Vol. 24
No.1
Winter 2001
|
PCR
Call for Papers |
||
|
|
||
|
We invite papers addressing: 1. self psychological (or Kohutian) approaches to religion; and 2. the implications of evolutionary psychology or sociobiology for the study of religion and culture.
Papers may include clinical, theological, or other perspectives. We also welcome papers focused on other themes dealing with self, culture, and religion. We encourage email submissions; these should be sent to Dr. Franz Metcalf at fmetcal@calstatela.edu . Non-email submissions require seven copies of the proposal and should be sent to Dr. Kelley Raab, Department of Religious Studies, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY, 13617. Expect email confirmation within three days of sending email proposals. Deadline for submission is March 1, 2001; late proposals will not be considered. |
|
|
PCR-List, our online e-mail discussion group, has been the host for several intriguing discussions over the past several months. There are currently 74 members of the list, and recent conversations have included dreams, responses to papers presented at the Annual Meeting (available online to those who couldn't be there), resources for international communication regarding issues of concern to PCR folks, and calls for reviewers. If you have not taken advantage of this resource, we invite you to join up. The service that sponsored this list, E-Groups, was recently bought out by Yahoo, so subscription information has changed somewhat from previous announcements. • To subscribe to the list, send a message to pcr-list-subscribe@yahoogroups.com • To unsubscribe from the list, send a message to pcr-list-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com • To contact the listowner with any questions, write to pcr-list-owner@yahoogroups.com • To check out previous messages on the list and find some additional links to sites of interest, set your browser to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcr-list
Below are just a couple of examples of what's been posted to PCR-List.
And, don't forget to keep up with what's happening with the Person, Culture and Religion group by checking our own website at http://home.att.net/~pcr-aar
|
|
CHANGES TO THE PCR STEERING
COMMITTEE
|
At the PCR Business Meeting in Nashville two steering committee members, Trevor Watt and Chair Lucy Bregman, ended their terms of service. Both of them are long-time PCR members who have served prior terms as steering committee members earlier in the group's history. Their willingness to continue making contributions to the ongoing activities of the group provides a welcome degree of stability and experience. Lucy's term as chair may be remembered as true beginning of the digital era for the PCR group, and much appreciation is due to her for the work she did in promoting the shift from a paper-and-post-office mode of operation to an almost entirely electronic mode. Also at this year's Business Meeting, current steering committee members Franz Metcalf and Kelley Raab were elected to serve as new co-chairs, and Pamela Cooper-White, another veteran PCR member now teaching at Philadelphia Lutheran Theological Seminary, was elected to the committee. Thanks again to Lucy and Trevor, and welcome Franz, Kelley, and Pam! |
| Society for Psychological Anthropology 2001 Biennial Meeting Decatur, Georgia October 18-21, 2001 Meeting Theme: Reaching Out Our Biennial will be dedicated to reaching out in several different senses: • reaching out beyond anthropology to allied disciplines • reaching out to areas of cultural anthropology to which we have important contributions to make but where these contributions may not be sufficiently appreciated • reaching out to students of anthropology both graduate and undergraduate We will be having a plenary session to discuss some important matters about the current status of psychological anthropology within anthropology, and discuss ways to more effectively reach out to the discipline and to allied fields. We hope to engage all of us in a discussion of where our discipline is and where it wants to go from here. We will be trying to get a distinguished anthropologist from outside psychological anthropology to speak to us about the perception of psychological anthropology by other anthropologists. I. Proposed Sessions: Here are a tentative list of proposed sessions that I would like to float to see if there is interest. I will need people willing to be session organizers for each of these sessions, as well as names of people interested in contributing papers to each. Please let me know ifyou would like to volunteer to organize the session. Please let me know if you are interested in volunteering a paper for any of these sessions. I will pass your name along to the session organizers.
