Conclusion

Summary

During the course of this volume we have become familiar with three basic psychoanalytic approaches (i.e., classic-reductive, adaptive, transformational) as they emerged from Freud and developed through history, as well as the multiple enterprises (psychology of, psycho-spirituality, the dialogical projects) animating the psychology and religion movement. Through various cautionary tales, siphoned through the latter projects and advances in psychoanalytic theory, we arrived at the need for a reflexive, dialogical, inclusive psychoanalytic theory of religion, as well as portable lessons that can further its application. At the very least, we now see that a simple “cookie-cutter” approach to religious phenomena that emphasizes only the Oedipal in a classic-reductive sense is altogether too narrow. While the latter has its value when judiciously applied, the contemporary state of both psychoanalysis and the academic study of religion is far more sophisticated than that of Freud’s era. The psychoanalytic theory of religion must follow suit and implement proper revisions lest it be marginalized as a tool for the investigation of religious phenomena.