The Case for African Religious Cosmology and Psychoanalysis as Spiritual Care in the Age of Authoritarianism

This paper argues for the necessity of psychoanalysis in the North American field of spiritual care. More specifically, the essay argues that at a time of social unrest, despair, and authoritarian rule, the work of interiority that psychoanalysis and African religious cosmologies emphasize is especially suited to the current moment in U.S. history. An integrative sampling of black psychoanalytic thinkers and black religious scholars will be highlighted as possible examples of interdisciplinary praxis for the work of spiritual care in a world where freedom and democracy are in peril. As the voices of many black and brown scholars in this area have been overlooked, disregarded, or ghettoized as only being relevant to ethnic minority populations, this essay reflects on how the symmetry between psychoanalytic thought and African spirituality and cosmology can function as a formidable psychospiritual framework for spiritual care in the 21st-century authoritarian state.