Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2008-1
Counter-Intuitive Religious Representations from the Perspective of Early Intersubjective Development and Complex Representational Constellations. A Methodological Reflection
My main concern in this article is the relevance of theoretically integrative approaches. I argue that such approaches are methodologically better equipped for the psychology of religion because they correspond with the inherent complexity of religiosity. In order to concretize this matter I critically evaluate the hypothesis proposed by some cognitive researchers that the attraction of counter-intuitive representations provides an explanation of religion. Irrelevant aspects are left out in this hypothesis. In contrast to this I rely on cognitive-analytic perspectives that are based on a broader theoretical foundation. This generates a more complete picture that also connects to the tradition built on Otto's (1923) idea of the wholly other. From this perspective it is more plausible to assume that religious representations are trajectories of the early evolving tripartite sense of self, other and world and, further, formed by individual mentalization capacity. This can be conceptualized in terms of interplay between specific complex representational constellations rooted in different phases of early development. Integrative approaches that depict mental activity as a dynamic and multifaceted phenomenon embedded in intersubjectivity are relevant for the psychology of religion.
AndersonS. J., & ConwayM. (1997). Representations of autobiographical memories. In ConwayM., editor, Cognitive models of memory.Hove East Sussex: Psychology Press.
2.
AtranS. (2002). In gods we trust: The evolutionary landscape of religion.New York: Oxford University Press.
3.
BakhtinM. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays.Austin: University of Texas Press.
4.
BarrettJ. L. (2004). Why would anyone believe in God?Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.
5.
BeattieM. T. (2005). Consciousness and the personality disorders: Developmental and clinical perspectives. In MastersonJ. F., editor, The personality disorders through the lens of attachment theory and the neurobiological development of the self.Phoenix, AZ: Zeig, Tucker & Theisen, Inc.
6.
BeckA. T., & WeishaarM. E. (1989). Cognitive therapy. In CorsiniR. J., and WeddingD., editors, Current psychotherapies (4th ed.). Itasca, MN: F. E. Peacock Publishers.
7.
BeebeB., LachmannF. M., & JaffeJ. (1997). Mother-infant interaction structures and presymbolic self- and object-representations.Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 7, 133–174.
8.
BeebeB., KnoblauchS., RustinJ., & SorterD. (2005). Forms of intersubjectivity in infant research and adult treatment.New York: Other Press.
9.
BenjafieldJ. G. (1992). Cognition.Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc.
10.
BollasC. (1987). The shadow of the object: Psychoanalysis of the unthought known.London: Free Association Books.
11.
BoyerP. (2001). Religion explained: The evolutionary origins of religious thought.New York: Basic Books.
12.
BoyerP. (2004a). Out of Africa: Lessons from a by-product of evolution. In LightT., and WilsonB. C., editors, Religion as human capacity: A festschrift in honor of E. Thomas Lawson.Boston: Brill.
13.
BoyerP. (2004b). Religion, evolution, and cognition.Current Anthropology,45(3), 430–433.
14.
BowlbyJ. (1973). Attachment and loss: Separation, anxiety and anger.New York: Basic Books.
15.
BowlbyJ. (1988). A secure base: Clinical applications of attachment theory.London: Routledge.
16.
BowlbyJ. (1994). En trygg bas: Kliniska tillämpningar av bindningsteorin.Borås, Västergötland: Natur och Kultur.
17.
BrokawB. F., & EdwardsK. J. (1994). The relationships of God image to level of object relations development.Journal of Psychology and Theology, 22, 352–371.
18.
BulkeleyK. (2006). Review.The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 16(3), 239–242.
19.
CrittendenP. M. (1995a). Attachment and risk for psychopathology: The early years.Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics,16(3. suppl.), 12–16.
20.
CrittendenP. M. (1995b). Attachment and psychopathology. In GoldbergS., MuirR., and KerrJ., editors, Attachment theory: Social, developmental, and clinical perspectives.Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.
21.
CrittendenP. M. (1997). Toward an integrative theory of trauma: A dynamic-maturational approach. In CicchettiD., and TothS., editors, The Rochester symposium on developmental psychopathology: Risk, trauma, and mental processes (vol. 10). Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.
22.
CsordasT. J. (2004). Asymptote of the ineffable: embodiment, alterity, and the theory of religion.Current Anthropology, 45, 163–176.
23.
DamasioA. R. (1996). Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason and the human brain.London: Papermac.
24.
DamasioA. R. (1999). The feeling of what happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness.New York: Harcourt.
25.
DamasioA. R. (2003). Spinozaa etsimässä: Ilo, suru ja tuntevat aivot.Helsinki, SE: Terra Cognita.
26.
DiamondN., & MarroneM. (2004). Attachment and intersubjectivity.London: Whurr Publishers.
27.
DickieJ. R., EshlemanA. K., MerascoD. M., ShepardA., Vander WiltM., & JohnsonM. (1997). Parent-child relationships and children's images of God.Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 36, 25–43.
28.
ElmanJ. L., BatesE. A., JohnsonM. H., Karmiloff-SmithA., ParisiD., & PlunkettK. (1996). Rethinking innateness.A connectionist perspective on development.Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
29.
