Psychotherapy: Healing the Soul Wisdom of the holy fathers

Donna C. Dobrowolsky, M.D. Catholic Psychotherapy

Association

Annual Meeting

April 23, 2021

1 Learning Objectives: 1. Participants will be able to deepend their appreciation for the integrative view of the person

from the lens of patristic anthropology. 2. Participants will be able to integrate insights by the Desert Fathers and Mothers on the human condition

and the potential for its transformation. 3. Participants will appreciate how patristic teachings and practices can be combined with contemporary psychotherapeutic approaches to address the

challenges of the new century. Additionally, hope that this presentation will:

1. Provide a better understanding of how transformation, understood from the perspective of restoration (into the image and likeness of God),

both integrates and preserves diversity.

2. Make more aware of the diverse liturgical traditions

within the one holy, catholic and apostolic church.

3. Appreciate that despite arising to address different questions and purposes, patristic teachings and contemporary psychotherapy are both traditions supportive of the living of human life, of achieving

or restoring well-being, One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church: diversity within unity

“Catholic” = “katholou”: pertaining to the whole; preserving for all; the whole truth What are the Eastern Christian Churches

and

Who are Eastern Christians? Most Catholics are familiar with the founding of the see of Rome by Peter, and the succession of bishops that continues to this present day.

What many do not know is that other churches founded by the Apostles, also have their own succession of bishops that continue as well.

The term Eastern Christianity is generally used in the west to describe all Christian traditions which did not develop in Western

Europe. The Catholic Church is a communion of

Churches. According to the Constitution of the Church of the Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, the Catholic Church is understood to be a “corporate body of Churches” united with the Pope of Rome, who serves as the guardian of unity. (LG, no.23).

Eastern Catholics are members of any of the 23 Sister Churches or Sui Juris Catholic Churches (autonomous) that are in communion with the See of Rome, and with their own canon law (Cannon 112; new code of cannon law promulgated by Pope JP II). The Roman Empire consisted of many different cultures with different world views

When the church spread, East and West, it took on the expression or style of that particular hemisphere, or world view it found itself in.

(Analogy: human race = male and female)

The Catholic Church is a communion of Churches.

•Eastern Catholics are Not Roman Catholics. However, like Roman Catholics, they are under the Spiritual and temporal Jurisdiction of the

Pope.

•Together with Roman Catholics, Eastern Catholics profess the same Creed (faith) and practice the same seven Holy Mysteries or Sacraments, each according to their own liturgical tradition. spirituality, and apostolic

heritage. The Catholic Church is a communion of

Churches. •While this diversity within the Catholic Church can appear confusing at first, it in no way

compromises the Church’s unity.

•In a certain sense, it is a reflection of the mystery of the Trinity. Just as God is Three Persons, yet one God, so the Church is 23 Churches,

yet one Church

• .What Eastern Christians think and perceive today is intimately related to early Church history and their present identity with it.

• The Fathers of the Church are the teachers and authority figures for

Eastern Christians

• The Eastern Christian faith is centered

on Healing

12 Why should we be interested in what the Church Fathers teach? Why should we be interested in what the Church Fathers teach?

• Despite significant advances in science, medicine, technology, and philosophy, there continue to be persistent loneliness, alienation, dissatisfaction, and hostility in the world.

• The desert fathers recognized that the pursuit of human happiness as an end in itself will always be unsatisfactory.

• They developed an understanding of the inner life and of nurturing mental well-being from the perspectives of love and healing.

14 The Fathers explored the ontological nature of self and personhood.

They raised questions about the nature of the soul, recognizing that human beings could not be reduced to the material or rational thoughts.

We find overlap between patristic teachings and various schools of psychology, including: depth psychology, object relations, attachment theory, cognitive behavioral therapy,

and contemplative psychology Can we find a meeting place between patristic thought and contemporary psychological theories? • Patristic writings speak to movement from death to life, from nonbeing to being through an encounter with the divine in the depths of our psyche, and the divine being present in all of creation - a sacramental “mysterion.” This gift of grace is given to all of creation by God, and is assumed and restored in Christ.

• Psychologists speak to rising from the depths of pain and darknes, finding new life through the process of the psychotherapeutic work.

