Psychology and Self-Worship—A Critical Study
Paul Vitz, EDB Editions
Does Psychology Help Us Believe?
Edited by Peter Raab—Cittadella Editrice L. 20.000
These two books may seem contradictory at first glance. In fact, they complement each other.
In the first, the author examines the thinking of four major figures in humanistic psychology: Fromm, Rogers, Maslow, and May. His critique comes from someone who hoped that a psychology so close to the Christian vision of life might transform the prevailing mentality of our society—and who was deeply disappointed. With reflections whose limits he himself acknowledges, he searches for the fruits of these psychotherapists' work and their students' work. What he finds is mainly negative: a search for identity and freedom that has become personal and collective selfishness, an awareness of personal autonomy that has turned into self-worship, indifference toward others, and sometimes violence. All of this stands far from Christianity. One might conclude that since behavioral psychology and psychoanalysis, in his view, cannot sustain Christians who wish to live their faith, psychotherapy as a whole should be rejected and abandoned.
In the second book, Peter Raab—a theologian, psychopedagogue, marriage counselor—presents essays from numerous psychotherapists, priests, evangelical pastors, educators, and a nun who directs spirituality courses. These authors believe in a constructive interaction between psychology, theology, and mysticism. According to Raab, "everything we now know about human growth and the maturation of personality, about the development of consciousness, and all known methods for the physical, psychological, and spiritual evolution of the human person should serve also the life of faith." Each of us can become the "new person" of whom Saint Paul speaks. As we read in Meister Eckhart: "When God finds you ready, then he acts and pours himself into you, just as happens with the air: if it is pure and clear, the light of the sun pervades it." We can only encourage our readers to reflect on the pages of this book. Our purpose in presenting the first is the same. As we said at the start, one book completes the other. It is true that, as Paul Vitz says, we must guard against conforming ourselves to a prevailing mentality based so strongly on the "I" without regard for the "you" without which the "I" cannot live. It is true that we must be cautious and prudent in choosing a therapist. But we must also have the capacity to be moved and to love life with joy, as Peter Raab proposes. He believes profoundly that suffering should find relief, that through illness our faith can become stronger and more conscious, and that those who accompany us with competence through difficulty and help us with respect can lead us toward God.
—Natalia Livi, 1994
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