Abstract
For more than forty-five years as a Carmelite nun in the sixteenth century, Teresa of Avila suffered from great physical pain. We see in her life how disciplined prayer can become a healing experience that moves from minimal psychic representation to full symbolic representation. After a brief examination of Teresa's life, two theoretical perspectives on somatic manifestation will be reviewed: the theory of conversion hysteria of the classical Freudian school, and the differentiation Joyce McDougall draws between hysterical and psychosomatic phenomena. For the psychosomatic, as the mystic, the void of wordless space has significance. Following after McDougall on the suffering body, a third perspective will be offered: the concept of conscious body suffering as a means to inner change.
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References
Walsh, William Thomas,Saint Teresa of Avila, A Biography. Rockford, Il.: Tan Brooks and Publishers, Inc., 1943. Walsh draws from the primary texts and Teresa's contemporary biographers, especially Francisco de Ribera, S.J., and Diego de Yepes.
The Life of Teresa of Jesus, E. Allison Peers, trans. and ed. New York: Image Books, 1960, ch. 1, p. 67.
——. pp. 20, 30, translateslivianos to connote “frivolous” as distinguished from “shameful” in Teresa's discourse with her cousin. He concludes that Teresa was most likely suffering from an overactive imagination and a “sensitive conscience with fears and scruples”.
—, ch. 4. p. 77. “This new life gave me a joy so great that it has never failed me even to this day, and God converted the aridity of my soul into the deepest tenderness”.
——. p. 82, cites Francisco de Osuna'sThird Spiritual Alphabet, Trat. XXI, ch. 6. Osuna emphasized that it is in the soul that humankind comes to know the image of the indwelling God: “Thou brother, if thou desirest better to hit the mark, seek God in thy heart; do not go outside thyself, for He is nearer to thee and more within thee than thou are thyself”.
See—, ch. 8, p. 110. “It is the means by which we may amend our lives again, and without it amendment will be very much harder”. See alsoLife, ch. 9, pp. 115 ff. Mental prayer is attainable by rising above the pain we feel, and knowing ourselves in the presence of a Being Whom we cannot yet love.
See Romano, Catherine, “A Psycho-Spiritual History of Teresa of Avila”, inWestern Spirituality, Matthew Fox, ed. Santa Fe: Bear & Company, 1981, pp. 261–295. Romano draws material from Freud,Character and Culture, Philip Rieff, ed. New York: Collier Books, 1963, pp. 211–213. See also Franz Alexander,Psychosomatic Medicine. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1950, p. 40.
See——, pp. 272–273. Teresa's “morning sickness” may have stimulated a fantasy of pregnancy. Romano says that if Teresa had developed favorably in her culture, she would have submerged her narcissistic penis envy in the object-libidinal desire to give birth to a child.
——Ibid.,, p. 275. Romano cites Freud,A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, Joan Riviere, trans. New York: Pocket Books, 1953, p. 399.
——Ibid.,, p. 276, cites Freud,Dora: An Analysis of A Case of Hysteria, Philip Rieff, ed. New York: Collier Books, 1963, p. 149.
See Breuer, Joseph and Sigmund Freud,Studies on Hysteria. James Strachey, trans. and ed. New York: Basic Books, Inc., pp. 122ff, on the role of defenses and the will in hysteria.
——, p. 282.
——, p. 293.
McDougall, Joyce,Theaters of the Body: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Psychosomatic Illness, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1989, p. 17.
——See, pp. 53ff. McDougall compares this void with Freud's “lack of word-presentations” in the psyche. The primitive “thing-presentations”, typical in the unconscious of a somato-psychic disorder, must be decoded by the psyche and carried into action.
——See ibid.,, pp. 34ff.
McDougall, Joyce,Plea For A Measure of Abnormality. New York: International Universities Press, 1980, p. 425.
——, pp. 152ff.
——See, pp. 428–429. McDougall tells us, in these instances, the body ignores distress signals until the person has fallen very ill. The human mind under stress “through the intricate interplay of splitting mechanisms, projection, and psychic repudiation is able to avoid, deny, or even totally destroy any trace of its perception of physical pain, thus revealing a dislocation in psychosomatic unity”. These psychic factors are representative of attempts at selfcure in the face of overwhelming conflict.
——, ch. 25.p. 242.
——, p. 567, citesFundaciones, ch. 31.
—See, ch. 17, p. 168; also ch. 20, pp. 190–191.
—, ch. 18, pp. 178–180. Peer's literal translation reads: It is the will that “maintains the web”, referring to “the web, or thred of human life”. He feels the reference is not to the thread of human life, but that the phrase alludes to communion with God. The metaphor is thus, “It is the will that is the soul's stanchion”. I have used Walsh's translation, however, in his earnest attempt to represent Teresa's language and style.
——. p. 385, draws from theBiblioteca Mistica Carmelitana, Fr. P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, O.C.D., ed. Burgos: El Monte Carmelo, 1915. Vol. II., p. 50.
“This matter of self-knowledge must never be neglected. No soul on this road is such a giant that it does not often need to become a child at the breast again... For there is no state of prayer, however sublime, in which it is not necessary often to go back to the beginning”. —, ch. 13, p. 145.
No matter how ill Teresa was, after entering the space of prayer, she was “generally much the better for it”.—, ch. 18, pp. 178–179.
—See, chs. 11–21, pp. 125–209 for Teresa's description of the four degrees of mental prayer. She experienced all four degrees of prayer before her conversion. She emphasizes the importance of working under a spiritual director and specified a director or master over a confessor, because an attempt to understand the spirit must be made or both soul and body can become afflicted and prevent any improvement. SeeThe Life of Teresa of Jesus, E. Allison Peers, trans. and ed. New York: Image Books, 1960, Ch. 23, pp. 221ff.
—, ch. 18, pp. 177ff.
—, ch. 36, p. 343.
Interior Castle. E. Allison Peers, trans. and ed. New York: Image Books, 1989, p. 141.
—Ibid.,, Mansion Six, ch. 11, p. 200.
—Ibid.,, Mansion One, chs. 1, 2.
Way of Perfection. E. Allison Peers, trans. and ed., 2nd ed. New York: Image Books, 1991, p. 231.
Col. 1:23–24.
Eph. 4:1–6.
——, p. 269, citesWay of Perfection, the Escorial MS, ch. 11, p. 234, the oldest autograph, written by Teresa in 1565–1566.
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Madden, K. Teresa of Avila: The will and the weaving. J Relig Health 33, 131–147 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02354533
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02354533