The mystical phenomenon appears as a universal constant in all religious formations. In our days, there is also the novel claim of a "profane mysticism" that would take place outside the margins of religion. But, apart from the fields of theology and spirituality, it was psychiatry, psychology, and later psychoanalysis that showed the greatest interest in the mystical experience.
The irruption of intense affective experiences, sometimes accompanied by special phenomena such as visions and revelations, made us think that the denied dynamisms of consciousness found in this type of experience a unique opportunity for expression and recognition. The regressive, insane, or propulsive and beneficial character that the mystical experience could entail was and continues to be the subject of heated controversy.
But, beyond the clinical question, the mystical phenomenon appears as a particular form of experience in which the deepest psychic structures are unequivocally compromised. Determining which dimensions of the psyche are involved and the meaning they may have in the global dynamics of the personality is a central objective of this study.
The analysis is limited to Western mysticism and, within it, it is intended to determine what may be the meaning of that Other with which the mystic is linked in love and joy. An Other that can simultaneously come from that "more here" of consciousness, in what would be the unconscious world and, in parallel, could also be referring to a "beyond" of it, to a transcendent reality, sacred or not, with which the mystic claims to be in relation. The place of that Other in the mystics of the West thus supposes an exciting challenge to which this work tries to approach.