This book explores the 1907 Korean Revival Movement from a self psychological perspective. The examination of the psychological processes in the movement based on Heinz Kohut's self psychology can shed light on religious experiences as selfobject experiences by identifying the sense of defeatedness and helplessness that Korean people experienced under Japanese occupation as what Kohut calls self-fragmentation of the Korean group self and explaining its therapeutic functions which facilitate potential for the narcissistic nourishment of the fragmented group self leading to renewed self-esteem, transformation, and empowerment of the Korean people. Korean people in the early 1900s experienced abuses and oppression by corrupt officials and exploitation by Japanese government. Through religious experiences which emphasized the individual repentance, the experience of God through the spirit, emphasis on prayer, and eschatological faith, the Korean Revival Movement in 1907 enabled its followers to experience mirroring and idealizing selfobjects which function as a role of transforming the lower shape of narcissism into the higher one.

This book is about the dramatic experience of religious conver sion. The phenomenon of religious conversion lies at the crossroad of several disciplines. As the title of this book indicates, my own interest in religious conversion is not sociological, historical, nor anthropolog ical. My primary interest is not even in the domain of the psychology of religion. That is, this book is not a comprehensive review of the social psychological factors that shape religious beliefs in general and religious conversions in particular. Rather, my primary interest is in the experience of conversion as an instance of a meaningful, sudden change in the course of individu al lives. Religious conversion is examined in this book prinwrily from the point of view of the psychology of the self. My aim is to elucidate the experience of religious conversion as a change in the self and to raise suggestions for the study of the self that derive from the data on religious conversion. This interest dictated the scope as well as the methods of the present investigation. Namely, I have chosen to study individuals who have indeed changed visibly as a result of their conversion. My inquiry was based on self-report, assuming the importance of the person's own point of view. Finally, my inquiry was semi-clinical, vii viii PREFACE based on the assumption of an underlying structure to the varieties of conversion experiences.

Because society is increasingly secular, it may seem irrelevant to consider the psychology of religion. But the diversity of our multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society in fact makes religion more important to the social sciences than it has ever been before. What are the social consequences of religion? Every day the news is full of events that can be blamed on religion perpetrated by a range of groups from whole societies to individuals. Beit-Hallami and Argyle are renowned for their clear, analytical approach to topics and this new, state-of-the-art study of psychology and religion is no exception. It will be welcomed as an update to their previous work in the area by social psychologists, sociologists and theologians worldwide.

Traditional concepts of God are no longer tenable for many people who nevertheless experience a strong sense of the sacred in their lives. The Religious Function of the Psyche offers a psychological model for the understanding of such experience, using the language and interpretive methods of depth psychology, particularly those of C.G. Jung and psychoanalytic self psychology. The problems of evil and suffering, and the notion of human development as an incarnation of spirit are dealt with by means of a religious approach to the psyche that can be brought easily into psychotherapeutic practice and applied by the individual in everyday life. The book offers an alternative approach to spirituality as well as providing an introduction to Jung and religion.