August 1973, my wife Mary Lynn and I are walking the beach near Portland, Maine. We are on a heavenly vacation, married over two years, radiant with enthusiasm after our Cursillo and then participation in the Charismatic Renewal a few months earlier. It was during this time we conceived our first child. With fervor I share my urgent longing to engage our faith in Christ in the healing of psychological suffering. Mary Lynn is entirely in accord with this purpose. In an informal, quiet manner, we ascent to a kind of a covenant, an oath to pursue that.
Fifty years later: neither of us are psychologists. But two daughters are; as well as almost ten nieces/nephews or their spouses; healing is strong in our family culture. But we have been drawn to currents of healing, liberation and vitality, many outside of professional psychology, within the Catholic culture of our time. Some are listed below.
1. Listening. Father Charles A. Curran (psychologist, not moral theologian of same era) in the 1960-70s developed the non-directive counseling of Carl Rogers into a therapeutic praxis of "listening" but grounded it in a solid Catholic spirituality. He applied this to education as "counselearning." As a young, struggling teacher myself, I was deeply moved when he explained the power that the student has over the teacher: the power to listen or not, to receive or reject. The teacher is powerless, vulnerable before the student. He explained the parable of the seed sown: Jesus was articulating his own frustration and pain as the Word he spoke was rejected in different ways. For me, he contrasted with the popular, often superficial Rogerian fad exemplified in (ex-Maryknoll-priest) Eugene Kennedy who taught at my college-seminary. Kennedy left the priesthood to marry and lead many others in dissent from Catholic traditions. He had a cult following at time, especially among his students; but he awoke in me (and apparently in no one else a profound aversion. (May he rest in peace.) From Curran I learned the immense power of listening.
2. Affirmation. Conrad Baars, survivor of a concentration camp, developed a Catholic therapy of "affirmation" which accentuated the positive declaration of the worth, goodness and lovableness of the person. This was proposed as the antidote to what he called "emotional deprivation." This approach, for me, clearly identified a fundamental healing practice: to see and acknowledge the truth, goodness and beauty of the person before me, suffering deprivation or not. His daughter Suzanne Baars continues this legacy. Affirmation, aligned with the deep listening of Curran, provide a solid basis for healing relationships.
3. Gentleness. Adrian van Kaam, a Dutch priest, developed at Duquesne University a strong program in spirituality. Like Baars, he suffered heroically in World War II, risking his life to bring food to Jews. He studied under Carl Rogers and Eric Ericson and wrote his doctoral disseration on "The Experience of Really Being Understood by a Person." He married Catholic spirituality, solid psychology and phenomenological approach to develop a school of spirituality that greatly influenced the Church after the Council. His book on "Gentleness" deeply impressed me. He explained that one must be gentle with oneself, including anger, anxiety, depression, in order to bring such gentleness to others. He is very much in the stream of Baars and Curran but brings an enriching emphasis.
4. Psychology as Religion (subtitle: the cult of self-worship) is a 1977 groundbreaking work by Paul Vitz. Coming of age in the late 1960s and early 70s, I was, with the culture and our Church, swept into a euphoria about the salvific efficacy of psychology. Vitz, a cognitive psychologist convert to Catholicism, unveils the pretensions and errors of what he calls "Selfism." He takes on the titanic idols of the time (Eric Fromm, Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow, Rollo May, Jung) and shows that we have here an alternate religion masquerading as science. He opened my eyes to the illusions I had entertained in my own enthusiasm for these theories. He continued to make major contributions in works like Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism, and The Christian Unconscious of Sigmund Freud, in which he sheds the light of genuine psychology on the disguised pathologies of the giants of the discipline. He has developed a profound Catholic-inspired psychology of the enthroned Self, fatherhood and masculinity/femininity. He directed my daughter's doctoral dissertation on "The Role of the Experience of Beauty in Healing."
