God's influence on my psychoanalytic vision and values

Contemporary psychoanalysis has come to view all aspects of the analyst's subjectivity as potentially exerting an influence on the analysis. Nevertheless, the analyst's religious background and beliefs about God have not been investigated for their influence. The author's own theoretical and clinical contributions have centered on the themes of mutuality and asymmetry in the analytic relationship. It is not accidental that his or her religious imagination also rests on these dimensions of the relationship between God and the individual. The Brit, or covenant, between God and the people is the core foundation of the Jewish faith. A covenantal relationship requires mutuality, not symmetry or equality, because it is clearly hierarchical, but nevertheless it must be reciprocal, and its centrality implies Judaism's foundations in this mutual relation. Thus, the author uses his own experience as an example of the subtle ways in which religious ideas may influence psychoanalytic theorizing and practice.