ABSTRACT
As I mentioned in the introduction, Buddhist thought and practice have become increasingly popular among psychoanalysts and psychotherapists. is current trend represents a complete turnaround from Freud’s (1927, 1930) critique of religion and Alexander’s (1931) negative depiction of Buddhist meditation. A rapidly expanding literature on the integration of the two disciplines reƒects this upsurge in interest and serves as a testimony to the positive reception of the various schools of Buddhism
among psychoanalysts.* Increasingly, contemporary psychoanalysts and psychotherapists actively practice some form of Buddhism. In contrast, the early psychoanalytic response to Zen, whether pathologizing or positive, was primarily intellectual. Similarly, many longtime Buddhist practitioners are nding their way into psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic training. Despite this recent enthusiasm, the basic limiting misunderstanding that Buddhist practice is no more than a form of nihilist quietism continues to appear both explicitly and implicitly in the current literature.
