9/21/2016
Skeptical of Psychology?
God’s Image on the
Clinical Couch
Some argue secular psychology has become religion's rival in
Western societies:
 Therapy is exchanged for confession
 Conversion is replaced with personal growth
 Sins and virtues are substituted with ethics
Reverencing Personhood in
Psychotherapy Practice
Psychotherapy may try to replace and function like religion:
Peter Martin, MA, PsyD, LP
Catholic Social Services of Southern Nebraska
23 September 2016
 Sinners are labeled “mentally ill” rather than transgressors of the
divine law
 Psychotherapy becomes confession without absolution
 Individuals are patients instead of penitents
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Presentation Content
Anthropology Thoughts
 All of us operate from our own implicit view of what
1. Christian Anthropological Premises – a ‘Vision’ of the
Human Person
 Emphasis on our Fallen state
2. Considerations of a Christian ‘Vision’ in Practice
it means to be human:
 This conference strives to make explicit a Christian
vision of what it means to be human
 Secularisms
 Anti-theism, Atheism, Agnosticism, ‘Nones’, etc.
 A Christian Anthropology is Trinitarian and
Communal
3. Applied Anthropology in Psychotherapy Setting
 Three 3 Categories of Persons: Divine, Angelic, Human
 "The mystery of man cannot be grasped apart from the
mystery of God" (ITC #7)
 “This understanding aids the link between "Christology and
anthropology . . . [and] a deeper understanding of the
dynamic character of the imago Dei" (Communion #24).
Anthropological Premises
2. Fallen as a Result of Sin
Christian Theological Vision
1. Created
2. Fallen
3. Redeemed
Christian Philosophical Vision
4. A Personal Unity
5. Fulfilled in Virtue
6. Fulfilled through Vocation
7. Interpersonally Relational
8. Embodied (Bodily)
9. Rational
10.Volitional & Free
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Kreeft: Sin and the Fall
2. Fallen as a Result of Sin (cont.)
God
 Identifies basis for problems of disorder, suffering, and
death
Though creation is good, something is undeniably wrong (Fr.
G and NYC)
The ones who are least responsible for evil suffer: children,
innocent, weak, poor
The fallen natural condition is alienation from God
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2. Fallen as a Result of Sin (cont.)
2. Fallen as a Result of Sin (cont.)
Due to alienation from God:
Privation – moral and physical evil
 Disorder at every level of human existence
 Sin, weakness, and decay constitute the experience of
Mental illness is a distortion of proper order, a privation from
within and between persons
human temporal life
 But, disorder is secondary to goodness of creation,
and basic order remains intact (contra Calvin’s “total
depravity”)
It can only exist if there is something properly ordered in the first
place
 Car analogy of powers of soul
JPII: “Every point of his historical sinfulness must be
explained in reference to his original innocence.”
Psychotherapy can only partially remedy the fallen human
condition
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Wounds
“I see clearly that the thing the church needs most today is the
ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it
needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field
hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously
injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the
level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds.
Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds,
heal the wounds.... And you have to start from the ground
up.”
Pope Francis
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Institute for Priestly Formation:
A Christian Anthropology of the Heart
Level I
Indwelling
Holy Spirit
“The Church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for
sinners.”
Abigail Van Buren
Level II
Level III
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Institute for Priestly Formation: A
Christian Anthropology of the Heart
Not Conducive to Security
Indwelling
Holy Spirit
Level I
Level II
Level III
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Not Conducive to Security
“The truth is that only in the mystery of the
incarnate Word does the mystery of man take
on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure
of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the
Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation
of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully
reveals man to man himself and make his
supreme calling clear. It is not surprising, then,
that in Him all the aforementioned truths find
their root and attain their crown” (emph.
added).
Vatican II, Pastoral Constitution on the
Church in the Modern World #22
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A New Vision
Starting Points
“The least initial
deviation from the
truth is multiplied
later a thousandfold.”
“I believe in
Christianity as I
believe that the sun
has risen, not only
because I see it, but
because by it I see
everything else.”
— C.S. Lewis
— Aristotle
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Vision Challenged
A Strong Foundation
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on
them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and
buffeted the house. But it did not collapse; it had been
set solidly on rock. And everyone who listens to these
words of mine but does not act on them will be like a fool
who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods
came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it
collapsed and was completely ruined." (Mt 7:24-27).