• Both are concerned with human well-being, that oriented toward changing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors How do these worldviews diverge? Psychology:

• Contemporary psychotherapy reflects the times in which it arose: beginning around the 17th century (Descartes, Locke, Hume, Kant).

• Psychotherapy is concerned with “self,” which is presented as an idea rather than substance

• Concerned with identity of human being, that includes emotions, feelings, memories, and consciousness

• Rational reason is prioritized: knowledge of the world and meaning are defined through personal observation and subjective experience. How do these worldviews diverge? Psychology:

• As subjective agents of our own experiences, our identity, our “selfhood,” begins to be viewed independently from other “selves.”

• Lose sight that our selfhood is defined in relationship to another.

• Begin to look inward to define spiritual and moral questions.

• Well-being becomes an end onto in itself

• Spirituality is made into a self-serving process aimed at achieving well-being. How do these worldviews diverge? Psychology:

• From late 19th century onward, empriric method and scientific study began to further divide the “self” into more manageable units of study: psychotherapeutic and neurophysiological

• Start to see: 1. Human beings became a type of “thing,” an object to be studied 2. The mind is separated from the physical body 3. The “soul” is reduced to activity within the brain and nervous system. How do these worldviews diverge? Patristics:

• Patristic thought is centered on concept of “logos spermatikos”

• “logos as seed”: the Logos, who created all things, is inherently a part of creation,

• Created things have an inner “essence” or “principle” that is contained within the Logos.

• Logoi never form autonomous realm between God and creatures,

• Logoi are divine energies - God Himself active in the world How do these worldviews diverge? Patristics:

• In Greek, “spermatikos” also refers to “blueprint”: God creates through Logos with a plan.

• Everything that exists has God’s “fingerprint” or “DNA”.

• Logos is already in every person; one needs to get in touch with Logos.

• As God creator, Logos confers “right order” on all things How do these worldviews diverge? Patristics:

• Basic anthropology:

• Body and soul are created by God in union with each other,

• Both are also in tension with each other

• They are fundamentally good, but also fundamentally distorted and corrupted by the fall How do these worldviews diverge? Summary:

• Psychological therapy is oriented toward correcting presenting problems and/or mental illness.

• Dynamic therapies can place more importance on achieving “wholeness” or integration than alleviating symptoms.

• The relationship is between self, an individual’s observed internal experience, and a professional How do these worldviews diverge? Summary:

• Although patristic “psychotherapy” requires changes in thoughts, feelings and behaviors, it places the inner intention of the human being in relationship to God, who alone can truly transform and change.

• The good is pursued out of love for God

• The goal is restoration: a return to our original creation in the image and likeness of God How do these worldviews diverge? Summary:

• Created with an inner “essence” or “principle,” - “logoi,” or “thoughts of God,” contained within the Logos - restoration entails a return to the original intimacy we were created to participate in.

• God is present in all being

• In patristic theology, there is no ontological split within the person between the natural and spiritual, nor the experiential, “O Lord Jesus Christ, my Son and my God, please bow your ear to me; for I pray for the world.” - text on the scroll of original icon Thus, for the Greek Fathers, faith is centered on

Healing SALVATION AND

HEALING

27 The devil has deceived us by guile in a malicious and cunning way, provoking us through self-love to sensual pleasure (cf. Gen 3:1-5). He has separated us in our wills from God and from each other; he has perverted straightforward truth and in this manner has divided humanity, cutting it up into many opinions and fantasies.

Saint Nikodimos, The Philokalia: The Complete Text “Healing the whole

person” John’s Story In Scripture and in the Fathers’ teachings, we find several images expressing the mystery of our salvation.

Western theological thinking generally focuses on the redemptive work of Christ in essentially legalistic terms (ransom, the perfect Sacrifice)

There is also a “medical” image, which is emphasized in the writings of the desert fathers. This approach to the mystery of salvation salvation continues to this day in the Christian East. Salvation

Salvation comes from the Greek word, “sotiri” (σωτήρη) , which means to heal, to make whole.

The very name of Jesus means “God saves”

The Ladder of Divine Ascent

31 Salvation

To be saved is to to be healed of our fallen condition and restored to our original creation in the image and likeness of God

Salvation - Christianity - is about healing the whole person

32 The word “psychotherapy” is derived from the Greek psyche (ψυχή), meaning “soul,” and therapeia (θεραπεία), which means “healing”.

