewish thought and law (Halakhah), Spero firmly rejects the impulse to replace psychological methods and findings with a Torah-psychology, nor does he rule out empirical approaches in religion. Regretfully, he cites little from that literature, but he is scholarly, covers several diverse bodies of thought, and critiques both his own and the positions of others that he cites systematically . He also distinguishes between a person's theology that arises primarily from personal experiences and a theology that can arise from the experience of an objective God. This creates the conceptual space for such God-representations, but seems to me to verge on apologetics. Spero accepts that the construction of God images depends on infantile experiences with significant adults, but he critiques reductionistic explanations of religious experiences that he labels psychologistic. Thus he posits that there is room for a veridical God object just as there are empirical mothers, fathers, and other psychological objects. However, he rejects the efforts of those who inject God and/or other religious materials directly into the therapeutic situation without awareness of the complexi- Book Reviews 97 ties, depths, and distortions inherent in God images, especially at the start of therapy. Spero's basic thesis is that Halakhah, psychology, and psychotherapy are not incompatible, and that psychology and psychotherapy can be cast in halakhically acceptable terms. This refutes the reductionism of Freud and others regarding the nothing but psychological analysis of religion. Even if true, this does not mean one system can be deduced from the other. Further,he argues for a "real God object" (p. 132) that influences human personality development, while recognizing that people are capable of a variety of distortions that obscure their understanding and apprehension of this real object. Chapter 4, his key chapter, elaborates his earlier discussion of Halakhah which he posits (in accord with orthodox Jewish tradition) existed before Creation. It is necessary to argue that Halakhah is present at creation if he is to build his bridge between religion and psychotherapy; otherwise psychology (a human activity) is on a par with Halakhah (another human activity). While rejecting the simplistic view that religious therapists are somehow better fitted to treat religious patients, Spero points out that a therapist's own religious (or non-religious) development is usually not analyzed in training, allowing for its unanalyzed or counter-transferential influence on therapy. Spero trenchantly critiques the common notion that a spirituality sufficiently abstract to relinquish any image of God is more advanced than a God-related religiosity, noting that if God actually exists then such abstractions miss the mark. From time to time Spero is refreshingly self-disclosing, which illuminates but does not dominate the texts. Unfortunately, the common tone is quite abstract, with two illuminating case studies coming near the end when such examples would have helped earlier. He occasionally uses esoteric or obsolete language when plain English would not diminish communication; for example using "quotidian" for "everyday." Two very interesting tables in Chapter 3 contain important comparisons . The first is Stages and Levels of Faith Development, encompassing Self-Other Differentiation, Psychosexual and Psychosocial Stages, Erikson's Basic Strengths vs. Pathologies, and Erikson's Binding vs. Deadening Ritual...