FonagyP. (2001). Attachment theory and psychoanalysis.London: Karnac.
30.
FonagyP., GeregelyG., JuristE. L., & TargetM. (2004). Affect regulation, mentalization, and the development of the self.London: Karnac.
31.
GranqvistP. (2002). Attachment and religion: An integrative developmental framework.Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Comprehensive summaries of Uppsala dissertations from the Faculty of Social Sciences, 116.
32.
GullestadS. E. (2001). Attachment theory and psychoanalysis: Controversial issues.Scandinavian Psychoanalytic Review, 24, 3–16.
33.
JonesJ. W. (1991). Contemporary psychoanalysis & religion: Transference and transcendence.New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
34.
KirkpatrickL. A. (1997). An attachment-theory approach to the psychology of religion. In SpilkaB., and McIntoshD. N., editors, The psychology of religion: Theoretical approaches.Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
35.
LawsonT. E., & McCauleyR. N. (1996). Rethinking religion: Connecting cognition and culture.New York: Cambridge University Press.
36.
ManciaM. (2007). Feeling the words: Neuropsychoanalytic understanding of memory and the unconscious.London: Routledge.
37.
MastersonJ. F., editor, (2005). The personality disorders through the lens of attachment theory and the neurobiological development of the self.Phoenix, AZ: Zeig, Tucker & Theisen, Inc.
38.
McDonaldA., BeckR., AllisonS., & NorsworthyL. (2005). Attachment to God and parents: Testing the correspondence vs. compensation hypotheses.Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 24(1), 21–28.
39.
MeltzoffA. N. (1985). The roots of social and cognitive development: Models of man's original nature. In FieldT., and FoxN., editors, Social perception in infants.Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
40.
MeltzoffA. N. (1990). Foundations for developing a concept of self: The role of imitation in relating self to other and the value of social mirroring, social modeling, and self practice in infancy. In CicchettiD., and BeeghleyM., editors, The self in transition: Infancy to childhood.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
41.
NorrisC. (2005). Epistemology: Key concepts in philosophy.New York: Continuum.
42.
NynäsP. (2007). “Finns det någon som känner min röst?”:En religionspsykologisk studie av objektsökande tolkningsprocesser i radiondaktsreception.Nora, SE: Nya Doxa.
43.
OgdenT. (2004). The primitive edge of experience, London: Karnac.
44.
OstowM. (2007). Spirit, mind & brain: A psychoanalytic examination of spirituality and religion.New York: Columbia University Press.
45.
OttoR. (1923). The idea of the holy.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
46.
PallyR. (2005). A neuroscience perspective on forms of intersubjectivity in infant research and adult treatment. In BeebeB., KnoblauchS., RustinJ., and SorterD., editors, Forms of inter-subjectivity in infant research and adult treatment.New York: Other Press.
47.
PaprotteW., & SinhaC. (1987). A functional perspective on early language development. In HickmanM., editor, Social and functional approaches to language and thought.New York: Academic Press.
48.
PersingerM. A. (1987). Neuropsychological bases of god beliefs.New York: Praeger.
49.
PiontelliA. (1997). From fetus to child: An observational and psychoanalytical study.London: Routledge.
50.
PyysiäinenI. (2001). How religion works: Towards a new cognitive science of religion.Leiden, NL: Brill.
51.
PyysiäinenI. (2003a). Gods, genes, and passion.Journal of Cognition and Culture,3(2), 175–185.
52.
PyysiäinenI. (2003b). On the innateness of religion: A comment on Bering.Journal of Cognition and Culture,3, 218–225.
53.
PyysiäinenI. (2004). Magic, miracles, and religion.Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.
54.
RyleA., & KerrI. B. (2003). Introducing cognitive-analytic therapy: Principles and practice.Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
55.
SearlesH. F. (1960). The nonhuman environment: In normal development and in schizophrenia.Madison: International Universities press, Inc.
56.
SperberD., & WilsonD. (1986). Relevance: Communication and cognition.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
57.
SternD. (1985). The interpersonal world of the infant: A view from psychoanalysis and developmental psychology.New York: Basic Books.
58.
SternD. (1991). Spädbarnets interpersonella liv ur psykoanalytiskt och utvecklingspsykologiskt perspektiv.Stockholm: Natur och Kultur.
59.
TrevarthenC. (1998). The concept and foundations of infant intersubjectivity. In BratenS., editor, Intersubjective communication and emotion in early ontogeny.Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
60.
TähkäV. (1994). Mind and its treatment.Madison: International Universities Press.
61.
WahlH. (1997). Symbolic experience: Transforming the selfobject relation. In BelzenJ. A., editor, Hermeneutical approaches in psychology of religion.Amsterdam: Rodopi.
62.
WulffD. M. (2006). Commentary: How attached should we be to attachment theory?The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 16, 29–36.
63.
WhitehouseH. (2004). Modes of religiosity: A cognitive theory of religious transmission.Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.
64.
WikströmO. (1993). Liturgy as experience: The psychology of worship: A theoretical and empirical lacuna. In AhlbäckT., editor, The problem of ritual.Åbo, FI: The Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History.