It is believed that physical and emotional healing is dependent on the soul's health.

All illness and suffering stem from our fall from grace - thus, our understanding of original sin is critical. To understand healing according to the church fathers, we must first understand sin, illness,

death and love.

We must review

Christian anthropology

In the Beginning….. Original Perfection

The Book of Genesis reveals that God’s creation was wholly good (Gn1:31)

“If you wish to know the state of our body as it left the hands of God, return to paradise, and behold the man whom God had just placed there. His body was not subject to corruption. Like a statue taken from the kiln, that shines most brightly, he experienced non of the infirmities that we know in our day.” - St. John Chrysostom

“Man at his origin, did not possess the capacity to suffer, wither by nature or as an essential property associated with his nature; it is only later that the capacity for suffering infected his nature.” - St. Gregory of Nyssa “The first man, receiving his being from God, came into existence free of sin and corruption, for neither sin nor corruption were created with him... and the change in man toward suffering, corruption and death was not there in the beginning.” - St. Maximus the Confessor Original

Perfection The Fathers insist that from the moment of creation, the body and soul are created simultaneously.

The Fathers stress the connection between body and soul, and the effects of sin on both. Original Perfection

God created man “after His own Heart” and for

Himself.

Adam & Eve were created with the vocation to become one with God, gradually increasing in their capacity to share in His divine life.

By receiving the “breath of life” from God, the Fathers saw in this breath the human soul as well as the divine Spirit. The Human Person

Man is created with a body and soul, to transform his life into a life in God.

Personhood emerges from the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and is expressed in a divine human communion.

The Nativity of Our Lord

39 “Let Us Make Man in Our Image and Likeness…” (Gn 1:26) “…that which is most precious of all that God has created — the noetic and intelligent creature, man — has been made alone among created beings, in God’s image and likeness (c.f. Genesis 1:26). First, everyman is said to be made in the image of God as regards the dignity of his intellect and soul… and endowed with free will. - St. John Damascus (Philokalia III

The Fathers attribute man’s intellect and the virtues inherent in man’s nature as being created in the image of God.

The image is man’s potential for life in God “Let Us Make Man in Our Image and

Likeness...” The Book of Genesis reveals that God’s creation was wholly good (Gn1:31).

Man was created with the potential to realize these virtues.

Humanity’s likeness to God is aligned with active participation in God’s plan, the cooperation of all his faculties with the divine will and the free opening up of the entire being to God’s grace. ” (Larchet, 2012 16)

This journey from the image to the likeness of God reflects a process of change — transfiguration Theosis

The Transfiguration icon depicts our transformation, our restoration, in Christ

This process is also referred to as “divinization”: meaning that one’s essential being is permeated and filled with the presence of God.

Theosis, according to the Church Fathers, is the goal of every Christian life.

“God had become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.” — St. Irenaeus Theosis is a profoundly transforming condition in which the very life of Jesus resides within us, illuminating us.

It is Christ’s virtues, love and beauty in us that restores the image of God in us, allowing us to become His presence to others in this world.

Theosis is a lifelong process of restoration and healing….

For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.” — St. Athanasius Theosi

s (cont) •Man never becomes God in his search for divinization, but becomes appropriately what he is meant to be: an icon of God, a created image of that in which he can participate by virtue of the Divine Energies, but which he can never be in terms of God’s Essence.

•Theosis is more than merely resembling Jesus, more than merely “following”, it is transformation into the very image of God, by Christ’s very presence in us.

•We are healed by Christ’s divine presence within, restoring us to our original creation: in the image of God. The Ladder of Divine Ascent

The Two Minds

• The Eastern Church Fathers, viewed man as having two ”cognitive organs” or centers of consciousness: 1. ”Reason” = that which evaluates the tangible, physical world around us,

including our emotions and thoughts

- it is associated with our brain and sensory organs. - it is what we today refer to as “the mind”.

- level of knowledge that is normal state of fallen humanity 2. ”Nous” = the eye of the soul, our spiritual mind

- it is the place deep within our being where we perceive God

- where divine truths and knowledge of God are revealed by the Holy Spirit to those who prayerfully pursue union with Christ - It is often referred to as our spiritual heart - i.e. “a pure heart” or “purity of heart” (does not refer to feelings)

• Essentially, in our fallen existence, we are only aware of the world perceived with our senses and are blind to spiritual realities: the presence of God

• The faculty that perceives God should rule the human being The “nous” is considered by the Fathers to be the highest faculty of knowledge as it represents the contemplative possibilities of human beings, and allows man to master and transcend himself.

