Abstract
This chapter shows that emotional content has become a type of spiritual currency in our contemporary society. It further argues that emotional content has become a powerful tool for people in social life, be it in the field of politics or marketing. The chapter discusses the implications of this shift in how we perceive and interact with our modern environment and how it relates to spiritual direction. The chapter serves as an introduction to the book as such. It, therefore, shows the development of positive affectivism in the practice of spiritual direction. I take the time to consider the impact of the psychologisation of spirituality and consider the work of William James and Rudolf Otto, the rise of the Injunction to Enjoy and the eventual misuse of these psychologised techniques by modern spiritual directors.
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Notes
- 1.
He argues that mystical theology is a term we should associate with the lineage stemming from the sixth century mystical thinker Pseudo Dionysius who I will expand on in later chapters (McIntosh, 1998, p. 8).
- 2.
In this sense, the other narrative of this book is one concerned with the ‘de-mystification of mysticism’ concerning the practice of spiritual direction (see Keller, 2014). I mean this in the sense that mystical theology is different from what we call mysticism. The latter being about ineffable experientialism and noetic affective encounter with the divine.
- 3.
The term ‘Experience Economy’ was first articulated by Joseph Pine and James H Gilmore. It focuses on the next development of the economy which succeeds the agrarian and industrial revolutions. Pine and Gilmore argue that businesses today have to create memorable enjoyable experiences and the memory of such events becomes the finished product of companies. The value added these products give is the possibility of existential transformation. Joseph Pine and James Gilmore are business coaches and authors. who give international talks and focus on the concept of authenticity (see Pine & Gilmore, 2011).
- 4.
Phone apps and web services offer spirituality in terms of relieving stress and meditation. One site promises the following ‘I’ve turned my phone into a spiritual tool by loading it up with some beautiful apps that help strengthen my spiritual practice, boost my mood and make me feel good!’ (Bernstein, 2017, pp. 1–10). There are many other examples like this. Mystical theology is a practice of theology which focuses on what is known as contemplation and contemplative prayer; in the past these practices were not separate from theology and encompassed both the intellect and the affect and its relation to exoteric practices such as liturgy. It was concerned with our integration into the life of Christ in the form of the ecclesia. The concept of the mystical was associated with these personal practices by which one facilitated a process. Over time the concept of mystical theology gave way to the concept of the mystical which became more focused on internal states. (see Turner, 1995).
- 5.
Carrette and King in their work Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion, suggest that this is a discourse which arose in the beginnings of the sixteenth century and found its clearest articulation in the psychological discourses in the nineteenth and twentieth century. These discourses thereby blended with aspects of the market and religion to create our current predicament.
- 6.
Psychologism is a philosophical position which tends to reduce all subjective positions to psychological process.
- 7.
William James (1842–1910) was a seminal psychologist. He was also the first psychologist to offer the discipline as a course to be studied in the United States. He is famous for his work on the psychology of religion. He is a major figure in my work (see James, 1902).
- 8.
My argument is that although the logics of D1a and Db are, on the surface, very different, they both aim at the same object. To this end, they point at the same object either through the intellect or the affect. I call this similarity in operation ‘the affectological.’ That being said, the main focus of my argument is tackling the prevalence of the discourse of D1b, since this is manifest in much of the practice of modern spiritual direction. I give a fuller exposition of this later.
- 9.
This expression depicts a profound existential transitional moment in the soul’s movement toward God. It is usually depicted in terms of spiritual aridity although it also paradoxically demonstrates a progressive moment in one’s spiritual journey. It is defined in the Ascent of Mount Carmel (Subida del Monte Carmelo) and The Dark Night (Noche Oscura) by John of the Cross (1542–1591) and has been used by other writers and saints throughout the ages (Cugno, 1982, pp. 1–50). My argument will return to examine this concept later.
- 10.
This quote is of utmost importance; I will return to explicating it later on.
- 11.
I use this term to describe the paradoxical nature of what I describe of as D2 It results in a non-experiential form of experience. And since experience (as end and object of desire) is deferred, desire intensifies and continues infinitely. It stems back to Gregory of Nyssa and how he believed that since human desire is a manifestation of our deep-seated yearning for God, it will never be entirely satiated in this life or the next. Instead, in his view, as we deepen our understanding and love of God, our longing for Him continues throughout this life and into the next. (Williams, 2014, pp. 57–58).
- 12.
I have edited this to take out Greek terms for ease of reading.
- 13.
These sections focus on the modern reception of John and how spiritual direction has come to focus on an experientialism as a specific mode of enjoyment we are commanded to engage in. They also focus on how emotional warmth is a prerequisite quality that must be found in spiritual directors. To summarise here, the literature on the significance of John’s contribution to spiritual direction is interpreted in terms of D1b as opposed to D2.
- 14.
The linguistic turn is a movement in philosophy that unified a general tendency between continental and analytic traditions. It starts from the premise that the limits of our thought are synonymous with what it is possible to say. The starting point of philosophy, therefore, starts with examining our position as speaking creatures (see Critchley, 2001, pp. 20–21).
- 15.
