By Dr. Peter Martin
Dr. Martin is a licensed psychologist and Internship Director of Integrated Training and Formation at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center in Lincoln.
Most Catholics would say that modern psychology has had a, well, complicated and checkered history with respect to religion. Two of its leading figures, Sigmund Freud and B. F. Skinner—who made important and lasting contributions to the way we understand internal (i.e., intrapsychic) and interpersonal functioning and behavior—were self-described atheists, likely radical atheists. A biased atheistic and secular humanistic worldview continues to shape contemporary thought, research, and practice in the field.
Furthermore, some argue that secular psychology has become religion’s rival in Western societies: Therapy is exchanged for confession; conversion is replaced with personal growth; and sin and virtue are substituted with ethics. The argument is that in some or many cases, psychotherapy may try to replace and even function like religion: Sinners are labeled mentally ill rather than transgressors of the divine law; psychotherapy becomes confession without absolution; and individuals become patients instead of penitents.
Though the above problems do not tell the whole story of psychology’s history, they raise valid concerns. As Aristotle put it: “The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.” With this troubling proposition in mind, if secular psychology removes God at the outset from the equation of mental health, how many volumes of errors may follow? Godless psychology can become to some extent a “psychology without a soul.” So, from a Catholic view, there is good reason to raise a questioning eyebrow to this approach to psychology and psychotherapy.
These challenges are not listed to paint a bleak and despairing picture. Rather they provide a historical context, one that should not be forgotten, lest it be downplayed and possibly reinforced and repeated. Contemporary psychology, to some extent, remains in the wake of these early influences and influencers.
However, from a Catholic standpoint, there is hope. Indeed, much hope! But a new and corrective vision had to be instated, one with God at the center. God had to become the filter, or lens, through which to see, interpret, and experience not only truth, goodness, and beauty, but mental health itself. As C. S. Lewis astutely put it: “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.” Psychology needs Christ like we need the sun to see and to live life more fully.
As a thought experiment at IHMCC, we sometimes ponder how different the mental health field would be if, in place of Sigmund Freud and B. F. Skinner influencing psychological theory and practice, St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Thomas Aquinas had instead been key figures in modern psychology. These well-versed and reasonable saints would have endorsed the scientific method, the influence of nonconscious functioning, the concept of environmental factors and stimuli on our experience, etc. But they would also have great reverence for God and the Catholic faith, the sacraments, the virtues, the spiritual aspect of the human person, the heart, and love. Undoubtedly, they would also reject anything wreaking of Catholic-lite or psychology-lite, for an authentic integration of Catholicism and psychology requires much more. It should neither do a disservice to orthodox Catholicism nor a proper and ordered understanding of psychology.
Properly understood and practiced, our Catholic faith and the field of psychology share a common ground of freedom (not to be confused with license). The supernatural freedom found in Christ and His Church can help to liberate us from natural, mental health issues. Indeed, I have heard the well-known psychologist, Dr. Jordan Peterson—whose wife converted to Catholicism this year—say multiple times that (at a natural level) “Catholicism is as healthy as it gets.” I concur, and so do numerous others in the Catholic psychotherapy world. Many Catholic mental health professionals turn to the witness and patronage of St. John the Baptist who cried out in the wilderness to “Make straight the way of the Lord” (Jn 1:23). These professionals attempt to “make straight” compromised natural pathways to remove the psychological roadblocks and burdens of a wounded personal history that block authentic freedom to properly love God and neighbor as self. These can include maladaptive schemas and distorted cognitions; distorted God images; attachment insecurities and amplified relationship fears; unprocessed traumas; dissociation; etc. The IHMCC helps clients who are struggling with any or all of these challenges.
In closing, I want to personally thank our diocesan shepherd, Bishop James Conley, for his wonderful support of those in need of mental health services and those who serve them. He well knows that—despite Freud’s, Skinner’s and others’ unfortunate errors with respect to religion—psychology and psychotherapy can be powerful means to authentic, natural freedom and human formation, most especially when viewed through a Catholic lens of what it means to be human in relationship to and with God.
Editor's note: The full text of Bishop Conley’s pastoral letter on Mental Health, an audio recording of the letter and an interview with the bishop are at lincolndiocese.org/afuturewithhope.