The “nous” is that which in effect links man to God from the moment of our creation, and where the image of God is found in man! In essence, “nous” is our intuitive intelligence: the part of our soul linked to the divine, where divine energies, graces, are perceived.

It is the seed of all potential knowledge and has within it the “imprint” for the fullness of our creation.

Our “nous” can only germinate and grow with God’s very energies - His love - radiating and nurturing this part of our soul to bloom into the image of the Holy Trinity in us. “Theo”

“logos”

In Greek, “theos” = god; “logos = word thought, reasoning, knowledge

According to the Greek Fathers, theology is associated with spiritual knowledge received as a gift of Grace as one moves toward union with Christ.

Eastern spirituality is experiential: mystical, prayerful experiences of.Divine Love.

We can only know another by our experience of them, otherwise we just know about them. According to the Eastern Church, theology is not an intellectual science nor a philosophy, but the voice and life of the Church.

Patristic tradition views theologians as those who have seen the Divine Light, and “know well” the path of healing

The Church, as source of Grace and Mysteries (Sacraments), nurtures our fallen human nature, and guides us toward a healing transformation. She is “therapeutic”..

Thus, from the Eastern Christian perspective, like the science and art of medicine that dispenses prescriptions for healing the body, Christianity, as the Body of Christ, knows that the remedy for human suffering is found in sanctity - oneness with Christ. Origin

of

Illness

and Sufferin

g

5 0 Sin as a Disease

“… the death of the soul is the decay of virtue and the bringing in of wickedness. … that special death, which is that of the soul becoming entombed in passions and wickedness of all kinds.” - Philo of Alexandria

51 The rupture in God’s plan for mankind occurred when Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent, by Satan, and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

In failing to obey God’s command, the entire material creation fell into disorder

The Fathers described Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden as ancestral sin, which is how this tragedy is understood by Eastern Christians to this day Ancestral Sin Ancestral sin has a specific meaning quite different from the juridicial implications of the commonly held conceptualization of original sin in the West today: - an angry and offended God punishing Adam and Eve for their transgression; - nor does it carry the concept of being “stained” with a personal guilt that is passed from one generation to the next.

From the western, juridicial perspective, “sanctity,” is to live a “moral life,” the purpose of which is to fit us for the beatitudes and bring us to a beatific vision.

The above contributes to a commonly held view: “if I live by the rules I’ll get inside the gate of heaven.”\ Ancestral Sin

Since the image of God in man cannot be destroyed, this image became soiled, or darkened, by sin.

Thus, according to the early Fathers, guilt is not what is inherited by Adam and Eve’s transgression; instead, what is inherited is a condition: disease and death. Ancestral Sin

Sanctity, from the desert fathers perspective, is truly about transformation and union — healing our wounded self and wounded relationship with God, to share in the very life and love of the Holy Trinity.

The world is longing for such intimacy. Bringing individuals into the Church is for them to realize this kind of love awaits them.

Ancestral sin implies that man withdrew from God - lost divine grace - resulting in blindness, darkness and death of the part of the soul once intimately connected to Divine Life.

Spiritual death came first: the soul lost the uncreated grace of God.

Bodily death followed. The darkening and dying of the soul was transmitted to the body. [Analogy: branch breaking away from vine = without life giving “Sap” flowing through its “veins,” it begins to physically decay and die] Our nature, became diseased... through the sin of one” - St. Cyril of Alexandria (Hughes, 2004, p. 2) Ancestral Sin

Ancestral sin was more than a transgression of God’s commandment to not eat the forbidden fruit. “

The forbidden fruit was food not blessed by God, “the eating of which was condemned as communion with itself alone and not communion with God” (Schmemann 1973, 16).

By eating the forbidden fruit, rejecting God and their vocation, Adam and Eve were the cause of their own death. Important to fully comprehend Eastern Christian perspective because of the important implications re: healing the human person, and our culture.

Dynamics behind the Fall reveal patterns frequently observed in human behavior.

Enlightens us as to why God created us as male and female and the kind of relationship He created us to have with Himself and with one another. Especially important in today’s society, which is witnessing the end result of the “sexual revolution”.

