A Group of the American Academy of Religion

October 1995; Volume 18, no. 3

1995 AAR Meeting Program

American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting
November 18-21, 1995 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Main Sessions

Main Session 1: Saturday Afternoon, Nov. 18 (A54, 3:45-6:15 pm, M-404)

Theme: The Plight and Promise of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (1 1/4 hours)
Presiding: Trevor Watt, Canisius College, Presiding

The Plight and Promise of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, in the Light of the History of the Psychoanalytic Movement
PeterHomans, The University of Chicago

Respondents: Diane Jonte-Pace, Santa Clara University, and Judith Van Herik, Pennsylvania State University

Theme: Historical and Gender-Related Views of Jung's Psychology as Universal (1 1/4 hours)
Presiding: Kelly Bulkeley, The Graduate Theological Union

Individuation and Theosis: Jung's Psychological Reformulation of a Patristic Christian Doctrine
Michael J. Christensen, Drew University

Rape in the Language of Myth and Mystics: Suffering, Jungian Interpretation and Feminist Critique
Pamela Cooper-White, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary

Main Session 2: Tuesday Morning, Nov. 21 (A242, 9:00-11:30 am, M-403)

Theme: Religion in the Public Arena and the Compartmentalization of Life and Self (2 1/2 hours)
Presiding, Lee Butler

Thoughts, Historical, Philological, and Theological, on How Religion Has Become an Object of Study instead of the Way to Live
Judith Van Herik, Pennsylvania State University

Examining Some Implications of Contemporary Psychoanalytic Theory for the Theoretic and Empirical Study of Religion
Chris R. Schlauch and Carrie Doehring, Boston University

The Virtue of Interdependence: Religion and Institutional Life
Margaret H. Benefiel, Earlham School of Religion

Post-Enlightenment Constructions of Religion: Two Case Studies
Robert J. Baird, The National Faculty

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Person, Culture and Religion Pre-Sessions

Friday Afternoon, Nov. 17 (1:30-6:30 pm, M-306)

Theme: Psychiatry as Oppression (2 hours)
Presiding: Mary Ellen Ross, Trinity University

Psychiatry as Oppression?: Knowledge, Gender, and Power in Modern America
Elizabeth Lunbeck, Princeton Univerity

Respondent: John Martin, Trinity University

Break (1/2 hour)

Theme: The Psychology of Oppression
Presiding: David Crownfield, Univ. of Northern Iowa

Oppression and the Planetary Ecosphere
William French, Loyola University of Chicago

Things Not Seen: Psychological Oppression among Women with Physical Disabilities
Nancy Eiesland, Candler School of Theology

Resistance, Reinforcements, and Revival: Three Strategies of the Oppressed
Garth Baker-Fletcher, School of Theology at Claremont

Normal and Abnormal Homophobia
Gary David Comstock, Wesleyan University


Saturday Morning, Nov. 18 (9:00 am-12:00 pm, M-Salon K)

Theme: Religion and Psychotherapy with the Oppressed (1 1/2 hours)
Presiding: Sandra Lee Dixon, The Univ. of Denver

Changing Spiders into Kittens: Theological Insecurity and Pastoral Counseling
Roy Steinhoff-Smith, Phillips Theological Seminary

Using the Novels of Toni Morrison to Create Meta-Narratives in Pastoral Care and Counseling
Carrie Doehring, Boston University School of Theology

The Dharma Talk as a Therapeutic Discourse
A.C. Liang, The University of California, Berkeley

Break (1/4 hour)

Works in Progress (3/4 hour)

Annual PCR Business Meeting (1/2 hour)
Presiding: Sandra Lee Dixon, The Univ. of Denver

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1995 PCR Pre-Session

For the 1995 PCR Pre-session the steering committee selected the topic The Psychology of Oppression. The topic grew out of interests, comments, and reflections expressed by members during the 1994 pre-session on Racism and the Academy. This year, the pre-session will be divided into two parts: a presnetation by Professor Elizabeth Lunbeck of Princeton University on her book The Psychiatric Persuasion: Knowledge, Gender, and Power in Modern America, and a four-person panel presenting reflections on the psychology of different forms of oppression.

Professor Lunbeck's research has centered on issues relating to the shift in psychiatric practice from a marginal discipline focusing on the treatment of serious mental illness to an influential profession accepted as authoritative in its pronoucements concerning nearly every aspect of people's lives. This research engages a broad range of related issues, including gender, class, urbanization, crime, and the relationship of public and private spheres.

