Psihoterapia CA Valoare Religioasa

7/28/2019 Psihoterapia CA Valoare Religioasa

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Religious Factors and Values in Counseling: A Symposium 263Psychotherapy as a Religious Value

Henry Enoch KaganSinai Temple, Mount Vernon, New York

The topic "Religious Factors and Valuesin Counseling" excites this dilemmawheredoes psychology end and theology begin?At a comparable symposium at New YorkMedical Center, a psychiatrist admittedreligious faith might be helpful in healing,but he refused to define religious faith onthe grounds that it was outside his pro-fessional competence. A professor of pas-toral theology, on the other hand, wasshocked when the writer made the sugges-tion that the effect of prayer be submittedto an objective psychological investigation.This, he contended, would not only be aninvasion of a man's religious privacy butan insult to God even though it should havebeen obvious that th e proposed study wouldperforce be confined to prayer's effect onman's and not on God's mind.

The dilemma does exist. It exists not be-cause psychology and theology disagree onthe reality of religious experience as a sub-jective phenomenon, but because they maydiffer on the objective validity of that ex-perience. Even so, the relation betweenreligion and psychotherapy is inextricable,certainly from their historical developmentand the theoretical point of view and in-creasingly so from their contemporary func-tional mutuality.Freud and Religion

Freud, himself, devoted much of his in-tellectual energies to theorizing about re-ligion. To be sure, most of his speculationswere about religion as an obsessional deter-rent or unhealthy retardation of maturity.Freud did reckon with religion as a factor,indeed, as the most profound of factors, buthe did not recognize it as a value in psy-chotherapy. However, even on this matterof religious values, recent anniversarystudies by Jones and others reveal Freud'sown ambivalence.At one point Freud's pride in his ownJewishness appears to be simply defensive

or entirely ethnic; but at another he pro-claims strong positive feelings towardJudaism which he seems to claim to be theonly historical religion to have successfullyresolved his prehistoric crime of father-murder. "It has seldom been so clear to meas now," Freud wrote, "what a psychologi-cal advantage it signifies to be born aJew and to have been spared in one's child-hood all the atavistic nonsense," and hedeclared, "Judaism is a triumph of spiritual-ity over the senses and a self-confidencethat accompanies progress in spirituality"(Freud, 1939, p. 178).Freud did not confine his ambivalenceon religious values to his Jewish heritage.Among the many letters written to his stu-dent, the Swiss Christian clergyman, OscarPfister, whom in good humor Freud calls"a true servant of God the very idea ofwhose existence seems to me highly un-likely" we read: "In itself psychoanalysisis neither religious nor the opposite but animportant instrument which can serve theclergy as well as laity when it is used onlyto free suffering people. I have been verystuck at realizing how I had never thoughtof the extraordinary help the psychoanaly-tic method can be in pastoral work, prob-ably because wicked heretics like myselfare far away from that circle" (Jones, Vol.2, 1955, p. 440). In that same letter thisstrictly moralistic heretic suggested that itis because most people are no longer re-ligious that those among them who cannotendure their suffering must needs turn topsychoanalysis to master their "obdurateinstincts."

Freud even admired proper religious sub-limation, adding, to be sure, that such re-ligious success will depend on the maturityof the person-to-person relationship be-tween pastor and parishioner, for Freudwrites to Pfister: "You are in the fortunateposition of leading them to God and re-constructing conditions of earlier times,.


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264 Henry Enoch Kaganfortunate at least in the one respect thatreligious piety stifles neuroses" (Jones, Vol.2, 1955, p. 440). In discussing transferencewhich he considered to be a "curse," Freudwrote to Pfister: "psychoanalysis perhapsachieves a cure but not the necessary de-gree of independence or a guaranteeagainst relapse" and to the clergy therapist,he continued, "it is easier for you in thisrespect than for us physicians because yousublimate the transference on to religionand ethics and that is not easy with serious-ly ill people. From the therapeutic pointof view I can only envy your opportunityof bringing about sublimation into religion.But the beauty of religion assuredly hasno place in psychoanalysis" (Jones, Vol. 2,1955, p. 448).

Since Freud made this statement 40 yearsago, has the development of dynamic psy-chology reached the point, unrelated to thepresent popular and suspect religious re-vival, where "the beauty of religion" cantake place in the psychotherapeutic pro-cess? In the long run, Freud's critique ofreligion may prove to be more constructivethan Jung's affirmations of religion whichare so frequently referred to in order tobring "the beauty of religion" into therapy.If "any statement about the transcendent"is "always only a ridiculous presumption ofthe human mind which is unconscious ofits boundaries" and "God for our psychol-ogy is only a function of the unconscious,"to quote Jung (Buber, 1952, p. 79), wehave to deal here with something, but it isnot religion. While religion does glorifyman for being able to communicate withGod, it is also humble enough not to makeGod's existence depend upon man. Thereligious philosopher, Martin Buber, prop-erly criticizes Jung for failing to make thisdistinction between the religious and thepseudo-religious in which every "allegedcolloquy with the divine is only a solilo-quy" (Buber, 1952, p. 134).