St. John Paul II’s teaching on the “theology of the body” are consistent with patristic theology. Nuptial love - theosis - has always been at the center of Eastern Christians theology. By His Incarnation, Christ has overthrown the barriers which separated our nature from God and has opened human nature once more to the deifying energies of uncreated grace.

Only Christ can deliver mankind from the consequences of Adam and Eve’s transgression and from sin itself.

5 9 Christ: Physician of Our Bodies and Souls

Christ totally restored human nature by the power of His own divine nature, reuniting and conforming it in Himself to divinity.

Christ’s saving work is not imposed, rather is offered to man’s free will and presupposes man’s acceptance and free collaboration. PASSIONS

61 “The thoughts and anger won’t go

away” Anita’s Story Passions

God created man with an erotic love (in the original Greek definition): an insatiable longing for transcendent Beauty. Man was created to push toward union with the Divine, finding joy and pleasure in God alone.

Having fallen away from Love, man was no longer intimately aware of God’s grace and love within him. Man’s longing for God was transferred to his senses: giving birth to sensual pleasure.

The word “sin” in English is a translation of the Greek hamartia, which mean “to miss the mark.” Evagrios the Solitary tells us hamartia should be viewed as a “misuse (of) what God has created.” (Philokalia I)

6 3 (Sin) was actually the work of the devil, but God allowed the link between pleasure and pain... for pain is the refutation of pleasure.” (Hughes, 2004, p. 2)

“The Heavenly Physician allowed much suffering and disease so that man might learn from his very nature that he must never again entertain the thought’ that he could be like onto God. (St. John Chrysostom, Homily 11, On the Statues).” (Mileant, 2005)

Sin breeds evil, and evil breeds suffering.... yet this very suffering is a blessing for us all because it forces us to realize how harmful to our souls, and even to our bodies, our faithlessness to God is.

(Orthodox Christian Apologestics).” (Mileant, 2005) Passions and the Spiritual

Life

Man was created to push toward union with the Divine, finding joy and pleasure in God alone.

Sin shattered the original integrity of the person. With the soul and body no longer intimately connected, man lost the awareness that truth and knowledge was revealed to the soul by Grace. Thus, the seat of knowing was transferred to man’s own rational thinking.

Impure passions rushed in to replace the deadened soul causing illnesses of the soul and body. Passions and the Spiritual

Life “This was actually the work of the devil, but God allowed the link between pleasure and pain... for pain is the refutation of pleasure.” (ibid)

Sin breeds evil, and evil breeds suffering.... yet this very suffering is a blessing for us all because it forces us to realize how harmful to our souls, and even to our bodies, our faithlessness to God is. (Orthodox Christian Apologestics).” (Mileant, 2005)

“The Heavenly Physician allowed “‘much suffering and disease so that man might learn from his very nature that he must never again entertain the thought’ that he could be like onto God. (St. John Chrysostom, Homily 11, On the Statues). Passions and the Spiritual

Life God, without ever being the cause of sickness and suffering, can nevertheless allow suffering for the afflicted person’s own spiritual good, further his spiritual progress, as well as for the spiritual edification of others.

In their transgression, “God did not threaten Adam and Eve with punishment, He was moved to compassion. The expulsion from the Garden and from the Tree of Life was an act of love and not vengeance so that humanity would not become immortal to sin... .” (Hughes, 2004, p. 2) Passions and the Spiritual

Life

“‘Passion is derived from the verb ‘pascho’, ‘to suffer’ and indicates inner sickness.” (Metropolitan Hierotheos, 2002, p. 245).

The Fathers interpret passion as the “movement which takes place in the soul” while sinful practice is “that which is manifested in the body” (ibid.)

As a physician needs to identify the source of bodily illness before he can prescribe appropriate treatment, healing and spiritual growth toward union with God entails identifying ways that the soul is ill (turned away or “disconnected” from God), which in turn inflicts its state on the body (physical illness and behavioral manifestations). Passions and the Spiritual

Life

Passions are distorted energies of the soul that are aroused through the senses and manifested in the body. Unlike “vices” passions do not carry moral judgment.

Therefore, passions, are the absence of the Holy Spirit, unnatural movements of the soul and are therefore its dying, death and sickness. (Metropolitan Hierotheos, 2002, p. 252)

Healing is initiated when these passions are redirected toward God: inner movements of the soul no longer rouse sensual desire (the soul attaining “apatheia” or dispassion).

