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M 4-6Pm and by Appointment Psychology of Religion Instructor: Matthew Dillon [email protected] MWF 11:00-11:50pm Office hours: M 4-6pm and by appointment Psychology of Religion “Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.” ~ William James "Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires." ~ Sigmund Freud “All ages before ours believed in gods in some form or other. Only an unparalleled impoverishment in symbolism could enable us to rediscover the gods as psychic factors, which is to say, as archetypes of the unconscious. ” ~Carl Jung Course Description This course provides an overview of the basic approaches in the psychological understanding of religious belief and practice. Topics to be addressed in religious systems East and West include: sex, religious experience, ritual, myth, ecstasy, God and meditation. Course Goals 1) Introduce the class to some major thinkers in the field of psychology of religion: James, Freud, Jung, Erikson, Winnicott, Maslow, Kakar, Boyer and Tremlin. 2) Cover some major theories in the psychology of religion: psychoanalysis, analytical psychology, ego psychology, self psychology, object-relations, neurological and cognitive science, and comparative-dialogical models. 3) Survey the history of the psychological sciences and their intersections with religion from the “Discovery of the Unconscious” with Franz Anton Mesmer to the recent boom in neuro-cognitive studies. 4) Expose students to the problems and nuances in exporting western psychological models for the study of non-western or historical religious phenomena. 5) Guide and encourage students to apply these theories and methods in the interpretation of religious phenomena in discussion, reading responses, a midterm examination and a final. Required Books Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion Carl Jung, Aion Kelley Bulkeley, The Wondering Brain Todd Tremlin, Minds and Gods Recommended (but not required) Books William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections Gananath Obeyesekere, The Awakened Ones Disability Policy Any student with a documented disability seeking academic adjustments or accommodations (including those involving the use of technology) is requested to speak with me during the first two weeks of class. All such discussions will remain as confidential as possible. Students with disabilities will need to also contact Disability Support Services in the Ley Student Center. Syllabus Agreement I reserve the right to change any of the reading assignments or the ordering of the lectures. The grading principles, policies, learning outcomes, and course requirements, however, will not change. Assignments The student is expected to come to class with the reading assigned for the day completed and ready to be discussed. Class participation is a significant part of the grade. In order to ensure the reading has been completed and engaged, ten reading responses will be collected randomly over the course of the semester. In addition, there will be a midterm exam on authors and texts read and discussed up to the date of the exam. Lastly, a final paper of 10-15 pages is required on a topic of the student’s choosing relevant to the course. Grading: Reading responses: 20% Participation 10% Midterm: 30% Final paper (10-15 pages): 40% Extra Credit There will be opportunities for extra credit in the form of short papers, book reviews and written accounts of attendance at events germane to psychology of religion. Schedule Origins of the Unconscious Mon. Aug 25: Distribute and cover syllabus. Outline “psychology of, and, as religion” typology. Wed. Aug 27: “Discovery of the Unconscious”: Mesmerism, Spiritualism and the birth of the psychological sciences. “Mesmerism, Spiritualism, New Thought, and Christian Science” in Eugene Taylor’s Shadow Culture (owlspace). Fri. Aug 29: The Society for Psychical Research and early researches into trance and the paranormal. Read Mark B. Ryan, “The Resurrection of Frederic Myers” (owlspace). Mon. Sept 1: LABOR DAY (HOLIDAY – NO SCHEDULED CLASS) William James Wed. Sept 3: Biographical portrait of William James, the father of American psychology. Read “The Stream of Consciousness” from Principles of Psychology and “Circumscription of the Topic” from The Varieties (owlspace). Fri. Sept 5: Turning a psychological eye to “religious experience.” Read James’ essays on “Mysticism” in The Varieties of Religious Experience (owlspace). Sigmund Freud Mon. Sept 8: Sigmund Freud and a typology of the psyche. Read “The Dissection of the Psychical Personality” in New Introductory Lectures (owlspace). Wed. Sept 10: Freud on Religion. Read Future of an Illusion (Chs. 1-5) Fri. Sept 12: Freud on Religion cont’d. Future of an Illusion (Chs. 