{"id":13283,"date":"2021-05-17T18:38:37","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T18:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christopherpeet.ca\/?page_id=13283"},"modified":"2021-08-24T02:23:02","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T02:23:02","slug":"psychology-of-sacrifice","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/christopherpeet.ca\/psychology-of-sacrifice\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychology of Sacrifice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Psychology of Sacrifice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Course Description<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Etymologically, sacrifice is inextricable from sacredness. Empirically, sacrifice is ubiquitous to religion. Every religion idealizes, ritualizes, and valorizes sacrifice as one of the most profound, if not the highest, form of obedience, piety, or worship, of the divine. Advocates of the epochal significance of \u201cthe Axial Age\u201d, following Karl Jaspers, argue that sacrifice is raised from the instrumental-supplicative level of propitiation and manipulation of transcendental power into a moral-evaluative level of transformative surrender. God\u2019s giving of His only begotten Son could be understood as the paradigmatic act that initiates Christianity, with the crucifixion as the sacrifice of Christ on the cross bringing that initiation into full expression.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a modern secular setting, the role, function, and meaning of sacrifice are translated into \u2018immanent\u2019 terms, in the sense that whatever \u2018higher\u2019 thing someone makes a sacrifice for is not \u2018transcendent\u2019 of human being or the natural world, but is for the sake of either or both of those \u2018this-worldly\u2019 domains. Clearly, whether humanism or naturalism, \u2018sacrifice\u2019 is made sense of in very different terms. As a key player in the processes of modernizing and secularizing, psychology has and continues to participate in this \u2018translation\u2019 of sacrifice into humanistic and\/or naturalistic terms. In dealing with, theoretically or practically, mental illness, psychopathology, and disorders, as well as the psychological correlates that accompany physical pain, illness, or trauma \u2013 that is, in confronting the full range of \u2018spiritual\u2019 suffering \u2013 psychology has a persisting engagement with those empirical phenomena that bear directly on the theme of sacrifice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the intra-psychic dynamics of sacrifice? What are the interpersonal and psychosocial components to sacrifice? What difference does the valorizing of suffering in terms of sacrifice make? To what extent does the translation of sacrifice into immanent terms alter its meaning, for better  (for example, in rendering the treatment of suffering more humane, or in dispelling unnecessary guilt) \u2013 or for worse (for example, flattening or de-meaning our experience)? How to relate traditional religious understandings of sacrifice to contemporary phenomena of suffering, such as pain, disease, trauma, anxiety, and so on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This directed reading will examine some of these questions, first through David Bakan\u2019s psychodynamic reading, and secondly through Ren\u00e9 Girard\u2019s provocative theory of \u2018the scapegoating mechanism\u2019. These readings will lay out the basis for developing a specific research question for an advanced paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

_____________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Required Texts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kugelmann, Robert. (1997). The Psychology and Management of Pain: Gate Control as Theory and Symbol. Theory & Psychology, 7,<\/em> pp. 43-65.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bakan, David. (1968). Disease, pain, & sacrifice: Toward a psychology of suffering<\/em>. Chicago: University of Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Girard, Ren\u00e9. (1977). Violence and the sacred<\/em>. Trans. by P. Gregory. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins. _____________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Psychology of Sacrifice Course Description Etymologically, sacrifice is inextricable from sacredness. Empirically, sacrifice is ubiquitous to religion. Every religion idealizes, ritualizes, and valorizes sacrifice as one of the most profound, if not the highest, form of obedience, piety, or worship, of the divine. Advocates of the epochal significance of \u201cthe Axial Age\u201d, following Karl Jaspers, argue that sacrifice is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"yoast_head":"\nPsychology of Sacrifice - Christopher Peet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/christopherpeet.ca\/psychology-of-sacrifice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Psychology of Sacrifice - Christopher Peet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Psychology of Sacrifice Course Description Etymologically, sacrifice is inextricable from sacredness. Empirically, sacrifice is ubiquitous to religion. 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