Spirituality Studies 10-2 Fall 2024 25 Jeffrey Katzman, Ben Bernstein, Matthew Ponak process of fracture and repair. This review is among the first to integrate these paradigms, in which much common ground is discovered and the model enriched through Jewish mystical ideas of an unfolding Self interconnected with an experience of the Divine. These ideas have the potential to greatly enhance our ability to conceptualize a sense of an authentic Self beyond a concrete entity found somewhere within the mind, facilitating an idea of something that can be continually discovered, experienced, with an ongoing unfolding. This review parallels an ongoing exchange of ideas between one author involved primarily in psychodynamic thinking embracing ideas from Jewish spirituality while sharing knowledge with another author more immersed in concepts stemming from Jewish mysticism. This paradigm review with one another serves as a model for broadening ideas of the Self for individuals across disciplines similarly desiring to integrate these paradigms. 2 Background: The Self as a Static Individual Conceptualization It is a particular passion in Western culture to see the Self as a unique, individual entity within the mind, capable of being trained to rise above adversity. This has characterized many of the suggestions stemming from the contemporary resilience movement embedded in most organizational human resource departments. Carlo Strenger (1989, 593) characterizes this idea through his notion of “Classical” man, with a Self ultimately capable of taming conscious and unconscious passions, linking this idea back to Sigmund Freud and to the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. In describing this world view, Strenger (1989, 595) describes the goal of this classical view of the Self as follows: The value of human life is to be found in the specifically human ability to transcend the driveness of our animal nature. Kant’s ethos is one of freedom. Our ability to be self-directed turns us from insignificant specks in a vast universe into those beings who are truly valuable. One can call forth the words of William Ernest Henley (1888), referring to the battle of a mind against the pain from Tuberculosis in the bones: “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” Implied in this process is a Self that is capable of guiding the individual through the various currents and waves that life presents. Alone, but ultimately capable of triumph. Such is the Self implied through many contemporary psychological paradigms: it is an internal structure somewhere within one’s brain that can transcend itself. 2.1 Behavioral Theory Many helpful techniques within behavioral therapies teach an individual useful skills to tame a Self out of control. Cognitive behavioral theory implies a sort of Self in which perceptions and thoughts create emotional experiences leading the individual to feel overwhelmed. Like Henley’s idea, this Self can be tamed through an understanding of one’s thought patterns to calm the emotional responses. This process comes through a Self capable of realizing its own distorted perceptions to see a world more truthfully. Dialectic Behavioral Therapy attempts to provide skills and understanding to help access the “wise mind” rather than the overly “emotional” and “rational” minds. These skills fall in line with Carlo Strenger’s description of the classical Self, capable of recognizing disturbing internal feelings and perceptions, considering them, and reconceptualizing. This ultimately implies a unique, isolated Self that can become the “captain” of one’s soul. Yet beyond the control of the Self, little can be found for the seeker in such behavioral paradigms regarding the embodied experience of this Self, beyond perhaps a restored sense of calm through the mitigation of anxiety. Though some internal sense of a Self in the state associated with “the wise mind” idea might include experiences of balance, presence, intuition, clarity, and peace. 2.2 Psychoanalytic Theory Considering the nature of the Self through the lens of psychoanalytic ideas is a formidable task. Beginning with Sigmund Freud, one appreciates the idea of the Self through his structural and topographic models. He describes early in his work the idea of the Self generally as a mechanistic machine, the ego regulating energetic forces between an impulse driven id and a force for containment, the superego (Freud 1933, 75). It is difficult for an individual to find much of a subjective experience connected to these conceptualizations beyond perhaps the feeling of sexual and aggressive impulses and how these are regulated. The Self in Freud’s model is an intellectual abstraction of sorts and is distant and removed. Though theories of the Self expanded through the evolution of psychoanalytic theory, in many ways what has persisted is an idea of a concrete entity that is generally assumed to exist somewhere in the mind. Heinz Kohut developed this idea of the Self in his writing of what he came to call self-psychology (Baker 1987, 2). Kohut’s Self was again an entity implied to exist somewhere
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