Theology, Psychoanalysis and Trauma

by Marcus Pound, Conor Cunningham, Peter Candler

Overview

Marcus Pound’s book develops a specifically theological form of psychotherapy rooted in liturgy and arising from engagement with postmodern psychoanalysis. Jacques Lacan’s claim that ‘the unconscious is structured like a language’ radically challenged psychoanalysis and Pound uses this as the basis for his work in this volume. Postmodern psychoanalysis has been anticipated by theology, and Pound goes further in this claim to argue there has been a return to theology in psychoanalysis

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780334041399
Publisher:	Hymns Ancient & Modern
Publication date:	07/07/2011
Series:	Veritas Series
Pages:	210
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

Editorial Reviews

Marcus Pound’s first book is the most important sustained reflection on the relation of theology and psychoanalysis to date. His approach is admirably focused, since it compares the ideas of the theological founder of the complex motivational psychology – Søren Kierkegaard – with those of the most sophisticated secular psychoanalytical theorists – Jacques Lacan. In doing so Pound offers, in a short compass, both a psychological deepening of theological orthodoxy and a theological critique of psychoanalysis as such. Future engagement with this area must begin with this lucid, subtle and brilliant treatise.” John Milbank The subtitle of Pound's book could have been 'Lacan with Kierkegaard'. It stages an extraordinary dialogue between the two thinkers, demonstrating the Kierkegaardian resonances of the key Lacanian concepts. From now on, we know that the Freudian notion of 'trauma', its sexual references notwithst anding, belongs to the domain of the divine. The book is a true event: after reading it, neither Kierkegaard nor Lacan will remain the same in our theoretical imaginary. You can ignore this book... if you want to remain a happy idiot." - Slavoj Žižek "The vitality of Christian theology today, its creativity, its imaginative and scholarly engagement, are nowhere more evident than in this book. Pound's presentation of an interface between psychology and doctrine is as bold as it is original. Kierkegaard meets Lacan, trauma is related to liturgy and therapy to sacramentalism - all under the aegis of Aquinas! This is contemporary theology at its best - exploring new terrains and forging distinctive relations between onetime strangers." - Graham Ward

From the Publisher