ABSTRACT
Antagonism and separateness has characterized the relationship between psychotherapy and religion/spirituality throughout the history of psychology, beginning with Freudian psychoanalytic theory. Recently, however, spirituality, broadly defined as a transcendent relationship with a higher being, has begun to reemerge as a central concept in therapeutic work. There is fertile ground for exploring how spirituality can be enfolded into psychotherapeutic practice, particularly from an object-relations standpoint. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to examine points of convergence and divergence between spirituality and object-relations theory and explore the integration of spirituality with object-relations therapy, with the hope of replacing historical antagonism with thoughtful and intentional integration.
Subject(s)
Holistic Health , Interpersonal Relations , Object Attachment , Psychotherapy/methods , Religion and Psychology , Self Psychology , Spirituality , Adolescent , Child , Human Development , Humans , Parent-Child Relations , Professional-Patient RelationsABSTRACT
Using emergent theme analysis of qualitative interview data in combination with quantitative survey data, the role of religion in the lives of immigrant youth was explored. Latino, Haitian, and Chinese teenagers described, in their own rich words, the significance of religion to them; their responses are reflected in themes that point to the potential protective role of religion for some immigrant groups.