5. Release of the Holy Spirit, within the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, was a dramatic, life-changing event. By a miraculous liberation, I was at once relieved of my liberal-do-gooder-guilt-complex and released into a joyful, trusting receptivity to the movements of the Holy Spirit. This Counselor became an agent, a guide, a strengthener, a stability in my life. Scripture took on meaning, practical guidance a reality, prayer of praise a joy. In the gift of tongues my heart and spirit surrendered to a song of adoration that moved beyond the restrains of social approval and cognitive deliberation. It seemed that my rigid, defensive ego defenses collapsed before an inflowing of heavenly love. Within a lively communion of prayer we delighted in reception of the Word, liturgy, vigorous hymns, and fraternity. This also opened my spirit to new dimensions of our Catholic legacy.
6. Healing of Memories was a specific Pentecostal ministry developed by Ruth Carter Stapleton. For those suffering the consequences of hurtful, even traumatic memories, she would gently guide into a remembrance of the event and then invoke and imagine the concrete presence of Jesus. This was Jesus-focused and psychology-based and gentle in style. The participant would rest quietly and await the movement of the imagination, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and receive the action or words of Jesus. I practiced this upon personal memories and enjoyed healing, consolation and new strength.
7. Deliverance from Evil Spirits, another fruit of the Charismatic Renewal, was developed by Neal Lozano into a prayerful, user-friendly, Jesus-centered, gentle, psychology-based exercise in liberation from obsessive, supernatural demons. First, one listens attentively to the story of the one bound in regard to the specific sufferings (anxiety, anger, lust, resentment, victim-complex, etc.) and then the story of one's family, childhood, history of trauma and emotion. In openness to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, specific areas of hurt and sin are identified. Then a five-step prayer is exercised: repentance as turning away from sin and to Jesus as Savior; forgiveness (in the name of Jesus) of anyone who has done harm; renunciation, clearly and in name of Jesus, of the specific spirit that has inhabited the heart and soul (anger, lust, etc.); command by the helper which strengthens the renunciation of the partipant; and a blessing to invoke the Holy Spirit to replace the expelled demon (trust in place of anxiety, pardon in place of anger, etc.) The practice is unapologetically supernatural, acknowledging the real activity of demons, as it is simple, faithful, and quietly efficacious.
8. 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is the incomparable antidote to compulsion, addiction and whatever exercises control over one's life. It is simple yet profound and complex: acceptance of powerlessness, surrender to Higher Power, moral inventory, making of amends, fellowship in accountability and brutal honesty, sharing of the program. Applying it to areas of personal powerlessness I found a new freedom, including a surprising release from a lifelong, unrecognized, low level fear. Additionally, I learned from the Al Anon program to life serenely with the compulsions of those around me. This opened a door of liberation previously closed to me.
9. Scrutinies of the Neocatechumenal Way This is a practice I observed with great respect and astonishment. An integral step in this extraordinary itinerary of faith, it involves a review of one's life and then direction, from the catechists, into a task that directly addresses a crucial area of personal bondage. It has resemblances to deliverance, healing of memories and the 12 steps but is quite distinct. Often it involves forgiveness, asking of pardon, and reconciliation with an alienated family member. It is entirely particular to the person. The catechists I observed were entirely unprofessional but seemed to be guided by the Holy Spirit to identify and then address an underlying spiritual dysfunction. It is largely unknown outside of this movement. It is suspect within clerical circles. I see it as another miracle from God.
10. Recovery Self-Help Program of psychiatrist Dr. Abraham Lowe was developed back in 1937 as a group process by which those suffering nervous conditions and anxiety assist each other in what we now call cognitive therapy. It is contemporaneous with AA of Bill W. and Doctor Bob as a self-help program but focuses on thoughts. Participants share anxious experiences and then offer each other "spottings" which are positive, encouraging thoughts to replace the negative ones. Examples: "This is distressing but not dangerous." "Anger is my worst enemy; humor my best friends." "My inner feelings are not transparent to others." "Just move the muscles." It is a communal strengthening of the intellect and will. Amazing! How happy I was to share this with family members suffering anxieties.