II. Proposed sessions: Please propose a session that you are willing to organize. Not every proposed session can be accepted. I will get back to you soon on your proposal. It is important that we get the broadest possible participation for the meetings, so please consider volunteering a session, to lead a session or to participate in one. To encourage student participation in the Meetings (and in S.P.A.), I am hoping to be able to offer free lodging (with Emory students and faculty) for graduate and undergraduate students attending the meeting. Contact me for details. Bradd Shore, President, S.P.A. (404) 727-4200 |
|
Diane Jonte-Pace (Santa Clara University) and Bill Parsons (Rice University) have published an edited volume, Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain, with Routledge Press (2001). The essays describe contemporary dialogues and future prospects in the field. Part I, "The Psychology `of' Religion," includes "Empirical and Cultural Approaches"; "Perspectives on Modernity and Post-Modernity"; and "Gender Studies." Part II, "Religion in Dialogue with Psychology," includes "Theology and Psychology in the West"; "Comparative Studies"; and "Psychology `as' Religion." Among the seventeen contributors are several PCR members: Jacob Belzen, Susan Henking, Donald Capps, Don Browning, Bonnie Miller-McLemore, Jeffrey Kripal, William Barnard, David Wulff, and Lucy Bregman. Lee Butler (Chicago Theological Seminary) has much good news to share. On October 29, 2000 he and his wife became the parents of Adia Mary Robinson Butler, their first child. Lee was also recently promoted with tenure, and his book The Loving Home: Caring for African-American Marriage and Families has been published by Pilgrim Press. Daniel Noel (Pacifica Graduate Institute) recently accepted a full-time appointment in the Mythological Studies program at the Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is working on the psychology of "belief" as a mental operation constructed by the Reformation and the rise of science in opposition to the imagination and what Jung called "the symbolic life." He recommends to PCR members the following books: Michael Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things (1997) and How We Believe (1999), and Stuart Vyse, Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition (1997). Emily Brault (Vanderbilt Divinity School) is a graduate student and a new PCR member who is working on a dissertation proposal focusing on the therapeutic value of sweat lodge practices for Native Americans in prison. She is looking at the role that cultural and spiritual genocide has played in the "criminalization" of native peoples and how sweat lodge practices may be a starting place for reclaiming self and culture and spirituality, especially in the prison setting. She has already done some field research with native peoples in Iowa, both inside and outside of prison. Raynard Daniel Smith (Drew University) is preparing for his comprehensive exams. He is particularly interested in Ana-Mariea Rizutto's notion of the formation of the God-representation. He intends to use her work as a framework for exploring the concept of God in African-American religious experience. He recommends to PCR members a book he has found helpful: God Images and Self-Esteem: Empowering Women in a Patriarchal Society (1991) by Carroll Saussy. William Rogers is working on a project on the "theology of perception," and he recently took a trip to Norway and completed the construction of a post and beam "Bow" house in Maine. Wayne G. Rollins (Assumption College) suggests PCR members look at two books. One is W.W. Meissner's The Cultic Origins of Christianity: The Dynamics of Religious Development (Liturgical Press, 2000). Meissner, S.J., is a Training Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute and a Professor of Psychoanalysis at Boston College. He has frequently written on Biblical themes. In this book he offers psychoanalytic perspectives on the cultic process with sections on the Pre-Christian context, the early church, and Gnosticism. The second is D. Andrew Kille's book Psychological Biblical Criticism (Guides to Biblical Scholarship, Old Testament Series, Fortress Press, 2000), which will be the subject of a panel discussion in the Psychology and Biblical Studies Section at the Denver AAR/SBL Meeting in 2001. James Poling (Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary) is working on the relations between pastoral theology, economic vulnerability, and family violence, and he is teaching courses on "Evil and Aggression" and "Power, Authority, and Abuse." Roy Steinhoff-Smith (Phillips Theological Seminary) has an article titled "Why a Samaritan?" forthcoming in one of the next two issues of Fourth R, a publication of the Westar Institute, known primarily as the sponsor of the Jesus Seminar. The article contains a genealogy of condescension and an archeology of mutuality. Felicity Kelcourse (Christian Theological Seminary) has a chapter coming out titled "Discernment: The Soul's Eye View" in a collection edited by Bill Ratliff, Out of the Silence: Quaker Dimensions to Pastoral Care and Counseling, available this spring from Pendle Hill Publications. The collection itself would be a useful addition to classes on healing, pastoral care, or counseling in any setting where faith and religious experience are not forbidden topics. The pieces (including hers) do assume a Quaker faith perspective. For a more psychodynamically