Abstract
As I was beginning this chapter, I looked through some of the descriptions of transformations in relationships that I had collected over the years. One in particular caught my attention. It is a story with the same theme as those presented in the first chapter, but like any deeply human and personal story, it also stands by itself. Because it was written by a former student whom I have gotten to know quite well over the years, it is especially meaningful to me. As I use it to discuss the connection between the interpersonal and transcendence, I will also focus on two other stories from earlier chapters, one from Chapter 2, on disillusionment, and one from Chapter 3, on forgiveness.
The familiar swallows up everything. It is bottomless. When experience fades into the familiar, it loses substance, it becomes a ghost.
Donnell Stern1
Whether we like it or not, the depths in us are always throwing up treasure.
John O’Donohue2
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Notes
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© 2008 Steen Halling
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Halling, S. (2008). Interpersonal Relations and Transcendence. In: Intimacy, Transcendence, and Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230610255_7
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