11. Gratitude Litany. In a doctor's office waiting room 25 years ago the Oprah Winfrey show offered celebrities witnessing the transformation in their lives, from sadness to joy, when they started their nightly gratitude journal. Nightly, they journaled five things of the day for which they were grateful. It effected a remarkable change for the better in their mood and attitude. As I practiced this, I found the same result. When I am feeling down, I go into my gratitude list, naming things large (my family, faith) and small (sneakers, white hair), and I find joy always returns.
12. Praise in All Things is close to gratitude but accentuates praise in bad things. Sharply described in Merlyn Carothers "Power in Praise," this practice accepts literally that "all things work to the good for those who love God." So it is precisely in bad, even evil things...sickness, death, suffering, sin, frustration, disappointment, failure...that one praises God, trusting in Divine Providence to bring good out of bad. I found, for example, that when I got a red light when running late (my baseline) that instead of cursing I could turn in praise to God and my attitude changed immediately. In "Turn Your Back on the Problem" Malcolm Smith recommends exactly that. A conscientious, social-justice, charismatic Anglican pastor he struggled fiercely against poverty and deprivation until he was exhausted and burnt out. He gave up. Went into his library, knelt down, and started a serious routine of praise and prayer over scripture. This started to influence his preaching and suddenly the Holy Spirit took over and there was major revival, followed by remarkable service of the poor.
13. Flight from Woman, by psychiatrist Karl Stern (1965) considers the male/female polarity and finds in the creators of modernity (Descartes, Sartre, etc.) a profound disconnect from the maternal. This important book appeared at the very time a militant feminism was deconstructing the very idea of the feminine as well as the masculine. It highlighted that the dynamism of marriage...the spousal, filial, maternal and paternal...is the core of culture, thought and the entire social order. It is part of a body of literature, essential but out of fashion, that sees the iconic nature of the masculine/feminine.
14. Reparative Therapy, developed by Joseph Nicolosi, Elizabeth Moberly, and others, is a Catholic-friendly attention to psychological wounds often underlying homosexuality, especially in its compulsive expressions. It is widely maligned as "conversion therapy," an attempt to change an alleged "orientation" from one direction to another. Rather, it is offered to those who feel trapped by their sexual proclivities and addresses root causes: body image, father problems, insecurity with male peers, sexual abuse, failure to detach from mother, and others. I welcomed this approach as it helped me identify the roots of my own particular "concupiscence tendencies" and heal the causes thus bringing freedom and enhanced virility.
15. Theology of the Body of St. John Paul, along with the anthropology developed by Edith Stein, Dietric von Hildebrand and others elaborated the dignity, beauty, and generosity of gender/sexuality as expressive of the boundless graciousness of the Triune God. This represented for me the most important development in Catholic thought in the 20th century and has immense psychological and emotional consequences when engaged.
16. Mimesis Anthropology of Rene Girard, especially as elaborated by his protege Gil Baile, unveils the imitative nature of the human person: we are who we imitate. This deconstructs the illusion of the isolated, imperial Self. It explains wide areas of human behavior and culture. It unveils the person as created to image Another, the Holy Trinity.
17. Dramatics of Hans Urs von Balthasar For this mystic, theological genius, Being and all life, even the immanent life of the Trinity, is the eventful engagement of Freedoms. Every aspect of my own life, however minor, becomes Eventful, a dramatic engagement of my Freedom...heart, intellect will...with The Great Freedom of God (who created and then redeemed me out of total gratuity) and that of my brother and sister Freedoms. This is an exhilarating, joyous vision of life!
Each of the above are powerful cultural, spiritual, psychological currents which feed into a wide river of freedom, joy and love. They are like distinct melodies or tunes which harmonize into a greater symphony of order, beauty and hope. I am immensely grateful for being blessed by all of them.
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