Psychology and Religion in GuiltThis sensitive distinction between thereligious and the pseudo-religious will haveto be made if positive values are to be

derived in dealing with religious factors incounseling. The religious connotations andeven stubborn religious convictions thatunderlie many factors in the therapeuticrelationship cannot be categorically deniedby the rigid formulas of frigid counselorsnor b e cavalierly circumlocuted by a con-fidant because of his own religious un-certainties.How can the feeling of guilt in our cul-ture be completely separated from thereligious concepts of sin? The anxiety ofguilt is one of the most painful of psychicillnesses just because its roots are deep inreligious origins which intensify guilt. Af-ter a period of dark despair following adecimating persecution, there arose amongEast European Jews in the eighteenth cen-tury a religious movement of joyful pietismcalled Hassidism. The Hassidic Rabbis wereconcerned about the abnormal guilt whichprofoundly depressed the Jew, derived asit was from his belief that his suffering wasa punishment by God. A piquant exampleof their effort to normalize guilt is theHassidic explanation of why the liturgicallisting of sins recited on the Jewish Dayof Atonement is arranged in alphabeticalorder. "If it was not otherwise," theseRabbis said, "we should not know when tostop beating our breasts for there is noend to sin and no end to being aware ofsin, but there is an end to the alphabet."

Today, it is popular to accuse the psycho-therapist of relieving the person of all senseof guilt for the sake of his physical healthand to charge the clergyman with inducinga sense of guilt for the sake of the person'sspiritual improvement. Such can only bethe case when either party is insensitiveto the distinction between normal guilt andneurotic guilt which can be as harmful asbeing unable to distinguish between exis-tential anxiety and pathological anxiety.Into this area of guilt there can impingethe theological concept of original sinwhich does compound anxiety because itbears with it not only the sinfulness of sexbut the forfeiture of free will. Judaism doesnot ascribe man's conscious awakening tosexuality as punishment for Adam's fall


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Religious Factors and Values in Counseling: A Symposium 265from grace and therefore does not believemen are predetermined by the act of birthto evil. Ho we ver, reg ard ing religious con-cepts w hich do abnormalize the natural , theobservation of the Christian theologian,Paul Tillich, is relevant. "If religion," hesays, "does not lead to or does not directlysupport pathological self-reduction, it canreduce the openness of man to reality,above all the reality which is himself. Inthis wa y religion can pro tect an d feed apotentially neurotic state" (Tillich, 1952,p. 73). To what extent will the highestlevel of aspiration which religion demands,itself contribute to the frustration-aggres-sion pattern which can lead to a violencewithout shame in the very name of religion?

Contrariwise, can the symbol of God asa forgiving and a loving Father help to healguilt? Here again the patience to discrim-inate on the part of a counselor becomesappropriate. How often is overt rebellionagainst a so-called angry God by a coun-selee but a temporary concealment of hishate for his own father? Does rebellionagainst God reflect the presence of an over-powering father in the home or does itpoint even more to resentment over theabsence of paternal authority in the mod-ern family? Will the deification of a mater-nal figure provide a greater feeling of athomeness in the world any more than doesthe mo ther-d om inated , absentee-fatherhome provide security for the child? Unlesscounseling is to be conducted in a spiritualvacuum, this current complex between fam-ily role an d religio us figure will req uir eincreasing attention as a pertinent factor.

Serious as is anxiety over guilt, sex, freewill or family role and their religious over-tones, the greater anxiety which compelspersons to seek counseling arises from mod-ern man's search for meaning and quest forhope. Those who think with Macbeth thatlife "is but a tale told by an idot, full ofsound and fury, signifying nothing" do be-come as emotionally distraught and hope-lessly depressed as Macbeth. Recent psy-chiatric studies lead to the conclusion thatwhere there is hope there is greater successin enduring pain, in healing and prolonging

life . Hope vanishes when the need to be-long, the need to be loved and the needto believe are unmet. These three needsappear to be so closely interrelated thatit ought to be investigated how the absenceof belief will warp the capacity for humanlove, physical and psychic, and will abusecompanionship to conquer loneliness. As thecase histories of Mortimer Ostow show,the disavowal of religion does not cancelthis need to believe (Ostow, 1954). Somemay place their faith in scientific methodand others will create objects imageswhich are quasi-religious. Self-made fan-tasies are like acquired classic religioussuperstitions in that both are used by theself to protect it against a hostile world.They are intrapsychic, whereas the high-est aspirations of religion are interpsychicin that they relate self to others in a hos-pitable world.

