mourning, memorials, and religion a psychoanalytic perspective on the park51 controversy哀悼、纪念和宗教精神分析的角度在51的争议.pdfVIP

Religions 2011, 2, 114-131; doi:10.3390/rel2020114 OPEN ACCESS religions ISSN 2077-1444 /journal/religions Article Mourning, Memorials, and Religion: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on the Park51 Controversy Nathan Carlin 1,* and Heba Khan 2 1 McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, 6431 Fannin, Jesse Jones Library Building, Room 410, Houston, TX 77030, USA 2 Department of Religious Studies, Rice University, MS – 15, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77030, USA * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: Nathan.Carlin@; Tel.: +1 713 500 5080. Received: 1 April 2011; in revised form: 30 May 2011 / Accepted: 31 May 2011 / Published: 1 June 2011 Abstract: This article summarizes a version of the “mourning religion” thesis—derived from the work of Peter Homans and further developed and advanced by William Parsons, Diane Jonte-Pace, and Susan Henking—and then demonstrates how this thesis can shed light on the Park51 controversy. We argue that the Park51 controversy represents a case of incomplete cultural mourning of an aspect of American civil religion that manifests itself in melancholic rage by means of protests, threats to burn the Qur’an (as well as actual burnings of the Qur’an), and vandalism of mosques around the United States. We explore various losses—military, economic, and symbolic—and note that these losses remain ambiguous, therefore preventing