Home Biography · Bibliography · Books Essays Bios/Critiques · Colloquia · In Person Art & Literature Laing & Psychotherapy Philosophy & Religion Shamanism & Rebirth Politics of Diagnosis Therapeutic Communities Critical Psychiatry & Psychology · SLS Annual · Editorial board Submit a Paper · About the SLS · Mission Boardmembers Patrons & Sponsors Join the Society Contact us · Resources · Notes and Notation A Timeline Further Links About this site Guestbook Discussion

Methods - Building Context: Transpersonal Reality in Existential Psychotherapy1 SCOTT BORTLE  [3] Invoking the Context of Christianity This enriching of the here-and-now, and the consequent ontological clarification of the participants in the demonstration, advances further as a new context-that of Christianity-is invoked. This time it is Laing who makes the reference that invokes the context, and Leila who pursues it. This first reference to an element of Christianity occurs almost in passing in the transcript at line 213, when Laing responds to a fatalistic comment from Leila about the "universal mind" -"If it's capable of doing anything" (212)-by saying: 213 T: Auh auh Well, Jesus Christ has got no other hands but 214 ours. 215 L: Oh. 216 T: It's only capable of doing what we do, I mean, as far as 217 (.) we're concerned Leila seeks clarification, and Laing responds once more by offering what is, for a therapist, unusual self-disclosure: 218 L: Are you a Christian? 219 T: Well, that depends who I'm talking to [laughs]= 220 L: Well, just tell me that= 221 T: If I'm talking to you?Well, ah I'm not sure what I 222 should say about that eh, it ja ah I'm a Christian in 223 the sense that Jesus Christ wasn't eh crucified isn't 224 wasn't crucified between two candlesticks in a 225 cathedral, he was crucified in the town garbage heap 226 between two thieves, in that sense I'm a Christian. 230 But I mean in another in 231 another sense I mean I I wouldn't admit to being eh a 232 Christian in most Christian company. Why, are you a 233 Christian? 234 L: Hell no! 235 T: Eah eah? 236 L: I don't think so as I think, I think God doesn't know 237 what he's doing, so um, [sighs] who knows maybe 238 Jesus maybe Jesus had a mental problem. You know. The context of Christianity again gives Laing and Leila common ground upon which to stand and talk. Within this context they both position themselves as radical Christians, opposed to the hypocrisy and pretensions of the tradition. At lines 221-226 Laing offers a narrative of the crucifixion that portrays Christianity as rooted in and amongst the cast-offs of society, in the garbage heap, with the thieves. Likewise, Leila's "Hell no!" (234) and then "maybe Jesus had a mental problem" (236-8) also reject a traditional Christianity, as she adopts a position aligned with Laing's. Invoking the Context of Family The final context that plays an important part in this conversation is invoked in a rather more conventional manner, as Laing f asks Leila about her parents. Line 285 includes a marked shift in the topic of conversation: 284 T: [Laughter in background] They are laughing. That got 285 a laugh [laughing and coughing] (5). What 'bout your 286 em mom and dad an that sort of thing, what sort of (.) 287 are they alive, eh? The audience has laughed at a comment Leila just made, seemingly at Laing's expense and he, in 284, remarks on their laughter. Leila falls silent, not replying, apparently self-conscious. Laing self-selects and changes the topic by inquiring after her parents. In doing this he invokes the context of family for the first time, and we shall see that this context serves as an operative background for the remainder of the conversation. This topic shift is not unexpected, given the importance -therapy generally attaches to a client's family relationships, and given the particular role Laing has described the family playing in the genesis of psychopathology, especially schizophrenia (e.g., Laing & Esterson, 1964). But the use to which this context is, put is somewhat unusual. Laing begins with a question that is broad in scope, repairing it half way through to insert a presequence ("are they alive?") to which Leila, after seeking clarification ("Who my parents?") responds in the affirmative. Laing then asks her to characterize her father: 291 T: What sort of chap was your father, is your father? 292 Oh well ah eh he's a Christian preacher. Yes. 293 Oh, I ought to have known. [laughs] 294 Yeah, my parents are very religious. At least, they say 295 they are. 296 Well you're very religious. 297 You know my, yeah I guess I am. The way Leila chooses to describe the "sort of chap" her father is re-invokes the Christian context: "Oh, well as eh he's a Christian preacher" (291). We glimpse for the first time that Leila's biography, her personal history, is one in which the context of family and that of Christianity must have been closely linked. When one is born the daughter of a Christian preacher, it must be difficult to distinguish family from Christianity, to separate being a good daughter from being a good Christian. And indeed, Laing responds with a newsmark: "Oh, I should have known!" that implies that a connection has become visible. He gives no explicit indication of what it is he "should have known," but it will be parsimonious if we presume that what surprises him is the same thing that we see for the first time here. This interlinking of Christianity and family would surely strike any clinician as worthy of note, and on this interpretation the force of Laing's utterance is that features of their prior talk gibe with this new information. What we, and he, learn now about Leila's father requires a retrospective reevaluation of the earlier exchange about Christianity, and suggests a linkage between these two contexts--Christianity and family--that any therapist would find pregnant with possibilities. But how to act on these possibilities? Page ..1 ..2 ..3 ..4 ..5 Next... Hermeneutic Research on Psychotherapy. Methods: A Joumal For Human Science [Special Issue, Annual Edition]. Guest Editor: Martin J. Packer. University of Dallas, 2000. How do I cite a webpage? Comments and suggestions on the content and/or any problems with the display of this page would be appreciated by the webmistress. Thanks.