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GENEROSITY OF HEART: SOURCE OF SANITY
Author(s) -
Symington Neville
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
british journal of psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.442
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1752-0118
pISSN - 0265-9883
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0118.2008.00102.x
Subject(s) - generosity , sanity , psychology , gratitude , forgiveness , power (physics) , autonomy , psychoanalysis , spirituality , social psychology , epistemology , philosophy , law , theology , medicine , physics , alternative medicine , pathology , quantum mechanics , psychiatry , political science
The component parts of love are generosity, gratitude and forgiveness, and the focus of the paper is on generosity, arguing that the source of sanity lies in generosity of heart. Madness as a condition springs from the absence of love. Psychoanalysis itself can promote either mean‐minded or generous responses to the patient, and I give clinical vignettes to illustrate this belief. Scientific and religious approaches to ‘the real’ are discussed, and I emphasize the idea of the mind as an active power in grasping reality. Religion safeguards the creative power of the mind, in particular the world's mystical traditions. I consider the relationship between inner autonomy and creativity, and make links with Bion's concept of O, emphasizing that the spiritual is woven into the very fabric of what we do as psychoanalysts and psychotherapists.