What Con-verges and what Di-verges when religious object representations transform? An annotated critique of Cohen (2002)

This essay is a discussion of several elements of Mariam Cohen's (2002) psychoanalytic reflections regarding the autobiographical account of Judith Bruder's gradual religious conversion from Orthodox Judaism to Catholicism. Despite advances in theory, it remains unclear how psychoanalysis is to accommodate the notion of an objective divine entity that truly exists behind the patient's religious representations. It would seem that the particular kind of object posited by religion is destined to remain the insoluble and nonnegotiable limit of psychoanalysis, akin to the virtual "navel" that Freud hypothesized as the endpoint or foveal spot of every dream. In order to advance theory and practice, the material used for discussion must be the product of some kind of intensive psychoanalytic process. Practically, it seems inaccurate, or at least incomplete, simply to state that a religious personality or representation has "converged into integration," as Cohen emphasizes, without also acknowledging that salient divergences occur simultaneously, whose tandem cooperation with convergence signifies healthy mindedness.