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What Do We Do With This Jesus? A Reading of Matthew 15:21–28 through the Lens of Psychoanalytic Theory
Abstract
This paper interprets the story of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 using the lens of psychoanalytic theory—Winnicott’s concept of True Self and Stolorow/Atwood’s model of intersubjectivity—arguing that, for modern readers, the Canaanite woman and Jesus suggest new possibilities for being human. This full humanity results from both of them moving from False Self to True Self and from the mutuality that characterizes their interaction. This reader-response interpretation leads to new understandings of: (1) loving self—seeing ourselves as empowered, refusing compliance as a response to oppression; (2) loving other—overturning the self/other paradigm to regard all individuals in terms of their humanity; and (3) loving God—learning to be in mutual and authentic relationship with God.
This chapter will probe and tease out the nuances between caste, religion, and color that are intricately intertwined to construct an anti-darkness sentiment that emerges in the Indian context and successfully travels across borders, and finally settles within South Asian immigrant communities. Using anti-darkness as a lens, my essay will interpret Matthew 15:21-28 to illustrate the ways in which past narratives, learned behaviors, and ingrained attitudes towards others passed down from generations are duplicated, institutionalized, and created into stringent systems that seek to effectively discriminate and dehumanize entire communities and peoples.
Social-scientific criticism refers to an interpretation of the biblical text that takes into cognizance the social system that produced that text. This article presents a social scientific reading of the faith of a Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21-28. The article outlines models of social systems in Matthew 15:21-28 like landscape and spatiality, gender and sexuality, ethnicity, purity, and social status in order to achieve a social scientific reading. The purpose of this article is to firstly demonstrate that the models of social system in Matthew 15:21-28 served as boundaries to the faith of a Canaanite woman. Secondly, it is to demonstrate that the Canaanite woman crossed such boundaries in Matthew 15:21-28 for her daughter to receive healing. Lastly, the Canaanite woman serves as a model for South African women today who have to cross boundaries like landscape and spatiality, gender and sexuality, ethnicity, purity, and social status.
This article presents a new characterization of the concept and experience of intersubjectivity based on four matrices that we see as organizing and elucidating different dimensions of otherness. The four matrices are described through key references to their proponents in the fields of philosophy, psychology and psychoanalysis: (1) trans-subjective intersubjectivity (Scheler, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty); (2) traumatic intersubjectivity (Levinas); (3) interpersonal intersubjectivity (Mead); and (4) intrapsychic intersubjectivity (Freud, Klein, Fairbairn, Winnicott). These intersubjective dimensions are understood as indicating dimensions of otherness that never occupy the field of human experience in a pure, exclusive form. The four matrices proposed need to be seen as simultaneous elements in the different processes of the constitution and development of subjectivity.
The polysemic nature of intersubjectivity stems not only from diverse pursuits and goals but also from different ontologies of intersubjectivity. More specifically, the four matrices described by Coelho and Figueiredo (2003) imply two ontologies: `I-Other(s)' and `I' versus `Other(s)'. These ontologies lead to different concepts of communication. In the former case, communication is based on the idea of attunement and fusion of the minds. In the latter case, communication seems to be either determined a priori as a moral principle or managed monologically. Despite essential differences between the two ontologies, they both aim at the reduction of diverse positions of the self and other(s). It is argued that intersubjectivity that aims at fusion with the other is too narrow to account for the constitution of subjectivity. Instead, dialogicality, that is, the capacity of the human mind to conceive, create and communicate about social realities in terms of the `Alter`, must complement intersubjectivity in conceptualizations of subjectivity. Living in the world of others presupposes that co-authors not only attempt to reduce their differences in communication but also that they acknowledge one another as co-authors of their ideas; they dispute and fight about ideas; and they also confirm their participation in social realities.
This paper deals with the notions of "subjectivity," "intersubjectivity," and "community" from several different points of view that include subjective and intersubjective agency, a sense of community, the community as a social institution, and the idea of social justice. The context of these considerations can be found in the Community-Social-Psychological approach to social action as it is often practiced in Latin America. A review of these themes is considered important because different models of community intervention and practice may lead to different expressions of community interaction.
This paper deals with the notions of “subjectivity,” “intersubjectivity,” and “community” from several different points of view that include subjective and intersubjective agency, a sense of community, the community as a social institution, and the idea of social justice. The context of these considerations can be found in the Community–Social–Psychological approach to social action as it is often practiced in Latin America. A review of these themes is considered important because different models of community intervention and practice may lead to different expressions of community interaction.
jessica benjamin is a psychoanalyst practicing in New York City who also teaches and supervises at the New York University Postdoctoral Psychology Program in Psychoanalysis. She is the author of The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminisms, and the Problem of Domination (Pantheon, 1988), Like Subjects, Love Objects (Yale University Press, 1995), and Shadow of the Other: Intersubjectivity and Gender in Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 1998). Her current work is on the problem of acknowledgment of personal and social trauma.
