Mysterious Knowing: Rapport and Synchronicity in Psychoanalysis and Spiritual Care

Rapport has been central to psychoanalysis since it emerged from earlier therapeutic forms of healing such as shamanism, Mesmerism, hypnotism, and thought transference. Despite his largely negative assessment of religion, Freud became convinced of the reality of thought transference and saw it as a possible outcome of unconscious rapport in the analytic relationship. Sandor Ferenczi continued Freud’s idea of thought transference, emphasizing the mutual dialogue between the unconscious of the analyst and the unconscious of the patient. Carl Jung extended rapport into the realm of synchronicities—meaningful coincidences that involve a simultaneous occurrence of psychic states and external events with no apparent causality. The phenomena of rapport and synchronicity are explored in terms of the praxis of psychoanalysis and spiritual care.