Object-relations and spirituality: revisiting a clinical dialogue

Antagonism and separateness has characterized the relationship between psychotherapy and religion/spirituality throughout the history of psychology, beginning with Freudian psychoanalytic theory. Recently, however, spirituality, broadly defined as a transcendent relationship with a higher being, has begun to reemerge as a central concept in therapeutic work. There is fertile ground for exploring how spirituality can be enfolded into psychotherapeutic practice, particularly from an object-relations standpoint. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to examine points of convergence and divergence between spirituality and object-relations theory and explore the integration of spirituality with object-relations therapy, with the hope of replacing historical antagonism with thoughtful and intentional integration.