RELIGIOUS PATIENTS METAPHORS IN THE LIGHT OF TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTERTRANSFERENCE CONSIDERATIONS

The verbal material of religious individuals in psychotherapy is laden with metaphors, folk-loristic themes, and literary allusions whose me anings are generally deemed adequately elucidated by analysis of their symbolic content, generally in terms of the classic psychosexual conf lict model. Contemporary psychoanalytic models demand that such materi al be further examined in terms of the level and quality of object rel ations and representation that characterize such content, and with an eye toward the influence of early, preverbal intersubjective factors t hat, by nature, tend to attain a minimal amount of psychic representat ion. These factors add richness and complexity to our overall understa nding of the religious personality. The expanded role of countertransf erence as a tool for comprehending prerepresentational states, and the modes in which these are communicated, helps to outline new dimension s of religious object experience.