Elements of Faith: Psychoanalytic Phenomenon and Lived Experience

Brent Potter is a psychoanalyst and author known for his work at the intersection of psychology, philosophy, and faith. With over three decades of clinical experience, his writing explores the depths of human suffering, healing, and meaning through accessible yet profound existential and psychoanalytic inquiry.

‘Brent's Christian faith has led him to make this profound, warmly readable book about psychoanalysis and its future. His study of faith, including a remarkably healing case study, takes us away from fallacious assumptions that suffering should be pathologized and salvation must be found merely through human cleverness and social engineering.’John Gordon, Author of Healing Madness‘This book comes alive with faith in many dimensions. It breathes, aches, suffers, cries and opens depths of joy and renewal. It speaks of a wound that lights and gives credit to much that is devalued, including creative aspects of madness and such pages that keep giving.’Michael Eigen, PhD, Author of books including The Challenge of Being Human, The Psychotic Core, Contact with the Depths, Faith, and The Psychoanalytic Mystic. 'In the face of fracture and contentious uncertainty we are easily seduced by certitude, tempted to abandon our doubt in the chimeric fortress of knowledge. But at what cost? In his new book Elements of Faith, Brent Potter takes us into the psychoanalytic situation, not as a contender to faith, but as a handmaid in the service of fostering our capacities to embrace mystery, meaning, and courageous openness. Of course we need knowledge, but Potter’s invitation is to walk into the vitalizing tensions of knowing and not knowing, the already and the not yet, the world we inhabit and the world yet to be.'Earl D. Bland, PsyD, Psy, Professor of Psychology, Licensed Psychologist/Psychoanalyst, Rosemead School of Psychology 'In a time when we are seeing a resurgence of religion and spirituality, especially among the youth of Gen Z, Brent Potter brings a depth and clarify to the question of faith and its implications for our lives.'Brent Dean Robbins, Ph.D., Program Director, Department of Psychology, Point Park University and Author of The Medicalized Body and Anesthetic Culture: The Cadaver, the Memorial Body, and the Recovery of Lived Experience

• Chapter 1: Echoes of An OpeningIntroductory Comments Faith Fragments Navigating the Landscape Chapter 2: Dimensions of FaithThe Essence of Faith The Role of Sacred Texts: Anchors of Faith Faith & Reason: A Delicate Balance Faith & Ethics: A Moral Framework The Hebraic Mindset: A Necessary Counterbalance Storms of MeaningChapter 3: Faith in a Pluralistic WorldContours of Disruption: Faith Amid the They Faith as a Catalyst for Change Storms of Meaning Faith & the Empirical Gaze Chapter 4: Once, There Was a Longing…Navigating the Boundaries of Faith Roots On Fire: Faith Between Tradition & Change Personal Belief & Collective Identity The Evolution of Faith Embracing the Mystery of Faith Faith, Sense, & Sensibility Chapter 5: A Clinical Case Study in FaithOrientation to the Case Study Author’s Perspective & Bias Sara: Patient Information Summary - Background - Mental Health & Concerns - Family & Relationships - Coping & Boundaries - Diagnostic Evaluation - Current Focus & Treatment Goals Chapter 6: The Psychoanalytic ProcessPsychoanalytic Process Rapport Building Faith & Doubt Goodness & the Black ‘Blah’ Toward a Transformed Sense of Self - Dream 1: Confrontation with the Shadow - Dream 2: Living, Loving, Legacy - Balance & Bodyhood - Dream 3: Invisible Supports Rupture & Repair Survival Technique, Organizing Principle Sara's Journey: Opening Up & Finding Rhythm Voice & Vulnerability Processing Betrayal & Despair Note on Catharsis Reorienting to World Growth - A Pattern of Functional Failures - Discovering Play & Aloneness - Improvements in Mental Health &Self-Understanding Termination Chapter 7: Psychoanalysis and the SacredOn the Horizon of Contemporary Psychoanalysis The Early Formation of Psychoanalysts Training for Depth in an Age of Shallowness Psychoanalysis in the Age of Technological Reductionism The Recovery of Philosophical Depth Reawakening Mystery in Contemporary Psychoanalysis On Ethical Resistance and the Analyst’s Responsibility A Future Worth Building Psychoanalysis as Recovering Human Being-in-the-World The Analyst as Ethical Witness Toward a Deepening Ethic of Care In Contemporary Psychoanalysis The Next Chapter of Psychoanalysis? Chapter 8: Holding the Tension of the Opposites, Making RoomBeyond the Couch: Evolving Psychoanalytic HorizonsDwelling with the Human: Psychoanalysis Beyond TechniqueÁllos & the Alientist: Estrangement, Otherness HealingEstrangement as Symbol & Signal From Alienation to Alterity Analyst as Alienist References