Aion Institute

Learning Objectives

1. Explain the apophatic orientation shared by Zen and negative theology—where knowing proceeds through unknowing—and apply this perspective to psychotherapeutic work as a disciplined tolerance of absence, silence, and the limits of interpretation, rather than as a technique for development of insight.
2. Analyze Zen literary forms (especially koans) as methods of psychological deconstruction, identifying parallels with psychoanalytic processes such as negative capability, reverie, and tolerance of the unformulated.
3. Differentiate Zen-inspired nonconceptual awareness from dissociation, avoidance, or defensive withdrawal, enhancing clinicians’ capacity to work responsibly with contemplative language and experience in clinical settings.
4. Apply insights from Zen practice to psychotherapeutic stance and technique—particularly presence, listening, and restraint—supporting a clinical posture that can hold ambiguity, silence, and not-knowing without premature interpretation.