The second part of the pre-session, the panel, will consist of four participants: Bill French (Loyola University of Chicago); Nancy Eiesland (Candler School of Theology); Garth Baker-Fletcher (Claremont School of Theology); and Gary Comstock (Wesleyan University). The topics covered will be race, disabilities, homosexuality, and the environment. The papers will be brief and allow plenty of time for discussion.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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The Archeology of PCR (Part II)

"Twenty Years of Conversation"is the title John McDargh gave to the hefty binder of PCR documents he left to the group when he stepped down as secretary-treasurer. This binder will be available for members to peruse at each PCR session at the upcoming AAR Meeting in Philadelphia. Below are more of the historical tidbits that can be found by reading through this wonderful archival resource:

• The group was originally founded in 1975 as an AAR Working Group called "Psycho-Social Interpretations in Theology" (PSIT). But after a lengthy discussion at the 1981 AAR Meeting in San Francisco, the membership voted to change the group's name to "Person, Culture and Religion" (PCR). According to the next newsletter issue, the membership felt this new name "more adequately reflects the interests of the group, as it has developed over the last eight years, in the inter-relation of the individual, the culture, and religious thought and life ways."

• Also at the 1981 AAR Meeting, the group held its first Friday pre-session, to provide "a chance to discuss in depth yet in a relaxed situation the issues that engage us as teachers and scholars in an interdisciplinary field." The pre-session was felt to be so successful that plans were made for a similar gathering prior to the opening of the next year's AAR meeting in New York. This inaugurated what has since become an annual tradition for the PCR group.

• The PCR pre-session at the 1983 AAR Meeting in Dallas included a dramatic reading of the play "Duet for One" by Tom Kempinski. Performed by Lewis Rambo (San Francisco Theological Seminary), Sharon Parks (Harvard Divinity School), and David Barnard (University of Texas), the play involved a dialogue between a musician with a paralyzing illness and her therapist. Each of the three "players" also offered a paper on issues relating to the boundary between medicine and religion.

• The 1985 PCR pre-session (Anaheim) included a late-evening viewing and discussion of Bergman's film "Autumn Sonata." According to the subsequent newsletter, "the movie proved for many of us to be far heavier than our meal had been and in part led us to the conclusion that for the Atlanta [1986] pre-session the first evening would more wisely end with a late dinner."

• In 1986 PCR's application for "affiliated society" status within the AAR was approved by the executive officers of the Academy.

• The PCR pre-session at the 1988 AAR Meeting in Chicago had papers on three different themes: "Freud and Jung: Another Look" (Demaris Wehr, presiding), "Psychoanalysis and Religion" (Judith Van Herick, presiding) and "Male, Female, and Family" (Bonnie Miller McLemore, presiding). The PCR Saturday morning session focused on "Suffering, Pain, and the Problem of Evil" (Greg Schneider, presiding) and the main session discussed "Love and Death in the 21st Century" (Diane Jonte-Pace, presiding) and "AIDS" (John McDargh, presiding).

The next newsletter issue will bring the history of PCR up to its post-McDarghian present.

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News from PCR Members

Steve Holmes (Harvard University), who joined PCR last year, is nearing completion of his dissertation in Harvard's American Civilization program. The dissertation is a biographical and theoretical study of the early life of the American environmentalist, nature-writer, and cultural hero John Muir. Steve is focusing on the emotinal and symbolic aspects of an individual's relationships with specific natural environments, over the course of a life. In developing a concrete, descriptive "environmental psychology" he has found object-relations theory most helpful, in a way directly parallel to the recent use of Winnicott et.al. in religious psychology: just as, for Rizutto, each of us has an image of "God," so too each of us has an image of "nature" or "the natural world" and beneath that, images of the specific natural surroundings tht have filled and shaped our own lives. Steve will be at the Philadelphia AAR Meeting this fall, and he looks forward to talking with other PCR members about related theoretical issues and about the job market.

Sandra Lee Dixon (University of Denver) will be offering a new graduate course this coming year, titled "Culture, Psyche, and Religion," which will cover various approaches to the relationships among the three topic areas. The class will devote special attention to Alan Roland's In Search of Self in India and Japan: Toward a Cross-Cultural Psychology, and Gananath Obeyesekere's The Work of Culture: Symbolic Transformation in Psychoanalysis and Anthropology.