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“Christ-Sight”
Christ-Sight
Daniel Siegel
Mindfulness + Empathy = psychological maturity =
“Mindsight” (aka, Self-Actualization)
Christ reveals man to himself (GeS #22) and Christ is needed
to fully understand self/other: Faith + Reason
“Faith sharpens the inner eye, opening the mind to discover in the flux of
events the workings of Providence…. …reason and faith cannot be
separated without diminishing the capacity of men and women to
know themselves, the world and God in an appropriate way.”
– John Paul II, Fides et ratio, no. 16.
Mindsight + Faith in Christ = spiritual and psych-ological
maturity = “Christ-Sight” (aka, Christ-Actualization)
Sacrifice?
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Christ-like & Baptist-Like?
 Young Man and
“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”
(Mark 1:3)
Indian Yogi
 Sacrifice?
Grace does not abolish nature but informs, transforms,
and perfects it.
 “Your renunciation is far
greater than mine, for I have
renounced the finite for the
Infinite whereas you are
renouncing the Infinite for the
finite.”
Healing wounds and effectively treating psychopathology
augments human freedom, improving one’s capacity to be
an instrument of God’s grace.
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Applied Anthropology
7. Interpersonally Relational
Circle of Relationships
8. Embodied (Bodily)
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9. Rational
10. Volitional & Free
Healthy Guilt – Hate the sin; love the sinner
Excessive Guilt – Hate even pseudo sins; (maybe) love the sinner
Toxic Shame – Hate the sin; hate the sinner
Forgiveness and Reconciliation
aka: “Catholic guilt”
Archbishop Sheen – Devil and Christ before/after sin
We should reject Satan and all of his empty promises and lies
 Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo – During Easter Vigil renewal of
baptismal promises
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Forgiveness Requires
Strength
“Mercy . . . love’s second name”
“Mercy never ceased to reveal itself . . . as an
especially creative proof of the love which does not
allow itself to be ‘conquered by evil,’ but overcomes
‘evil with good’” (JPII, Dives in Misericordia #64)
“God is the Father Almighty, . . . God reveals his fatherly
omnipotence by the way he takes care of our needs; by the filial
adoption that he gives us . . . finally by his infinite mercy, for he
displays his power at its height by freely forgiving sins”
“Mercy is a limit beyond which evil cannot trespass.”
– Catechism of the Catholic Church #270
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov.
9:10; Ps. 111:10).
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of
the strong”
– Mahatma Gandhi
Love is wisdom’s end.
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Forgiving Defined
Waltman, et al. (2006)
 Definition of Forgiving (Enright & Fitzgibbons,
Men with Coronary Artery Disease met therapist for 1 hour
weekly for 10 weeks
2000, p. 24):
“People, upon rationally determining that they
have been unfairly treated, forgive when they
willfully abandon resentment and related
responses (to which they have a right), and
endeavor to respond to the wrongdoer based on
the moral principle of beneficence, which may
include compassion, unconditional worth,
generosity, and moral love (to which the
wrongdoer, by nature of the hurtful act or acts,
has no right).
All subjects screened for significant interpersonal hurt and
remaining unforgiving
Controls educated in proper diet, exercise, stress management
FT subjects increased forgiveness and had less myocardial
blood flow restriction when recalling their story of deep injustice
Results maintained at 4-month follow-up
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Forgiving Defined (cont.)
10. Reconciliation
Abandon Resentment and Related Responses
Emotions
Thoughts
Behaviors
Hatred
Annoyance
Evil
Inadequate
Wish well
Uncond. Worth
Ignoring
Eye contact /
Smiling
Active Interest
in Welfare
Revengeseeking
Slight Liking
Emot. Loving
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Selected Books Authored by
Enright
Anticipate Ambivalence
“HELL
Ambivalence
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“Yes!”
No!”
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4 Phase Model of Forgiveness
Suggestion: Have client purchase Forgiveness is a Choice
1. Uncovering
 Goal: Client gains insight into whether and how the injustice and subsequent
injury have compromised one’s life
2. Decision
 Goal: Client gains accurate understanding of nature of forgiveness and makes
decision to commit to forgiveness based on this perspective
3. Work
 Goal: Client gains cognitive understanding of offender and begins to view the
offender in new light, resulting in positive change in affect about the offender,
about self, and about the relationship [Hope operationalized]
4. Deepening
 Goal: Client finds increasing meaning in the suffering, feels more connected
with others, and experiences decreased negative affect and, at times, renewed
purpose in life
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