Mortimer Ostrow (1918-2006), was emeritus professor of pastoral psychiatry at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He experienced 3 major revolutions: neuroscience, psychoanalyst, psychopharmacology. This was a gift book from a friend who also gave me book 360.

The first paragraph of this book’s front flap cuts to the quick: “Preeminent psychoanalyst Mortimer Ostrow believes that early childhood emotional attachments form the cognitive underpinnings of spiritual experience and religious motivation. His hypothesis, which is verifiable, relies on psychoanalytic and neurobiological evidence but is respectful of the human need for spiritual value.”

I quote next from Ch 1 [Introduction] how he goes about describing his hypothesis. In so doing I add in square brackets the titles of each chapter: “I shall try in Ch 2 [Spirit] to suggest the dimensions of the spiritual experience and a tripartite classification: awe, Spirituality proper (which I shall spell with a capital S), and mysticism. I shall then, in Ch 3 [Mind: the Psychodynamics of Awe, Spirituality, and Mysticism] suggest an explanation for its origin in the psychologic, or more specifically in the psychodynamic, processes that emerge sequentially in human development. Briefly, I shall try to demonstrate that pure spiritual experience of whatever kind reproduces the affective component of early contact between mother and infant.

“Obviously the interface between spirituality and religion requires examination. Spirituality is not religion and religion is not spirituality, but the spiritual provides the emotional force that underlies interest in and commitment to religion. Ch 4 [Religion – Spirituality and Religion; The Human-Divine Encounter: A Developmental, Epigenetic Scheme; The Qualities of God] is a long discussion of the spiritual basis of religious feeling and practice.

“In Ch 5 [Brain], I shall relate what little information we possess about the brain processes that accompany spiritual experience.

“In Ch 6 [Mood Regulation], I shall describe mood regulation, a psychic function that I believe to be a major determining function of our mental life, and how spirituality often contributes to mood regulation. Apocalypse, which is closely related to spirituality, is the subject of Ch 7 [Apocalypse].

“Spirituality and religion do not always enlighten and inspire. On too many occasions, we experience a demonic spirituality and a demonic face of god. It is this type of negative spirituality that gives rise to religious fundamentalism and especially its violent aspects, and much of terrorism that roils the civilized world today. I approach this subject in Ch 8 [Demonic Spirituality: Infanticide, Self-Sacrifice, and Fundamentalism].

“Ch 9 [Analyzing an Account of a Spiritual Experience] focuses on the account of a week-long ‘spiritual quest’ by a distinguished psychoanalyst. I apply the conclusions about spirituality that I have developed and compare the report with Psalm 19, a discussion of which runs like a red thread through the whole book. This final chapter serves to knit the many aspects of the argument together.”

Now I describe what I found in this book. Mortimer Ostrow’s description of infant-mother attachment as his hypothesis goes too far (this may be his underlying Freudian worldview of the human psyche). To me the various stages of the infant-mother attachment serve as analogous stages in much human development. I think he goes too far to describe it as foundational, with the topics of this book (and much else if one accepts his hypothesis) based upon it. A few times Ostrow clearly says that we really don’t know what’s going on in an infant’s brain, so it can only be a meta-hypothesis, thus unverifiable. So I deduce that the infant-mother attachment process is an example of how infant’s minds develop.

I liked his subdivision of spirituality into three parts – awe, Spirituality proper, and mysticism. In his explanation he shows that they develop in the order given. Beginning with awe, he points out that awe can be positive – think of ‘awesome’ (as spectacular!) – or negative – think of ‘awful’ (as fearsome!). Ostrow first introduces spirituality as positive aspect of attachment that is not a material type, but he later (in Ch 8) talks of demonic spirituality – which is about as negative a type as one could imagine. To me here he seems to have somewhat blurred, if not lost, his earlier distinction between awe and spirituality. I think his initial use of the word ‘Spirituality proper’ must be assumed to be positive. To me his title of Ch 8 – Demonic Spirituality: Infanticide, Self-Sacrifice, and Fundamentalism – was a very bad choice, since it suggests (as does the chapter itself when read) implies that the three things given are related as all being demonic. Few would argue that infanticide is a horror, but self-sacrifice may not be demonic (such as sacrificing oneself to save your family). I think it is far too extreme to suggest that fundamentalism is demonic – it can be, but, as John Shelby Spong suggests in book 360, it may more often (and at least to my knowledge of fundamentalism) refer instead to an immature stage of a spiritual journey, in which insecurity and fear are dominant emotions but can be shared with other emotions, many of them positive or ‘non-demonic’.

As an aside (from me, not Ostrow) some bible translations take the Greek word for awe and use it as negative, as in ‘To fear the LORD is the beginning of wisdom’; I learned some time ago that many theologians and/or philosophers now prefer the positive idea for awe, as in ‘To revere the LORD is the beginning of wisdom’. I think ‘fear’ fits well those whose faith is one of ‘fear and obedience’ whereas the ‘revere’ fits well those whose faith is one of ‘love and compassion’. When I think of anyone whose spiritual growth is stuck at what I regard as the immature stage of ‘fear and obedience’ it always reminds me of Paul’s great wisdom in 1 Cor 13:9-13 and, in this context, especially verse 10: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.”

Returning to Ostrow, his telling of one man’s vision-quest experience in Ch 9 brings up a point that seems not to bother psychologists, which is to make major conclusions on single anecdotes. In this book, he uses only a dozen anecdotal ‘reports’ to illustrate his views of spirituality in his three tripartite classes of awe, Spirituality proper, and mysticism. Since I am a physical scientist, I would require many more cases or reports before making a specific hypothesis (or meta-hypothesis since unverifiable). But a dozen or so cases seems to suffice in Ostrow’s fields of endeavor, especially when they seem to have been cherry-picked to make his points.

To conclude, I found this book to be a worthwhile read because it made me sharpen my thoughts on the three classes (perhaps I should say stages) of spirituality. I learned nothing new about the brain, and, despite the book’s title, the word Mind in its broadest sense was absent, appearing only in Ch 3 as Mind: the Psychodynamics of Awe, Spirituality, and Mysticism. I had anticipated much more from the book’s title. I give this book only a moderate recommendation.