On March 27 in San Francisco, the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC) hosted a workshop entitled Sitting on the Couch: Psychoanalysis Considers Spiritual Practices. The day consisted of presentations by Reb Anderson, Senior Dharma Teacher at San Francisco Zen Center, and Jeffrey Rubin, psychoanalyst and author of Psychotherapy and Buddhism.
The overarching question of the day was “how to bring the insights of spiritual practice into the consulting room” of the psychotherapist. The audience was composed of psychotherapists, psychoanalysts and other interested parties.
The day began with each speaker recounting something of his spiritual autobiography. Dr. Rubin told a meditative experience while playing in a high school basketball game. Anderson Roshi recalled the experience of spending a day in jail for stealing a car at age 12 and being sent to a child psychiatrist because he chose to spend so much time alone.
Dr. Rubin reminded the audience that adherents of Buddhism and western psychology must have mutual respect if there is to be a generative dialogue. In any relationship, he said, “if one believes one is superior, there is no real intimacy.”
Anderson Roshi also emphasized the importance of intimacy. He invited the audience to move forward into the front rows and then individual participants joined him for one-to-one dialogues witnessed by all. He spoke of the need to first be intimate with ourselves and then with others
Of the commonalities of the two philosophies, Dr. Rubin said both “cherish the ordinary” rather than advocate transcendence of our human experience. He quoted the poet Wallace Stevens, “The way through the world is more difficult than the way beyond it.”
On the other hand, he said that psychoanalysis emphasizes the importance of finding meaning in our experience in a way that Zen does not.
Anderson Roshi spoke of the importance of relaxing and playing with our experience. When psychotherapists in the audience spoke of particularly difficult and disturbing patients, he returned to the questions, “Can you relax with it? Can you be playful?”
He quoted his teacher Suzuki Roshi, “What we are doing is too important to be taken seriously.”
It was agreed that the ongoing confluence of psychoanalysis and Buddhism is full of possibility that can enrich both practices.
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Stephen Colgan can be contacted at StephenColganMFT@sbcglobal.net
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