Psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism: A Realizational Perspective

Description

In this book, Cooper brings together psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism by offering a comprehensive and integrated model, described as "The Realizational Model", that is consistent with the core concepts of Soto Zen Buddhism and psychoanalytic practice. Focusing primarily on Soto Zen Buddhism as presented in the original writings of the Japanese scholar monk Eihei Dōgen (1200-1253), and supported and elaborated by relevant contemporary scholarship in relation to the writings of the British psychoanalyst, Wilfred Bion (1897-1979), this book addresses the issue of how can one understand, assimilate, and integrate conceptions of the human mind that originate in the 13th and 20th centuries, as they are visited and inflected by the unconscious preconceptions of a 21st-century perspective. Expressing authentic Buddhist tradition within the frame of psychoanalytic thinking, and supported by online guided audio meditations that accompany the text, this work offers a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective of invaluable clinical significance. Case material garnered from 35 years of psychoanalytic practice as well as examples from daily life support the abstract concepts discussed in the text, rendering it equally relevant for psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, as well as students of Zen wishing to explore its practical applications. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgments Foreword by Robby Stein PART ONE Introduction 1 “No Fixed Point” An Introduction 2 The Primacy of Experience 3 Mokusho: Silent Illumination Open to Whole Being PART TWO Review 4 Literature Review: Precursors 5 D.T. Suzuki and Dōgen 6 A Zen Wave: Review PART THREE The Definite and the Infinite 7 Emptiness and Dependent Co-Arising 8 Dōgen’s Expression of Suchness 9 Bion’s Use of “O” and “K” PART FOUR Realizational Perspectives 10 Assimilation and Accommodation 11 Bion and Dōgen: Realizational Practice, Emotional Truth PART FIVE Practice 12 Thinking’s Bad Rap 13 Ada: A Clinical Study 14 Shikantaza: “Basic Fact of Sitting” Practice Session Index