Horney believed that Freud did not intend a cold, scientific kind of objectivity.
Moreover, she believed that an indifferent, objective stance was neither possible nor
desirable. She maintained that the analyst should attempt to achieve more of an
‘unlimited, nonjudgmental receptivity’ (1987:20)—the kind of genuine acceptance
of ordinary experience of which she frequently heard Suzuki lecture. Westkott, a
contemporary authority cn Horney, explained her stance this way: ‘Whatever words
she may have chosen to describe it,... Horney was attempting to teach her students
how to bring to the therapeutic setting the meditative attitude of mindfulness and
receptivity...[a] nonjudgmental openness to feeling...’ (Westkott 1997:84).
Now, it is at this point that Horney begins to depart from the well-beaten path. I
think I will accompany her. Traditional analysts would likely assert that Freud
espoused neutrality so that the patient will ‘free associate’ and the transference will
develop unimpeded. Analysts typically argue that we should not attempt to influence
the patient in any other way. These are significant objectives and worthy of emphasis;
their import should not be understated. However, it is at this juncture that Horney
took a detour that I believe is pivotal. Horney believed that this ‘attitude of
wholehearted attentiveness’ has a profound impact upon the inner life, inner
structures, or core structure of the patient. She believed that the patient profoundly
and deeply experiences (feels and is influenced by) this neutral, meditative posture of
the therapist. The patient experiences this neutral, containing, caring presence as an
invitation to be and to become—and often as encouragement for further
psychological development. Furthermore, it appears that she believed the ‘meditative
posture [of the therapist toward patient] invites the emergence of the real self’
(Westkott 1997:84).
Mark Epstein (1995), a contemporary analyst and synthesizer of Zen and
psychoanalytic theory, echoed Horney’s view in his popular volume Thoughts without
a Thinker. From Epstein:
When a therapist can sit with a patient without an agenda, without trying to
force an experience, without thinking that she knows what is going to happen
or who this person is, then the therapist is infusing the therapy with the lessons
of meditation. The patient can feel such a posture.
(Epstein 1995:187)Epstein’s theme is similar to Horney’s and other Western analysts interested in Zen
(e.g. DeMartino 1991; Rubin 1996), that this ‘new’ way of thinking about neutrality
—this open stance to experience, this wholeheartedness of attitude which fosters an
openness to pre-reflective experience—has a transformative quality and power to it,
especially as it is experienced and felt by the patient. A neutral, non-judging, yet
caring attitude or posture toward the other is now understood to have a kind of
transformative quality for whoever participates in such a process—be it the bestower
or the recipient—be it a Zen practitioner, therapist/analyst, or patient.
ZEN AND PSYCHOTHERAPY 83