Rethinking questions of identity, social agency and national affiliation, Bhabha provides a working, if controversial, theory of cultural hybridity - one that goes far beyond previous attempts by others. In The Location of Culture, he uses concepts such as mimicry, interstice, hybridity, and liminality to argue that cultural production is always most productive where it is most ambivalent. Speaking in a voice that combines intellectual ease with the belief that theory itself can contribute to practical political change, Bhabha has become one of the leading post-colonial theorists of this era.
Commentators adopting a historical-critical approach to the story of Jesus' encounter with a Canaanite woman (Mt. 15.21-28) have spent much time trying to justify, or explain away his rudeness towards her. In engaging in a narrative reading we uncover the way in which this story adds to the understanding of the themes of conflict, inadequate faith and rejection which characterize the central section of Matthew's story. In a clever reversal of expectations, the Canaanite woman is seen to adopt the role normally taken by Jesus, giving herself in humility to achieve the liberation of her daughter. This facilitates the narrative development of the Gospel by allowing Jesus to reorientate his understanding of the mission of God, into which the reader is being drawn. The conversion of Jesus by an 'outsider' in turn encourages the reader to move from an exclusive to an inclusive understanding of Christian discipleship.
The wide-ranging review by Coelho and Figueiredo (2003) serves as a useful point of departure for highlighting two major limitations of discussions on intersubjectivity: first, rifts between different specialized groups; second, reductionism. As an albeit modest step forward, I suggest, first, stronger links between groups of specialists exploring intersubjectivity. Second, responding to the reductionist nature of the concept of intersubjectivity, I introduce the concept of interobjectivity, the understandings that are shared within and between cultures about social reality. I propose that intersubjectivity arises out of interobjectivity, and that the concept of interobjectivity leads researchers to pay more attention to collective and inter-group processes. Groups have unequal levels of influence on shaping interobjectivity, with majority groups enjoying greatest influence.
The Independent Tradition has emerged as an important force in contemporary psychoanalysis and social thought and psychotherapists are increasingly familiar with the developmental perspectives that have distinguished the contributions of the Middle Group in Great Britain. Thus far, however, there has been remarkably little consideration of the ways in which the perspectives of the Independent Tradition enlarge our understanding of the functions and uses of theory in therapeutic practice. This article focuses on the developmental contributions of D.W. Winnicott and shows how his formulations of transitional phenomena, potential space, object use, and true self experience offer ways of imagining the “place” or location of theory in the clinical situation and means of conceptualizing the “play” or functions of theory in the therapeutic practice. In doing so, it describes recent elaborations of Winnicott'S theory by Christopher Bollas and Kenneth Wright. The author argues that the example of the Independent Tradition provides useful lines of understanding in continuing efforts to develop a basis for theoretical pluralism and comparative approaches in contemporary psychoanalysis and clinical social work practice.
Here he [Bollas] examines and reflects on one of the most fundamental questions—what is it that is unique about us as individuals? How does this manifest itself in our personalities, our lives, relationships and in the psychoanalytic process? Drawing on classical notions of 'fate' and 'destiny' and Winnicott's idea of the true self, he develops the concept of 'the human idiom' to explore and show how we work out—both creatively and in the process of analysis—the 'dialectics of difference.' In particular he reflects on how the patients may use particular parts of the psychoanalyst's personality to express their own idiom and destiny drive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Reviews the book, Attachment, play, and authenticity: A Winnicott primer by Steven Tuber (see record 2008-04633-000). In this book, Tuber does not attempt to offer a comprehensive review of Winnicott's work. Rather, he focuses on what he sees as Winnicott's most central concepts, offering close examination of a few articles that he feels best represent each of these concepts, and frames each with the noting of a central dilemma or paradox. Tuber describes the book as an attempt to teach through "playing" with Winnicott (play being central to Winnicott's ideas) and engaging the reader to join in the play. The book is based on a series of lectures from a course on Winnicott he has given to his clinical psychology doctoral students at the City University of New York. The reviewer noted that the author omitted some information that she considered to be important. However, she concludes that this book is a compelling read that captures what she sees as the essence of Winnicott's work, and as Winnicott would have loved, presents it without jargon or pretense in the simple terms that best elucidate Winnicott's view of the human experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).
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