Homer Jernigan responds to the question "These days I am thinking about..." with the following: Spiritual well-being of the elderly; A clinical/theological perspective on spirituality; and social and religious implications of changing patterns of courtship and marriage in three-generation families. He notes that he has recently published an article titled "Pastoral Psychotherapy in a Rapidly Changing World: Implications of Cultural Change in Taiwan and Singapore" in Therapeutic Practice in a Cross-Cultural World: Theological, Psychological, and Ethical Issues (edited by Carole Bohn; Journal of Pastoral Care Publications).

John Van Eenwyk reports that he has recently been appointed Clinical Supervisor in the Medical School at the University of Washington. Congratulations, John! His new address is P.O. Box 1961, Olympia, WA 98501.

Richard Hutch (University of Queensland) has recently published three articles: "The Uses and Misuses of Attribution Theory," Journal of Religion and Health vol. 33, no. 4 (Winter 1994), 365-371; "Confessing Dying Within," Journal of Pastoral Care vol. 48, no. 4 (Winter 1994), 341-352; and "Stopped Dead in Our Tracks: Spiritual Journeys and the God of Destruction," in Australian Consciousness and Action, edited by L. Do Rozario (Perth: Australian Transpersonal Institute, 1994), 1-23.

Mary Ford-Grabowsky is currently doing research on prayer and its power to motivate service to the world. She has edited Prayers for All People, a book to be published by Doubleday in November. The book is a collection of prayers from around the world over the past 5000 years, celebrating the life cycle.

H. Newton Maloney (Fuller Seminary) recently received a Templeton Foundation Award for a revision of a course in religion and science entitled "Introduction to the Integration of Theology and Psychology (Religion and Science)." A syllabus is available on request (180 N. Oakland, Pasadena, CA 91101). He reports that he has been elected to the Russian Academy of Religion and Science (Theology and Science section) and will deliver the Integration Lectures on "Brainwashing and Religion: A Psychological Point of View" at Fuller Seminary.

Pamela Cooper-White will be starting a Ph.D. program at the Chicago Institute for Clinical Social work this fall, with a fellowship grant from the Episcopal Church Foundation. Her book The Cry of Tamar: Violence Against Women and the Church's Response (Augsburg Fortress) is now available, and she hopes that it will be used as a course textbook as well as a general reference for clergy and educated lay people. Pam asks that if anyone decides to use it as a text to let her know and give her some feedback (c/o St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 306 S. Prospect Ave., Park Ridge, IL 60068). Also, she will be doing a book signing for The Cry of Tamar at the AAR Meeting in Philadelphia; check at the Augsburg Fortress booth for the exact time.

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Common Boundary Announcements

Charles Simpkinson, editor of Common Boundary, has two announcements of interest to the PCR community.

First is The Annual Psychospiritual Dissertation/ Thesis Award. Currently in its 8th year, this award recognizes outstanding dissertations and theses that address the interrelationship of psychotherapy, spirituality, and creativity. Students whose doctoral dissertations or master's theses (or the academic equivalent) are officially accepted during the 1995 calendar year are invited to apply by December 31, 1995. The award will be announced in June of 1996. the winning author will receive an award of $1000, and his/her essay will be printed in Common Boundary magazine. Entrants are requested to send a two-page, double-spaced, typewritten description of their dissertations/theses. Five authors will be selected by Common Boundary to write a ten-page essay based on the research and findings of their dissertations/theses. These essays will be reviewed by a panel of judges for final selection of the award recipient. Decisions will be made based on the originality and creativity of the essay, and its relevance and contribution to the field of psychospirituality.

Second is Common Boundary's 15th Annual Conference, titled "Inner Ecology/Outer Ecology." The conference will explore ways to restore our relationship with the natural world. The conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Virginia from Nov. 10 to Nov. 12, 1995. Featured presenters include Terry Tempest Williams, Matthew Fox, Christiane Northrup, Thomas Berry, Joseph Bruchac, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Gary Snyder, Karren J. Warren, and Winter.

For more information on the dissertation/thesis award or the conference, contact Charles at Common Boundary, 5272 River Road, Suite 650, Bethesda, MD 20816; phone (301) 652-9495; fax (301) 652-0579.

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