oriented take on the same topic, she recommends "The Development of Discernment in Psychotherapy and Quaker Worship," Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 28 (1), 83-111, 2000. Judith Van Herik (Pennsylvania State University) regrets missing the PCR sessions at the Nashville AAR/SBL Meeting, but she says every other weekend she is in school training for massage therapy. She is officially retiring from Penn State at the end of June, although whe will continue to teach one course a semester that carries both Religious Studies and Psychology credit. She has a small practice in massage at home and is enjoying the learning process. Her 18 months of school training should be over in time for her to attend the Denver Meeting. Franz Metcalf (California State University, Los Angeles) has a second "What Would Buddha Do?" book coming out in June. This one will be titled What Would Buddha Do at Work (Seastone Press and Berrett-Koehler Press) and he describes it as "Franz's version of doing pastoral counseling." Jeffrey Kripal (Harvard University) has a new book coming out later this year, titled Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom: Eroticism and Reflexivity in the Study of Mysticism (University of Chicago Press). The book examines the intertwining of personal experience and professional scholarship in the lives and works of several leading theorists of mysticism. David Wulff (Wheaton College) has several recent publications to report: "The Psychology of Religion: An Overview," in Diane Jonte-Pace and William Parsons (ed.s), Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain (Routledge, 2001); "James Henry Leuba: A Reassessment of a Swiss-American Pioneer," in Jacob Belzen (ed.), Aspects in Contexts: Studies in the History of Psychology of Religion (Rodopi, 2000); "Mystical Experience," in E.Cardena, S.J. Lynn, and S. Krippner (ed.s), Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence (American Psychological Association, 2000); "On the Current Status of the Psychology of Religion in the United States," in C. Henning and E. Nestler (ed.s), Religionspsychologie Heute (Peter Lang, 2000); "Psychologists Define Religion: Patterns and Prospects of a Century-Long Quest," in J.G. Platvoet and A.L. Molendijk (ed.s), The Pragmatics of Defining Religion: Contexts, Concepts, and Contests (Brill, 1999); "Beyond Belief and Unbelief," Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, 1999. One of his sabbatical projects this spring is developing an understanding of the conservative mind-- its nature, especially in the postmodern world, its origins, and its dynamics and implications. Jenny Yates (Wells College) is chairing a session on dreams and presenting a paper on "A Dream of Sophia" at the International Congress for Analytical Psychology in Cambridge, England, August 19-24, 2001. Her paper discusses one of her dreams of Sophia, Hokhmah, and Shekinah, and she will amplify the dream through comparative religions, with a focus on the development of the female Self. Jacob Belzen (University of Amsterdam) has recently published Aspects in Contexts: Studies in the History of Psychology of Religion (Rodopi, 2000). The volume discusses such topics as the growth of the field as reflected in university politics, developments within international organizations, and the personal involvement of contributors to the field. Included are detailed portraits of figures like James Henry Leuba, Oskar Pfister, Gordon Allport, Werner Gruehn, and Antoine Vergote. Kelly Bulkeley (San Francisco Theological Seminary) wrote an op-ed article for the San Francisco Chronicle (12_6_00) titled "It's All Just A Bad Dream," about people's politically-related dreams and nightmares during the tumultous aftermath of the 2000 Presidential Election. |
|
Dear Colleagues, There are a few of us (or at least one!) who did know of the existence of both SPA and PCR. I am a relatively new member of both, having not joined either AAR or AAA until after getting my degree. I gave a paper at PCR's session on the self this year, and consider Psychological Anthropology to be the greatest single influence on my scholarship (I studied with Charles Lindholm). I discovered PCR almost by accident, expecting a section with the name of "Person, Culture, and Religion" to be anthropologically oriented. (I am not the only one to have made this assumption.) They appear to have a large number of practicing psychologists, therapists, ministers and counselors, thus their discussions seem more practically oriented, specifically within the context of Western culture and the Judeo-Christian traditions. This is admittedly a generalization. Psychological Anthropology covers many different areas of inquiry, but in general investigates cross-cultural questions of identity and experience more deeply than other disciplines. Within academia cross-cultural questions are valid and even necessary: although SPA and PCR appear to be looking at the same issues, are they really? As a cross-disciplinary academic, I find myself facing these kinds of questions often (what is the difference between an "association" and an "academy"?), and find them as enlivening as the topics being presented. A conversation between these two organizations could be quite fruitful. By the way, for those interested, a proposal has been submitted to the AAR program committee to set up an anthropology unit within the AAR. (This would start as a consultation.) If anyone wants to know more or would like to be on the mailing list please contact me. Regards, Rebecca Norris
