Abstract
“Soul-making” (cf. Jung and Hillman) is the process of integrating spiritual and bodily imagery into an intimated wholeness transcending conscious comprehension. Pierre Janet's case of the psychotic mystic, Madeleine, reveals that the patient had been “making” her own-soul even though his theory had no provision for soul. Janet's soul-stripping theory is contrasted with a soul-making approach, primarily in their respective interpretations of Madeleine's altered states of consciousness. Religious ecstasy is a “stretching” of soul, an expansion into the realm of “spirit,” which requires a subsequent descent into and reconciliation with tradition, society, outer world, and body.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hillman, J.,The Myth of Madness: Three Essays in Archetypal Psychology. New York, Harper Colophon, 1978;Re-Visioning Psychology. New York, Harper Colophon. 1975:The Dream and the Underworld. New York, Harper & Row, 1978.
Dorn, G., “Philosophia Meditativa,” collected inTheatrum Chemicum. Vol. 1, Ursel. 1602, 450–472; commentary in Jung, C.G.,Mysterium Conjunctionis. An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy. (The Collected Works. Vol. 141. R.F.C. Hull, trans. New York, Pantheon, 1963, pp. 457–553.
Janet, P.,De l'angoisse à l'extase. Etudes sur les croyances et les sentiments (originally 1926. 28). Reprinted, Paris, Société Pierre Janet. 1975.
Janet often preferred this symptom-descriptive designation. It appears to have been the most common diagnosis he made and the nearly definitive form of “psychasthenia.” It is the subject matter ofObsessions et la Psychasthénie (originally 1903: reprinted. New York, Arno, 1976), which has as its object the articulation of his psychasthenia theory of the psyche. Madeleine, as it will appear later in this article, is psychasthenic.
Janet's discretion often omits the very details we would most like to know. For example, what was the topic of these “revelations” (religion? sex? death?); with whose sorrows did she suffer (those of nameless others? those of her family?).
Janet,Angoisse, I, op. cit.Reprinted,, p. 14.
Ibid., p. 338.
Ibid., p. 338.
Cf. Bruno de Jésus-Marie, O.C.D., “A propos de la 'Madeleine' de Pierre Janet,”Etudes Carmelitaines, April, 1931, 20–125. Father Bruno reached his own conclusions about the case, mostly through communication with Madeleine's sister. His aim is to demonstrate Madeleine's psychotic condition and rid Roman Catholic mysticism and especially St. Theresa of Avila, the founder of Father Bruno's order, of all taint. A large portion of his lengthy article is given over to the reproduction of Madeleine's letters to her sister and a few others. It is from these that I have derived the material in the last four sentences of the present paragraph.
Janet,Angoisse, I, op. cit.Reprinted,. p. 101f.
About a half century after Madeleine's experiences, in 1950, the dogma was so declared by Pope Pius XII.
Cf. Janet, P.,Psychological Healing: A Historical and Clinical Study, in two volumes, E. and C. Paul, trans. (original, 1919). Translation reprinted, New York, Arno, 1976,passim.
Ibid.Cf..
Ellenberger, H.F.,The Discovery of the Unconscious. The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. New York, Basic Books, 1970, p. 351.
For Freud, every memory, speculation, and dream is a “symptom formation,” a compromise between the censored unconscious thought and some innocuous, recent analogue. Thus Freud pays the closest attention to what the patient says, but does not trulybelieve it. Instead, he searches for the Oedipal “truth” behind it.
Janet argues just the opposite, namely, that the world's mystical literature proceeds from states of consciousness no more “superior” than that of poor, psychotic Madeleine.
Jung, C.G.,Memories, Dreams. Reflections. Recorded and ed., A. Jaffé: Winston, R. and C. trans. New York, Pantheon, 1961, p. 295.
John 3:8.
I Cor. 12.
Hillman,Re-Visioning, op. cit., p. 104.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Haule, J.R. “Soul-making” in a schizophrenic saint. J Relig Health 23, 70–80 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00999901
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00999901