Religions 2011, 2(4), 659-675; doi:10.3390/rel2040659
Article

Transforming Losses―A Major Task of Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy

Eckhard Frickemail
Professor of Spiritual Care, Interdisciplinary Centre of Palliative Medicine, Munich School of Philosophy, University of Munich, Kaulbachstrasse 31a, 80539 Muenchen, Germany
Received: 1 September 2011; in revised form: 23 November 2011 / Accepted: 24 November 2011 / Published: 25 November 2011
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religions and Psychotherapies)
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Abstract: Since Freud’s “Mourning and Melancholia”, bereavement encompasses the dilemma between continuing versus relinquishing bonds to deceased persons. Mourning is the process of symbolizing the loss, of making sense by facing the conflict between the absence of the lost object and the continuing presence of an emotional relationship to that which is lost. Furthermore, mourning is not limited to bereaved persons but also concerns dying persons and, in a broader sense, our whole symbolic life which is playful coping with a rhythm of absence and presence. True consolation connects the individual and the archetypical mourning. Spiritually integrated psychotherapy may accompany this process by amplification. Christian mysticism takes its starting point from the experience of Jesus Christ’s lost body, and this may be understood as a model of spiritual transformation.
Keywords: mourning; living symbol; mysticism; spiritually integrated psychotherapy

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MDPI and ACS Style

Frick, E. Transforming Losses―A Major Task of Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy. Religions 2011, 2, 659-675.

AMA Style

Frick E. Transforming Losses―A Major Task of Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy. Religions. 2011; 2(4):659-675.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Frick, Eckhard. 2011. "Transforming Losses―A Major Task of Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy." Religions 2, no. 4: 659-675.

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