6-10) Mon. Sept 15: Thinking through Freud. Watch the film American Beauty. Wed. Sept 17: Read “Introduction to the Psychoanalysis of Films.” Class discussion of the psychodynamics in American Beauty (interpretive essay due). Carl Jung *Fri. Sept 19: Carl Jung and Analytical Psychology. Read “Confrontation with the Unconscious” in Memories, Dreams, Reflections and short section of The Red Book (selections on owlspace). Mon. Sept 22: Jung’s theory of the personality. Read sections on “Persona,” “Ego,” “Shadow,” “Syzygy” and “The Self” in Aion. Wed. Sept 24: Jung’s psychological theory of religion: read “Christ as a Symbol of the Self” in Aion. Fri. Sept 26: Thinking through Jung. Read “Child Archetype as a Symbol of the Self” (owlspace). Watch the film Pan’s Labyrinth. Answer interpretive questions. Mon. Sept 29: Discussion of the Jungian themes in Pan’s Labyrinth. Erik Erikson Wed. Oct 1: Psychoanalysis in America and the rise of Ego Psychology. Read selections from Young Man Luther. Fri. Oct 3: Young Man Luther continued. Mon. Oct 6: Introducing self psychology. Read Kohut’s “Forms and Transformations of Narcissism.” Self Psychology and Religion Wed. Oct 8: Cultural self-objects and contemporary religion. Read Christine Miller’s “Joel Osteen as a Cultural Self-Object” (owlspace). Fri. Oct 10: Midterm examination. Due Sunday at noon. Mon. Oct 13: MIDTERM RECESS (NO SCHEDULED CLASS) Wed. Oct 15: Joel Osteen as Cultural Selfobject: Watch sermon from Lakeview “Be Who You Are.” Is it psychology? Or is it religion? Fri. Oct 17: Humanistic psychology and the birth of transpersonal psychology. Read selections on the hierarchy of needs from Motivation and Personality, Religion, Values and Peak Experiences,” and selections from The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. (owlspace) Mon. Oct 20: Maslow continued. The Psyche, East and West Wed. Oct 22: Stan Grof and a transpersonal psychology of extraordinary states. Read selections from The Holotropic Mind (owlspace). Fri. Oct 24: Thinking through identity, selfobjects and religion. Watch “The Source Family” documentary in class. Mon. Oct 27: Read Sudhir Kakar’s “Guru as a Cultural Selfobject” essay. Discuss “The Source Family” documentary Wed. Oct 29: The history of psychoanalysis and the “East.” Read William Parsons’ “Themes and Debates in the Psychology-Comparativist Dialogue.” (owlspace) Fri. Oct 31: Early infancy, creativity in the west: Introducing Object Relations. Read D.W. Winnicott’s “Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomena” from Playing and Reality (owlspace). Mon. Nov 3: Self psychology and object relations in India. Read selections from Sudhir Kakar’s Inner World (owlspace). Wed. Nov 5: Kakar interprets the Indian Saint, Ramakrishna. “Ramakrishna and the Mystical Experience” (owlspace). Fri. Nov 7: History of Religions and psychoanalysis. Kripal interprets Ramakrishna. “Kali’s Foot.” (owlspace). Mon. Nov 10: Initial reductive-regressive psychoanalytic views of meditation. Read Parsons’ essay on Freud and “the oceanic feeling,” Joe Tom Sun’s “Psychology in Primitive Buddhism” and Franz Alexander’s “Buddhistic Training as an Artifical Catatonia” (owlspace). Wed. Nov 12: Contemporary meditation research and Buddhism. Jack Engler’s “Buddhist Psychology: Contributions to Western Psychological Theory” and Mark Epstein’s “Beyond the Oceanic Feeling: Psychoanalytic Study of Buddhist Meditation.” The Brain and Religion Thurs. Nov 13: Preliminary bibliography (minimum 5 sources) and paper abstract due to instructor by email. Fri. Nov 14: Reassessing Freud through cognitive-neuroscience. Read Bulkeley’s chapter on Freud in The Wondering Brain. Mon. Nov 17: Reassessing James through cognitive neuroscience. Read Bulkeley’s chapter on Jung in The Wondering Brain. Wed. Nov 19: Evolution and religion. Read the introduction to Todd Tremlin’s Minds and Gods. Fri. Nov 21: Gods and Rituals on the brain. Minds and Gods cont’d Religious Phenomena in Close-up: Out-of-Body and Near-Death Experiences Mon. Nov 24: The neurology of OBEs. Read selections from Zaleski’s Otherworld Journeys (owlspace). Wed. Nov 26: Rereading the past through cognitive neuroscience. Selections from Paul in Ecstasy. Fri. Nov 28: THANKSGIVING RECESS (NO SCHEDULED CLASS) Mon. Dec 1: What if it’s all in our minds? (I) Gananath Obeyesekere’s introduction to The Awakened Ones. (owlspace) Wed. Dec 3: What if it’s all in our minds? (II) Gananath Obeyesekere’s chapter on “Carl Jung” The Awakened Ones. (owlspace) Fri. Dec 5: Analyzing OBEs in dialogue. Read short example of a heavenly journey from Couliano’s Out of this World (owlspace). Write your own analysis, using whatever methodologies you find most useful. Final paper due: December 17th at 11:59pm .
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