Clergyman as PsychologistBecause our society is no longer madeup of integrated communities with religiousorientation, there is a crisis in meeting theneed to believe. A recent study of thechanging role of the clergyman shows thatas his role as ritual symbolizer or congre-gational leader has declined, his role aspastoral counselor has grown because thereare isolated, mobile individuals in ourextensive, secularized and atomized societyin search of roots they hope to find through

a personal spiritual relationship which theycan no longer find in traditional theologicalsymbols. This will not sound sacrilegiousto those who remember that the foundersof all religions clearly differentiated be-tween the outward symbolic and the in-ward spiri tual . To them the beginning ofthe latter was a unique relationship of manto man, each concerned for the other'smutual sancti ty. Thus conceived, therapeu-tic counseling, whether done by a seculartherapist or by an equally trained clergytherapist (whose role must become a newreligious specialization relieving him of themore obvious judgmental ecclesiasticalfunctions), not only deals with religiousvalues since value judgments are intrinsic


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266 Charles A. Curranto the counselor as well as to the counseleeno matter how objective and nondirectivethe technique, but the relationship maywell be in itself a religious value.The crux of the matter depends uponhow the counselor looks upon himself aswell as upon the other as a person. Thisapplies to counselor and to clergy alike.Whether the one or the other conceivesof himself as acting in the role of inter-mediaryship or in the role of relationshipwill not depend on whether he feels or-dained by God or ordained by degrees. Allof us are persons of doubt as well as faith.Some of us consciously devout are un-consciously skeptical; and some consciouslyskeptical are unconsciously devout. As per-sons we will not assume an omnipotencewhich is not ours. The expectancy of suchomnipotence in us by our clients is a meas-urement of their neuroticism. We will notlook upon ourselves solely as the expertswho have the skill to help others. Totalpreoccupation with technique may concealone's own uncertainty in the art of living.Rather we should say of ourselves, "I ama person who is myself helped when Ihelp others." This requires the intimateconverse of two in a dialogical interchangewhose essential element is experiencing theother side. In the first attitude , the relation-ship is that of subject to an object, an I toan It; in the second attitude, the relation-ship is one of person to person, an I toThou relationship which in Martin Buber'sdefinition is itself a religious experience.Such an interhuman relationship is of therarest sanctity beyond the most knowledg-

able psychology and theology which oneHassidic Rabbi said he learned from anuntutored peasant.Said Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov (died1807), "How to love men is something Ilearned from a peasant. He was sitting inan inn along with other peasants drinking.For a long time he was as silent as all therest, but when he was moved by the wine,he asked one of the men seated besidehim, "Tell me do you love me, or don't youlove me?" The other replied, "I love youvery much," but the first peasant in his

wine replied, "You say that you love mebut you do not know what I need. If youreally loved me, you would know!" Theother had not a word to say to this and thepeasant who had put the question fell silentagain. "But I understood," said Rabbi Leib,"To know the needs of men and to helpthem bear the burden of their sorrows,that is the true love of men."ReferencesBuber, M, I and thou. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clarlc,1937.Buber, M. The eclipse of God. New York: Harper,1952.Freedman, M. S. Ma rtin Buber: The life of dia-logue. Chicago: Univer. of Chicago, 1955.Freud, S, Moses and monotheism. New York:

Knopf, 1939.Jones, E. The life and work of Sigmund Freud,Vol. 2. New York: Basic Books, 1955.Kagan, H. E. Atonement for the modern Jew.CCAR Journal, 1958, 4, 8-15.Ostow, M., & Scharfstein, B. The need to believeNew York: International Univer., 1954.Tilhch, P. The courage to be. New Haven: Yale,1952.

The Counseling Relationship and Some Religious FactorsCharles A. CurranLoyola University

In some of the old classic Dutch andItalian paintings, it was the artists' practice,as Stephen Tennant (1949) has pointedout, to give adrawing-room or kitchen in which there is awindow open, through which you see the mastsof ships, or a strip of grey sea, or vistas or colon-nades or a balcony, a garden or a court . . .

The experience afforded the viewer here. . . is essentially one of gazing beyond the im-mediate scene to a timeless sky or a timeless room,in which the future and the past, the unspokenand the unknown, forever beckon . . .If we were to ask what religious factorsand values introduce into the counselingprocess, we might answer that, like the

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