Psicoanalisi e teoria dell’attaccamento. Due approcci a religione e spiritualità (M. Aletti)

Posted by wp_6038317
Categories Articoli, Oggetto e metodi, Psicoanalisi
Date 12 Maggio 2006

Abstract: Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis. Two approaches to religion and spirituality. The interaction between psychoanalysis and the attachment theory has been controversial until recently. Currently, some authors are aiming for an integration. Some even maintain that the attachment perspective can provide public scientific evidence and external validity of the most important insights of the depth psychology, which, on the contrary, are based only on individual idiosyncratic (i.e. non standardized and non replicable) case studies. More recently, the attachment theory has been applied to religion and spirituality. This contribution discusses some of the conclusions emerging from the international debate and emphasises that the theorists and researchers of the ‘religious attachment’, should bear in mind that a) the attachment is only one component of the relational psychic organisation, and therefore of the relationship with God (or religion) b) the variability of the ‘multiple attachments’ during the life span teaches us to be very prudent in predicting religious outcomes of childhood and/or adulthood attachment patterns. Finally, the contribution maintains that the two approaches, both psychoanalysis and attachment theory, being focused on two different aspects of the complex human phenomenon of religious attitude and behaviour, can coexist in a multilevel interdisciplinary paradigm of the psychology of religion. However, both approaches must avoid overlapping contents and methodologies from one to the other. In order to obtain this, it is important to remember that the psychology of religion does not pretend to explain religion, but to study the psyche and the psychic processes through which man confronts religion.