Understanding the Religious-Mystical Experience within the Framework of Analytical Psychology: Refraction of the Universalist Paradigm

Analytical psychology, as developed by C.G. Jung, conceptualizes mystical experience as a syncretic and trans-confessional phenomenon aimed at resolving the modern spiritual crisis. Unlike religious studies, it engages theology and new religious movements in dialogue, using psychoanalytic practices to revive individuals' mystical experiences and achieve mental health. This approach aligns with the universalist paradigm in religious studies, which holds that all mystical traditions share certain invariants. A consequence of this universalism has been the erosion of the classical Western Christian mystical tradition, replaced by new mystical practices within new religious movements.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The subject of the research is the approach of analytical psychology to understanding the content and meaning of mystical experience represented by religious and esoteric traditions. The purpose of the presented article is to reveal the content, directions and results of the conceptualization of religious-mystical experience within the framework of the psychological theory of religion characteristic of analytical psychology, as well as the justification of the universalist paradigm as the basis of this conceptualization. The authors consider in detail the mystical aspects of both analytical psychology itself and the psychological theory of religion formulated within its framework. Special attention is paid to the role of individual mystical and religious experiences of C.G. Jung himself as the empirical basis of this theory. The main conclusions are the theoretical provisions that, unlike religious studies, analytical psychology, involving theology and new religious movements in dialogue, aims to solve the practical problem of resolving the spiritual crisis of modernity on the basis of a new interpretation of mental health achieved with the help of appropriate psychoanalytic practices leading a person to revive his mystical experience, which has a syncretic and trans-confessional nature. A special contribution of the research is the substantiation of the position that the approach of analytical psychology to the phenomenon of religious-mystical experience correlates with the universalist paradigm in religious studies, according to which all mystical traditions, both religious and non-religious, contain certain invariants. A generalization is formulated according to which the result of the implementation of this kind of universalism on the part of analytical psychology was the erosion of the classical Christian mystical tradition, at least its Western Christian version, which led to the replacement of the latter with new mystical practices in line with new religious movements.