Religion and the unconscious

by Ann Belford Ulanov

In Religion and the Unconscious, Ann and Barry Ulanov provide a thoughtful study of the relationship between religion and depth psychology. An insightful contribution to the entire area of pastoral counseling, this book demonstrates how to combine religion and depth psychology in order to provide more effective counseling.

Genres: Spirituality, Psychology, Religion, Theology

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Zane Akers]

DNF. Should've been DNF'd a long time ago. I like the central premise, namely that the religion instinct, for lack of a better term, can be a "container," or safe place/mode of expression for the Unconscious and the irrational in the human psyche to breach into consciousness, and that such a thing can be very fruitful with regards to the goal of individuation. However, the text is almost impenetrable, by turns hyper-technical and literarily overwrought, and in my opinion needlessly so on both counts. There's no reason this book couldn't have lived up the lay-friendly description that incongruously appears in the blurbs on the back cover. I brought an extensive lay vocabulary plus basic knowledge of Freud and more-than-basic knowledge of Jung to this book and still had to grapple with it chapter by chapter. Note to those who have not been deterred by my review: There are some outdated theories about the nature of schizophrenia and autism in this book.

[Carl Hovey · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that Ann Ulanov is my thesis advisor, so, take that for what it's worth.

That being said, I gave the book 4 stars because while many of the ideas presented in the work are brilliant, the writing style itself can be heavy, circuitous, and tiring. This improves in the second, disappointingly brief, section of the work, titled, "Healing," but in the end attending a lecture by Dr. Ulanov is far more engaging than reading this book, which she penned with her husband.

[Shannon T.L. · Rating 2 out of 5]

this isn't a bad book, it's just not my cup of tea.