|
|
|
The International Association for the Psychology of Religion (Internationale Gesellschaft für Religionspsychologie/Association Internationale de Psychologie de la Religion), founded in 1914, is a European-based, religiously and confessionally neutral organization, pursuing psychological research into the empirical phenomenon "religion(s)" as its sole aim. The Association brings together psychologists of religion of various regions and orientations, organizes conferences, and publishes the Archiv für Religionspsychologie (Archives for the Psychology of Religion/Archives de Psychologie de la Religion). At the upcoming conference the Association will be reorganized: proposals for a new constitution and bylaws have been prepared by the board and shall be discussed by the membership. Also a new board will be elected. The Association invites all psychologists of religion to its Conference 2001, Sept. 28-30, held in the conference center Kontakt der Kontinenten, in Soesterberg, the Netherlands (near Amersfoort, 40 minutes by train from Schiphol airport. The theme of the conference is Coping with Religion. Many presentations will focus on the ambivalent character of the plurality of religious phenomena as they relate to mental health and mental health care in an increasingly pluralistic society. Keynote speakers include Antoine Vergote (Belgium), Kenneth Pargament and H. Newton Malony (U.S.A.). Papers need not relate to the conference's theme, but should be clearly from a psychological point of view. Proposals for papers (150-200 word abstract, including name, academic affiliation, full address, and required media) should be submitted by email (MS Word or rtf) between April 1 and 15, 2001 to Jan van der Lans at the University of Nijmegen: vanderlans@psych.kun.nl. Further information on the Association may be obtained from the present secretary, Sebastian Murken, Universitaat Trier: smurken@mainz-online.de. |
|
In the last issue of the PCR Newsletter, Bill Parsons initiated a discussion of how to teach the basic ideas of Carl Jung. Bill offered a number of excellent suggestions: He asks students to read Jung's chapter on "Confrontations with the Unconscious" in Memories, Dreams, Reflections, followed by the essay on "Individuation" from Two Essays in Analytical Psychology, and by Ann Ulanov's chapter on animus figures in the Wizard of Oz. While I like Bill's pedagogical choices, I offer here another way to introduce Jung to students: I organize my course on "Religion in the Theories of Freud and Jung" into four units: "Interpretation of Religion"; "Critique of Religion"; "Intersections of Life and Theory"; and "Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Theology". In each unit, Freud serves as a contrast to, or a partner in dialogue with, Jung. For the Jung readings I draw primarily, but not entirely , from Jung's autobiography. In the unit on "Interpretation," I illustrate Jung's concepts of the archetypes and the collective unconscious by means of two sets of texts: 1. Max Zeller's brief account of Jung's interpretation of one of his dreams (a dream of building a temple) from C.G. Jung, Emma Jung, and Toni Wolff: A Collection of Remembrances, Ferne Jensen, ed. (Analytical Psychololgy Club of San Francisco,1982), and 2. a few of Jung's writings on the mythology of the hero. Robert Segal's edited collection Jung on Mythology (1998) provides an accessible collection of these texts. I supplement these readings with a segment from Bill Moyers' video "The Powers of Myth: The Hero's Journey." Joseph Campbell's discussion of the film "Star Wars" in the Moyers video exemplifies beautifully the archetypal and mythic stages outlined by Jung. In the unit on "Critique of Religion" I allow Jung to present himself as a complex figure: a reformer, defender, and critic of religion. Jung the critic of religion emerges in the first two chapters of Memories, Dreams, Reflections (especially in the famous ritual-phallus dream and the turd fantasy); Jung the reformer of religion, on the other hand, emerges in later chapters where he states that religion must be transformed: "our myth has become mute..." (p. 332). Clips from videos provide a portrait of Jung the supporter and defender of religion. In "The Mystery that Heals" Jung is described by one interviewee as "the most religious man I ever knew", and in a BBC interview, an elderly Jung, in response to an interviewer's question, "Do you believe in God?" responds "I do not believe, I know." In the unit on "Intersections of Life and Theory" I use Jung's chapters on Freud and on "Confrontations with the Unconscious" in Memories, Dreams Reflections to introduce the Freud-Jung relationship and theme of religion in life and theory. Along with these readings, I ask students to read a short section of the introductory chapter in Peter Homans' Jung in Context: Homans argues that both Freud and Jung experienced a loss of a religious common culture; both withdrew into introspection; and both developed a new vocabulary to articulate their experiences of the inner world. Homans' text serves to locate Freud's and Jung's theories with the contexts of their own lives, their religious backgrounds, and the broader historical forces of modernity. The final unit on "Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Theology" focuses more on Freud than on Jung, but I do set up a classic controversy that my students often find meaningful. I introduce