Essay 3

The Image of God

Choose one:

1. Write an essay in which you analyze your own experience of God – i.e., image of, relations with, attitudes towards, conception of -- whether you believe in God or not. The essay should have at least three parts:

a. Part one will include your perceptions of God and a personal history of imagining, thinking about, and perhaps relating to, God;

b. Part two will describe some of the general features of you relationships with your father and mother (or other primary caretakers or siblings);

c. Part three will attempt to analyze the connections between your own God-image and primary relationships. This part must draw on Winnicott’s theory of transitional objects and at least one other psychoanalytic thinker (e.g., Freud, Klein, Fairbairn, Pruyser, or another).

2. Write an essay in which you evaluate a religious person, group or movement from the standpoint of Winnicott and Pruyser. Be sure to make your case presentation detailed and engage the theories as fully as possible, citing whenever appropriate.

Due on December 2^nd in class.

The essay should be no less than four full pages long, double-spaced
with 12 point font and 1 inch margins.