Stukenberg ICP Project

Karl Stukenberg

Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Xavier University

Project Overview:

An integral part of the ICP is learning about and engaging in a version of Ignatius Loyola's Spiritual Exercises. These exercises form the basis of Jesuit Spirituality and also, in a less direct fashion, Jesuit pedagogy. I was struck by the similarities between the Spiritual Exercises, intended to help a spiritual guide accompany and facilitate a retreatant's engagement with the mystery of God, and the psychoanalytic method that I practice, intended to help an analyst accompany and facilitate a patient's engagement with the mystery of their own unconscious. My capstone project will be an essay exploring the parallels between these two methods, with the hope of better integrating two paths that have, most frequently, been on parallel, non-intersecting paths, so that they may become better acquainted with and learn from each other.