Martin Buber's critique of Jung from The Eclipse of God (1957). In Buber's anti-modernist view Jung's psychology makes God a function of the unconscious rather than a Transcendent Other. As a contrast to Buber I ask my students to read David Miller's essay "Attack Upon Christendom: The Anti-Christianism of Depth Psycholgy (Thought, 1986). Miller suugests that both Freud and Jung (along with Hillman and Lacan) are authentically "religious" (small "r"), and that they avoid the trap of being inauthentically and literally "Religious" (capital "R"). This is not a new controversy, but this debate over whether Jung is "good" or "bad", religious or anti-religious, remains an important one in our culture and in the lives of our students. Let me conclude with a request: I have a vague memory of reading, 25 or 30 years ago, an essay in the Collected Works in which Jung analyzed the profoundly archetypal dreams of a young child who was, unbeknownst to her family or her doctors, nearing death. Jung diagnosed her terminal illness simply by reading her dream journal. I wish I could find this essay. If anyone knows of it, would you let me know? Thanks. Diane Jonte-Pace (Santa Clara University)
|
|
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary announces a tenure-track faculty position in the area of Pastoral Care. The person appointed to this position must be qualified to reflect theologically on all dimensions of pastoral care, teaching in the areas of pastoral care of persons and families, pastoral counseling, and other aspects of care within the practices of the church. He or she will teach required courses in the M.Div., the M.A.T.S. and the D.Min. degree programs. Elective course offerings will be in keeping with her or his special interests, and needs of the Seminary. The starting rank is open, and will be determined according to the qualifications of the candidate. The doctoral degree (Ph.D. or its equivalent) is required; degree candidates are also invited to apply. Clinical certification is highly desirable, as is pastoral experience. Women and persons of racial-ethnic minorities are strongly encouraged to apply. The Seminary will begin reviewing applications immediately, and will continue receiving applications until April 1, 2001. Applications, curricula vitae, and letters of recommendation should be sent to Dr. J. Andrew Dearman, Academic Dean, |
|
|
The Religious Studies Programs at Ithaca College and Cornell University (both located in Ithaca, New York) announce the regional AAR-EIR conference March 30-31, 2001 to be held on the Ithaca College campus. The theme for this year's conference is "Ritual/Performance/ Spectacle/ Violence." Our plenary speakers will be Prof. Richard Schechner of New York University, who has written The Future of Ritual, and works in the area of performance studies, and Prof. Ron Grimes who has written several works on ritual, such as Beginnings in Ritual Studies and Marrying and Burying. We will have papers on pilgrimage, women doing the Roman Catholic Mass, Zen ceremonials, Witchcraft on the Internet, a 40-foot labyrinth for meditative walks, rituals of violence and healing in society, church and film, a report by the survivor of a near-death experience, and a special Friday night celebration after Prof. Schechner's talk with Hindustani tambura [like sitar] music and a student Gospel music choir. Requests for registration and other questions may be address to: Professor Lee Bailey, Department of Philosophy and Religion, Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York 14850 bailey@ithaca.edu and Professor Jane Marie Law, Director, Religious Studies Program, 388 Rockefeller Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca New York 14853, JML16@cornell.edu. |
|
Below is a link for a man who organizes a global email connection for periodicals and discussions on psychology, psychotherapy and psychoanalytic studies. I have found it very helpful in reading what many people are thinking, researching and dialoguing about.
Contact for global psych. group: • Robert Maxwell Young, Prof. Emeritus of Psychotherapy & Psychoanalytic Studies, Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies, Univ. of Sheffield • Co-Director, Bulgarian Institute of Human Relations & Honoured Prof., New Bulgarian Univ., Sofia. • Private Practice, Consultation, Supervision Web Site & Writings • E-mail: r.m.young@sheffield.ac.uk, robert@rmy1.demon.co.uk
|
|
| Greetings all,
I have been lurking on the list and thought that I would introduce myself and mention my current work on discernment. I am an Assistant Professor at Univ of WI-Milwaukee. I have a joint appointment to the Rehab Counseling and Counseling Psych programs. One of my primary areas of interest is the integration of spiritual/religious issues in psychotherapy. I come from a substance abuse counseling background (in my opinion-one of the few areas of counseling where spirituality is actively integrated into the counseling process). I have an ongoing interest in using aspects of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises in therapy. I just recently completed a paper on use of the Examen for discernment in the career counseling process. (I'm getting ready to submit it for publication). Another area of interest that I have that coincides with the spiritual integration work is multicultural counseling. I'm glad to be on this list and have enjoyed reading the posts. It's good to meet people with similar interests. Paul E. Priester |