Freud and Augustine in Dialogue (e-book) (used book) | bookbook.eu

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"It is arguably the case," writes William Parsons, "that no two figures have
had more influence on the course of Western introspective thought than Freud and Augustine." Yet it
is commonly assumed that Freud and Augustine would have nothing to say to each other with regard to
spirituality or mysticism, given the former's alleged antipathy to religion and the latter's not
usually being considered a mystic.

Adopting an interdisciplinary, dialogical, and
transformational framework for interpreting Augustine's spiritual journey in his
Confessions, Parsons places a "mystical theology" at the heart of Augustine's
narrative and argues that his mysticism has been misunderstood partly because of the limited nature
of the psychological models applied to it. At the same time, he expands Freud's therapeutic legacy
to incorporate the contemporary findings of physiology and neuroscience that have been influenced in
part by modern spirituality.

Parsons develops a new psychological hermeneutic to
account for Augustine's mysticism that will capture the imagination of contemporary readers who are
both psychologically informed and interested in spirituality. The author intends this interpretive
model not only to engage modern introspective concerns about developmental conflict and the power of
the unconscious but also to reach a more nuanced level of insight into the origins and the nature of
the self.