Contemporary Psychoanalysis.

Safran, J. D. (1999)

Faith, despair, will, and the paradox of acceptance Vol. 35(1), 5-23.

This article is not typically regarded as integration literature, in that it does not address Christianity or religion specifically. However, Safran attends to some fundamental aspects of religion in the context of analytic therapy, specifically faith, despair, will, and acceptance of one's circumstances.

In the first section, Safran talks about the need for faith in the analytic process. He explains that one must have faith that "things can be different," and hope that there is the possibility for change and help. Yet, therapists often encounter patients who experience deep cynicism and despair, which likely sparks countertransference feelings in the therapist. Safran states that the first step in cultivating faith involves acknowledging and owning one's despair and sharing it with another human being. The analyst needs to encourage their patients to display their despair within the here and now of the therapeutic relationship. Yet, to tolerate the patient's despair, the therapist must be able to tolerate his or her own feelings of hopelessness. This requires the therapist to work through their feelings of despair in their own lives. Also, therapists must be able to tolerate the realization that, as helpers, we are still unable to solve all of our patients' problems and relieve all their pain. Safran quotes Lacan (1966) as suggesting that "human beings exist in a fundamental state of alienation, which gives rise to desire that by its very nature can never be fulfilled" (p. 8). Safran recognizes that in not accepting our own limitations as helpers, we may respond defensively to patients' demands and pain. He continues to explain, "there is a limited amount that one human being can do for another," and this realization should lead to "compassion of one human being who experiences the pain of life for a fellow human being" (p. 8).

In the next section, Safran addresses the issue of despair versus one's sense of will. He writes that those feeling despair also lack faith that their efforts can make a difference in their lives. He explains that when a patient is resistant to hope and therapy, the resistance should actually be nurtured because the patient is actually using their will to be individuated from the therapist. In essence, the patient is willing to act in opposition to the therapist. Yet, Safran discusses the issue that the patient is not to take responsibility for the changing process but responsibility for one's actions. They are not responsible on a global level but on a moment-by-moment basis.

Safran also addresses optimal disillusionment, as both the patient and therapist need to "come to terms with the limits of one's ability to obtain one s ends" (p. 16). He talks of Winnicott's "good-enough analyst," as the therapist who is there for the client despite the therapist's inabilities to fulfill the client's fantasies of the ideal analyst. Further, in the I-Thou relationship, the therapist/client relationship can be associated with "surrender or grace," as it is experienced as mutual, present, and "emerges in moments when one is able to let go of striving" (p. 19). Safran then discusses the difference between willfulness and will, where one who is willing has a sense of trust and the "experience of disappointment is not catastrophic" (p. 20). As the patient gathers a sense of will with the help of the therapist, the client is able to accept more of their pain, and move from idealized states. Further, the therapist is seen as a "flawed human being who is nevertheless worthy of acceptance" (p. 20).

In Safran's conclusion, he notices that faith has a spiritual connotation. He states that the virtue of faith refers to more than the expectation of a positive outcome.. He believes that faith is somewhat paradoxical, in that it trusts that things will be all right despite uncertainty of the final outcome. Further, "faith makes it possible for the analyst and patient to tolerate the painful emotional experiences that are inevitable part of the analytic process for both of them" (p. 22).

As stated earlier, this article does not articulate specific references to the psychology of religion, and Safran would probably not refer to this work as spiritual or religious in nature. However, the content of the article is inherently integrative, as therapists (specifically religiously aware therapists) wrestle with their limitations and hope in healing clients and allowing God's grace to heal what we cannot. Safran does an excellent job at demonstrating how faith and despair, will and responsibility, and disillusionment are played out in therapy, and his clarity and thought are helpful in working through one's religious beliefs regarding these issues within the therapeutic relationship.

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Belzen, J. A. (2001). The introduction of the psychology of religion to the Netherlands: Ambivalent reception, epistemological concerns, and persistent patterns. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 37(1), 45-62.

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