Adaptive Regression and Intense Religious Experiences

Allison, Joel

doi:10.1097/00005053-196712000-00003

Cited by 41 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…All studies reported some positive results, but with only slightly overlapping sets of primary process indices. Allison (1967) approached the hypothesis by dividing twenty students of theology into three groups, by how often they had experienced exalted states of religious conversion. The amount of that experience was signif icantly correlated with mean DD, Formal primary process, and the Adaptive Regression Index.…”

Section: Construct Validity: Index Of Adaptive Regressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative Research On the Primary Process: Method and Findings

Holt

2002

J Am Psychoanal Assoc

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Freud always defined the primary process metapsychologically, but he described the ways it shows up in dreams, parapraxes, jokes, and symptoms with enough observational detail to make it possible to create an objective, reliable scoring system to measure its manifestations in Rorschach responses, dreams, TAT stories, free associations, and other verbal texts. That system can identify signs of the thinker's efforts, adaptive or maladaptive, to control or defend against the emergence of primary process. A prerequisite and a consequence of the research that used this system was clarification and elaboration of the psychoanalytic theory of thinking. Results of empirical tests of several propositions derived from psychoanalytic theory are summarized. Predictions concerning the method's most useful index, of adaptive vs. maladaptive regression, have been repeatedly verified: People who score high on this index (who are able to produce well-controlled "primary products" in their Rorschach responses), as compared to those who score at the maladaptive pole (producing primary-process-filled responses with poor reality testing, anxiety, and pathological defensive efforts), are better able to tolerate sensory deprivation, are more able to enter special states of consciousness comfortably (drug-induced, hypnotic, etc.), and have higher achievements in artistic creativity, while schizophrenics tend to score at the extreme of maladaptive regression. Capacity for adaptive regression also predicts success in psychotherapy, and rises with the degree of improvement after both psychotherapy and drug treatment. Some predictive failures have been theoretically interesting: Kris's hypothesis about creativity and the controlled use of primary process holds for males but usually not for females. This body of work is presented as a refutation of charges, brought by such critics as Crews, that psychoanalysis cannot become a science.

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Section: Construct Validity: Index Of Adaptive Regressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative Research On the Primary Process: Method and Findings

Holt

2002

J Am Psychoanal Assoc

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“…There is also a general agreement that during meditation different fantasies, feelings and primitive thoughts emerge, including but not limited to "oceanic" states, which is in congruence with the psychoanalytical concept of "regression in the service of the ego". These "adaptive" regressive states can be differentiated from pathological regressive states due to their transitory, quickly reversible nature and their ability to boost self-esteem [23]. Epstein & Lieff [24], speaking about meditation viewed more as a spiritual practice, warn about psychological reductionism, which leads to labelling as regressive, if not even psychotic, states and experiences that could be otherwise conceptualized as mystic, or, to use a language not affiliated with spirituality, states that involve a transformation of the ego.…”

Section: Insight From Psychoanalysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Meditation and psychosis. A trigger or a cure?

Dyga¹,

Stupak²

2015

Arch Psych Psych

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SummaryThis is a review of studies concerning the use of meditation techniques in psychiatry and psychotherapy. A brief history and characteristics of meditation are presented, with an emphasis on mindfulness meditation, which is a type most widely used as a health intervention. Potential adverse effects of meditational practices are also brought to attention. We focus mostly on the links of meditation to psychosis, describing both conditions in which meditation may cause decompensation, as well as presenting research on the effects of the implementation of modified meditation techniques in psychotic patients. In order to better understand the phenomena described we interpret the effects of meditation using psychodynamic and cognitive theories. The studies presented here suggest that in certain circumstances meditation may trigger psychosis, but they also show that interventions based on mindfulness may play an important clinical role in the alleviation of symptoms during psychotic episodes. meditation / mindfulness / psychosis / schizophrenia / psychotherapy

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“…In some contemporary studies and in most of the early studies of the phenomenon, religious conversion referred to an abrupt religious experience involving an increased commitment within the framework of the person's own religious group. This experience typically occurred against the background of an already devout religious life, and these studies center, almost invariably, on Christian converts (Allison, 1968;Coe, 1900;James, 1902;Kildhal, 1958;Leuba, 1912). In other studies, conversion designates a change from one religious affiliation to another, in most cases to culturally deviant groups, or from a nonreligious background to an intense commitment to religious beliefs (Deutsch, 1975;Levine, 1984;Salzman, 1953).…”

Section: Defining Conversionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Allison (1968Allison ( , 1969 studied male divinity school students and found that four out of the seven subjects who reported a dramatic religious experience had fathers who were "either adulterers, alcoholics or committed suicide" (1969, p. 31). Siinilarly, Salzman (1953), suggesting a distinction between "progressive" (adaptive) and "regressive" conversions, traces the "regressive" conversion to a hated father figure.…”

Section: Why the Father?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Transformed Self

Ullman

1989

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Adaptive Regression and Intense Religious Experiences

Cited by 41 publications

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Quantitative Research On the Primary Process: Method and Findings

Quantitative Research On the Primary Process: Method and Findings

Meditation and psychosis. A trigger or a cure?

The Transformed Self

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