Customer Reviews

Spirit, Mind, and Brain: A Psychoanalytic Examination of Spirituality and Religion (Columbia Series in Science and Religion)

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An excellent study of the infantile origins of awe, spirituality and mysticisim. Ostrow separates these three responses from religion. He understands religion as the human created explanation for the images indicated by the three responses named. He does not enter a philosophical evaluation of the source of awe, spirituality and mysticism. But he does quote extensively from the Tanakh and the New Testament. His own appreciation for the depth of Scripture is evident.
As a Christian minister with a Ph. D. in Psychology and Pastoral Counseling, this book added new dimensions to my understanding of the relationship of the physical brain to the mind. I read the book as accepting the "reality" of the differences between neurological and mental, or spiritual, functioning. Dr. Ostrow's thinking is complex and profound without being reductionistic.

Check out page 91: Since G_d is on a throne inside a temple, this is a phallic symbol? [Explanation: something male surrounded by something female] I suppose you would've written a different book if G_d's throne had been outside?
Mr. Ostow simply has a Freudian hammer, and everything looks like a nail. Please.