In 1985 political philosopher Alain Badiou (1937) a student of Lacan, argued that politics will only become thinkable when delivered from the tyranny of number. He is critiquing the tendency to reduce the political into pure measurable units. This can be applied to the modern tendency to try and measure ‘happiness.’ One is reminded of the introduction of the world happiness report in 2012 which uses the concept of well-being as an alternative heuristic device to measure the growth of a nation as opposed to traditional ideas of economic growth. Moreover, the idea of the service of goods as depicted by Lacan was critical of how psychoanalysis was being forced into a specific idea of the good which was synonymous with adaptation of the subject to societal norms that are measurable (see Pluth, 2013).
- 16.
In the text he actually says ‘the care ridden man’ rather than ‘man of care’ as Lacan uses the term souci which means worry and anxiety. Lacan, in using this phrase, is invoking the discourse of Heidegger as souci is the usual French translation of Heidegger’s sorge, according to Bruce Fink who is the primary translator of the Écrits (Lacan, 2006, p. 792n).According to Fink, Lacan is linking the pastoral implications of being an analyst to conceptions of being linked to existentialist thought. Lacanian scholar Richard Boothby, however, has decided to translate this as ‘man of care.’ I have chosen to put this in place of care-ridden in order to focus on the pastoral nature of Lacan’s work (see Boothby, 2015).
- 17.
The Other is a term utilised in modern theology for the alterity of God. However, Lacan conceived of the Other as being the field in which our desire is shaped and created. The two concepts have similarities and differences which I will map out in the course of this work.
- 18.
John is to be located in the tradition of the theologia mistica which is a tradition which distinguishes itself from speculative theology (Tyler, 2011, pp. 61–70).
- 19.
The idea of a performative discourse is central to my argument. It is a notion elaborated by Peter Tyler. The idea is that language is not ‘merely descriptive’ rather it is performative. The texts are designed to have a formative effect on the reader rather than merely describe an ineffable pre-linguistic experience (see Tyler, 2011). I will also argue that this performative discourse is precisely what Lacan was trying to articulate in giving an account of analytic discourse.
- 20.
Elizabeth Roudinesco is arguably the most famous of Lacan’s biographers. She is a French historian and practicing psychoanalyst. She is also an affiliated researcher at Paris Diderot University. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages and her biography of Freud was awarded the Prix Décembre and 2014 (see Roudinesco, 1999). She was also a student of Michel De Certeau (see Badiou, 2018).
- 21.
The real is a central pillar of Lacan’s thought. It represents an antagonistic excess within our psychological economy. It radically stands outside of our formation in language, yet also represents that which forms its innermost core (see Eyers, 2012). My argument will expand on this concept below. Again, the real is that aspect of our existence which is radically outside of any conception, whether emotional or intellectual. It is experienced as a type of opacity which is absolutely impenetrable. It plays a central part in Lacan’s meta psychology and in clinical practice.
- 22.
Pound argues that the concept of repetition entails that one repeats the work but with a fundamental difference in order to create an intervention rather than a mere continuation (Pound, 2007, pp. 1–28).
- 23.
I use the term imaginary in the Lacanian sense, as the register which is concerned with wholeness, ‘affectivity’ perfection and ‘satisfaction.’ It is the psychological register of the ego. This will be expanded in the chapter on Lacan. The similarity between Lacan’s idea of avoiding the imaginary in analysis and John’s “dark night of the soul” is that both describe a process of confronting and overcoming the constraints of our own conceptual and affective frameworks regarding how we relate to ourselves. For John, this entails a fundamental disengagement from everything we generally rely on to create our identities and make sense of the world. While for Lacan, it entails realising how our reliance on received pictures-of-the-self can be a type of self-deception. John and Lacan would hypothetically agree that these processes would be challenging and could be uncomfortable. Although for John, it results in a mystical connection with God, for Lacan, it results in the subject taking responsibility for their desire.
- 24.
Rudolf Otto is an important theologian of the early twentieth century. The main idea he has contributed to this field is his concept of the numinous which he postulated as being the very centre of the world’s religions. He is considered to be one of the foremost theorists of the liberal theological tradition (see Almond, 2017).
- 25.
Technologies-of-the-self is a term coined by Michel Foucault. It refers to strategies and tactics people utilise in order to come to grasp their ethicality concerning established authority. This knowledge of self and how it relates to a broader social text is then utilised in arguments regarding scientific legitimacy. It is a model of self-regulation which has a wider relation to modes of power, especially in liberal democracies (Reuben, 2006, p. 156).
- 26.
Myers Briggs personality test is used to locate and describe employee’s personality traits in order to facilitate production. It is based on Carl Jung’s theory of personality types (see Bayne, 1995). According to Stromberg and Caswell, the test was Established in the 1940s and is widely dismissed by psychologists today. It is inept at predicting job success and often yields inconsistent results (Stromberg & Caswell, 2014).
- 27.
Trygve Braatøy (1904–1953) was a Norwegian Doctor who specialised in psychiatry. He is famous for introducing the ideas of Freud to Norway (Koch, 1999, pp. 1–10).
- 28.
I will argue that this requisite for spiritual directors to have the capacity for emotional and empathetic resonance is an invention of modernity, which flows from the aforementioned experiential tradition which is located in the larger paradigm of the injunction of enjoy.
- 29.
‘Spiritual Directors International is an inclusive, global learning community of people from many faiths and many nations who share a common passion and commitment to the art and contemplative practice of spiritual direction’ (Anon, 2018, p. 1).
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Murphy, M.G. (2023). The Shift in Spiritual Direction. In: The Direction of Desire. The Palgrave Lacan Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33107-7_2
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