New article published on spiritual care and psychoanalysis in a decolonial age

The Danielsen Institute is proud to announce the publication of an invited article in the open access journal Religions on spiritual care and psychoanalysis in a decolonial age. There was a time in the second half of the 20^th century when pastoral/spiritual care was strongly influenced by psychoanalytic perspectives, but greater distance between those traditions and disciplines has unfolded in recent decades. Co-authors trace some of the reasons for that distancing, including the frequent ambivalence about religion and spirituality in psychoanalytic contexts, and outline some pathways for mutual benefit and relational integration from a liberatory framework. It’s an interesting time to consider these issues and we hope you might join us in the conversation if it interests you. Special thanks to the Peale Foundation for their support of our work and for their long-term roots in bringing together the best of psychoanalysis and spiritual care. The article was led by Doctoral Candidate Mookie Manalili and Research Director Dr. Steven J. Sandage. The citation and abstract are below.

Manalili, M. M. C., & Sandage, S. J. (2026). Suffering, Trauma, and Relational Integration: Re-Envisioning Spiritual Care and Psychoanalysis in a Decolonial Age. Religions, 17(8), 954. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17080954

Abstract

Spiritual care is summoned by suffering—by ‘wounds’ that are psychological, relational, spiritual, embodied, and political at once. As disciplines continue to be entrenched and siloed amidst the growing sociopolitical tensions and global crises in a decolonial age, what is at stake is the ability to care for each suffering Other in their complexity. This article offers a selective genealogy and relational integration of psychoanalysis and spiritual care (in a decolonial age). Against both clinical reductionisms and theological certainty, we argue for renewed dialogue between psychoanalysis and spiritual care through a relational integra tion framework, both as an ethical stance and hermeneutic framework. We first trace how pastoral and practical theology have approached each ‘wound’ in spiritual care through clinical pastoral education, psychoanalytic pastoral care, practical–theological hermeneu tics, and liberationist, intercultural, postcolonial, and decolonial turns. We then consider how psychoanalysis itself has undergone significant transformations through object rela tions, relational–intersubjective theories, existential–phenomenological approaches, and feminist, intercultural, liberationist, and decolonial critiques. Finally, we propose embodied, hermeneutical, developmental, and intercultural commitments for relational integration, further clarified through spiritual dwelling, seeking, and crucibles of transformation. These commitments orient practitioners toward more accountable forms of interdisciplinary formation, witness, healing, justice, and liberation with the suffering Other.