“Lack” is The Wrong Word: Psychoanalysis, Sickness, Despair, and Demanding a Root Canal When a Filling Will Do
“One of Nietzsche’s objections to Christianity was, he said, that Christianity depends on the notion that Nature has brought forth this sick creature of which it (Christianity) is the cure; and I think psychoanalysis sounds like that. It’s brought forth something sick, something “lacking” of which it (psychoanalysis) is the cure. “Lack” is the absence of something that is supposed to be there. Possibility…is not a lack that we’re going to treat as a gain. That’s a misdescription of it, in my view.”
The above passage is a transcribed quote from philosopher John Caputo. The quote comes from a conversation he had with Tripp Fuller and Pete Rollins in which Caputo and Rollins discussed some slight differences they have in regard to their philosophic approach. Although I like learning about psychoanalysis, and think it offers some great insights and wisdom, I do share Caputo’s more optimistic outlook about humanity. For example, I don’t think humans are “stained” or “lacking” in any way, and I don’t think when an infant cries it is in ontic-shock, or lamenting some sort of loss or separation from the womb.
On the subject of disposition, I am also in agreement with Caputo when he says in the podcast that, although we must be completely honest with ourselves regarding life and the harmful effects of religion for instance (which may mean coming to terms with the notion that there are no guarantees in life and that there may not be any sort of positive, ultimate teleological/eschatological destination to which we are all heading), this does not necessarily mean that one must undergo a “dark night of the soul” and live in, or even experience, pessimistic despair and/or hopelessness. In essence, I sort of resonate with something psychologist Richard Beck wrote a while ago where he seems to indicate that in some forms of radical “death of God” theology and psychoanalysis, the cure may be disproportionate to the disease. In regard to undergoing some sort of death of god experience that is supposed to “shatter us,” Beck pragmatically suggests that it’s most likely not the case that in every situation we need to “demand a root canal when a filling would do.”
At the end of the podcast Rollins essentially agrees with Caputo in one sense and, citing Bonhoeffer, admits that one could rightly say that psychoanalysts and existentialists are “always trying to give you good news by first making you feel bad.” This really is the sense I get from some forms of existentialism, psychoanalysis and warped forms of Christianity; and I gotta say, it’s not my cup of tea (e.g. I particularly find absurdism and overly bleak, pessimistic forms of existentialism really hard to take).
On the other hand, to be sure, I do appreciate the clinical aspect of psychoanalysis. I like that it can be a useful tool which can be used to help make people’s lives (and societies) better. I just also think that keeping both eyes open gives us better depth perception.
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Painting above by Steve Cox
I'm grateful for your review and happy to hear that Caputo is pushing back against the notion that atheism leads to (or is the result of) a sort of pathological nihilism. This is a big mistake Rollins and Fuller often make and reveals their lack of experience with the majority of atheists and post-theists. If anything, I felt a stronger sense of nihilism as a Christian.
Ryan, great comments here. As my process theologian friend, Austin Roberts, says: nihilism is largely rooted in the Western myth of creatio ex nihilo, which is precisely the erasure of the primordial Matrix/mother/Tehom/fullness of potential. There is no lack in being. Never was. Being is pure, differential affirmation. Endless creativity from the meaning-full depths of potential.