Many of us have a strong desire to be whole and this drives us to therapy or religion. However, if you try both you will find a big conceptual gap that may very well add to, not lessen, your confusion. The gap is that Western psychology is aimed at improving the ego, and religion, in its esoteric form, is about dissolution of the ego. Those who occupy one ground or the other will often try to undermine each others position with a variety of persuasive but ultimately inconclusive arguments. This book takes a middle postion that might be said to synthesise the two positions. The author's contention is that to dissolve the ego the ego must first be in a state that is capable of such dissolution and that this state requires that the ugliest stuff that is buried in our unconcious be brought up and owned; this, of course, is the territory of depth psychology.
The author makes this case well and then, very concisely, summarises several depth psychologies (one of which I had never heard of before), pointing out their therapeutic aims and methods. He also gives some case studies.
He stresses that the use of therapy on the spiritual path is slightly different than when it is used in the purely humanistic context and that difference is that on the religious path, when the material is uncovered there is no attmept made to change it, only accept it.
The book is well written though the author can sometimes be a little dry and a little reserved in his use of language for my taste. When you are trapped in a spiritual impasse you are in a sort of existential agony and, for me, reserved language is just not visceral enough to convey that. However the book is a superb piece of work becuase it works in a mid-ground that is neither wholly humanistic not wholly religious.
Proponents of religion come from thousands of years of tradition; therapists come from a line of thought which is, at base opposed to pure religion and so neither party easily endorse this kind of synthesis. However for the Westerner who is not actually that bothered about the conceptual basis of any given position but instead is simpy concerned with being whole a synthesis of this kind is more or less essential. It is my belief that actually this synthesis is that natural home of the modern Westerner.
As a modern Westerner myself and one who has been involved in both therapy and religion I can say that at their best they seem to merge. The openness of heart that comes from successful therapy feels like pure religion; the loss of ego that sometimes comes from religious practice feels like therapy.
If you strip them of their ideas and just look at the people you will find that those who have undergone therpay and those on the religious path are in fact very similar. My suggestion to you is that that the interaction between ourselves and the world *is* religion, and therapy, both. Once you are awake a process is underway, one that you cannot arrest. Whether you proceed with therapy or religion, and name your efforts as those of Buddhist or a Gestaltist will not matter, you are headed in the direction of personal evolution and you will eventually wash up having grown.
Regards
Adrian
