@article{1481178,
      recid = {1481178},
      author = {Murphy, Mark Gerard.},
      title = {The direction of desire : John of the Cross, Jacques Lacan  and the contemporary understanding of spiritual direction  /},
      publisher = {Palgrave Macmillan,},
      address = {Cham :},
      pages = {1 online resource},
      year = {2023},
      abstract = {A deeply engaged inquiry into the possibility of mystical  spiritual direction today - the true topic of the book is  ourselves, our spiritual fate. Furthermore, Murphy  ruthlessly analyses how mystical experience is caught in  the global capitalist commodification - if you really want  an authentic spiritual experience, you should begin with a  critique of capitalism. Professor Slavoj Zizek,  International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the  Humanities, UK Through a powerfully illuminating reading of  Jacques Lacans anti-experientialist psychoanalytic  practice, Murphy uncovers the cultural forces which reduce  spirituality to superficial notions of wellbeing. Dr Edward  Howells, Associate Tutor at Ripon College Cuddesdon and  Associate Member of Faculty of Theology and Religion,  University of Oxford, UK This book examines Lacanian  psychoanalysis and Christian mystical theology  demonstrating the formers potential for reinvigorating  spiritual direction. The author outlines how current  methods of spiritual direction become saturated with  self-help psycho-pop methodologies, and that desire has  therefore been foreclosed in these practices. He suggests  that the root of this is a focus on positive affective  experientialism, which means spiritual direction must focus  on emotional wholeness, healing and positivity. Finally, he  argues that a new dialogue between John of the Cross (a  mystic whose writings on spiritual direction formulate part  of the core of the Catholic spiritual tradition) and  Jacques Lacan can open the way for a spiritual direction  beyond the confines of experientialism. The book concludes  that we can only escape the experiential commodification of  spiritual direction by critiquing the drive to experience  in and of itself. This novel work will appeal in particular  to students and scholars of psychoanalysis, religion,  philosophy and critical theory. Mark Gerard Murphy is  Lecturer at St Marys University, Gillis Centre, Scotland,  where he convenes courses on ethics, philosophy, and  mystical theology and spirituality.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1481178},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33107-7},
}