Ann Belford Ulanov's use of psychology in interpreting the spiritual life: Her contribution to the psychology of praye

Contemplative prayer is a religious practice in which one attempts to quiet the mind and focus on God. Quieting the mind, however, is not an easy task. When one sits down to pray, all sorts of mental images pop up to interfere with the process. Masters of prayer testify that these distractions are inevitable. Most teachers of prayer in the Christian tradition recommend not letting distractions pull one's attention away from God.;Ann Ulanov takes a different approach. Ann Belford Ulanov teaches Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York and is a psychoanalyst in private practice. Instead of viewing distractions as a nuisance, she approaches them as manifestations of the unconscious. Ulanov treats distractions as bits of unconscious life trying to make consciousness aware of their presence. She then brings the resources of psychoanalytic theory to bear on this unconscious material to articulate how God communicates through the unconscious and how prayer changes when one takes the unconscious into consideration.;This study analyzes Ulanov's psychology of prayer. It begins by outlining other figures in the field of psychology of religion who have addressed aspects of the psychodynamics of prayer. Next, it examines Carl Jung's understanding of the unconscious, including its archetypes and processes, as the foundation on which Ulanov builds her psychology of prayer. Then it builds on this foundation by inspecting Ulanov's use of D. W. Winnicott's object-relations theory to describe the formation and function of images of God. Finally, it articulates how prayer differs when practiced in light of the unconscious and how Ulanov's understanding of prayer impacts the active life.;The study concludes that when distractions are viewed as parts of ourselves that normally lie below consciousness but emerge when we attempt to pray, it is imperative that they be engaged rather than repressed or ignored. Instead of an exercise in repression, prayer for Ulanov is an engagement with this unconscious material through which we gain greater knowledge of ourselves and greater knowledge of God.