They are redirected and transformed into divine eros. Through experiential knowledge of divine love, the soul seeks to channel its energies/movements and demonstrate divine love to neighbor, agapao love (self-less love). “To Suffer

Painfully:” Richard’s Story The issue of suffering can be especially difficult for Protestants who claim health in the “Name of Christ.” It is often their view that health is a natural entitlement and illness betrays a lack of faith.

“the saints know that the greatest reward of all is to be able to love and serve God... God wishing to show that it was not for reward that His saints serve Him, stripped Job of all his wealth, gave him over to poverty, and permitted him to fall into terrible diseases. (St. John Chrysostom Lazarus and the Rich (Homily I, On the Statutes) “ (Mileant, 2005) Man Saints, like Job in the Old Testament and Lazarus in the Gospel, do not live for reward in this life, but to remain faithful to God!

“Just as healthy people are not always without sin, God sometimes allows truly righteous one to suffer, ‘as a model for the weak’ (St. Basil the Great The Long Rules). For as St. John Cassian teaches, ‘a man is more thoroughly instructed and formed by the example of another.’ (Institutes)” (Mileant, 2005) Lazarus and the Rich Man There is an intimate relationship between body and soul, sin and sickness. Pain tells us that something has gone wrong with the soul, that not only is the body diseased, “When the soul is diseased we usually feel no pain. but the soul as well. But if the body suffers only a little, we make every

effort to be free of the illness and its pain. Therefore, God corrects the body for the sins of the soul, so that by chastising the body, the soul might also receive some healing... Christ did this with the Paralytic when He said: Behold thou art made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. - St. John Chrysostom (Homily 38, On the Gospel of John)” This is how the soul communicates its ills to the body: (Mileant, 2005). awakening man to self knowledge and a wish to turn to

God.

Our body is of material nature and is subject to the laws of matter. In our present condition it is not possible to escape from illness and avoid being consumed by age.

Just because the soul is ill due to our fallen state and manifests itself via bodily illness and suffering, it does not mean that there is a necessary relationship between the health of the body and the health of the soul!

Although physical sufferings can be the result of a disordered life, they are not directly attributable to personal sin of those who are afflicted.

Nor does continual good health imply that someone is without sin or without an ill soul, for suffering takes on many forms, including dissatisfaction and grief.

How one responds with faith and virtue to illness and pain reflects the soul’s underlying intimacy with the divine energies and love: the degree of imperfection or health. Lazarus and the Rich Man Ultimately, afflictions are a means God uses to teach us that true happiness is to be united with God by a virtuous life, whereas the only one true cause of misery is to be separated from God.

Identifying and correcting the passions have been a primary diagnostic focus among Church Fathers for the purpose of facilitating individuals’ transformation toward diefication

Identification of the passions is necessary to prescribe appropriate “remedies” for the soul to return to its original, natural condition of dispassion or “apatheia”.

Illness is a means that, if responded to appropriately on the level of spiritual discernment, can facilitate union and transformation into the image of Christ’s love.

St. Maximus writes in Centuries on Love I.34: “A pure soul is one freed from passions and consequently delighted by divine love.” This love is directed not towards the self, but towards God and others. (Neil, 2004, Conclusion, paragraph one)

Virtues obtained through illness and suffering: -strengthening faith and growth in patience -increase in hope and humility -leaving the soul well disposed toward prayer via repentance and compunction. Passions and the Spiritual

Life

The Fathers have divided the passions into various classifications to facilitate an individuals’ transformation toward diefication.

The primary contributors to identifying the main passions are Evagrius of Pontus (the Solitary), St. John Cassian, and St. Gregory the Great.

There are 8 general categories of thoughts identified, in which are included every thought. “First is that of gluttony, then impurity, avarice, sadness, anger, acedia, vainglory, and last of all, pride. (Evagrius, Praktikos #6, Philokalia I)

Identifying and correcting the passions have been a primary diagnostic focus among Church Fathers. Abba Evagrius was a monk of Sketis, born around the middle of the 4th century. He studied under Sts. Macarius of Egypt and of Alexandria, and was friends with such great saints as St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa and St Gregory the Theologian.

Evagrius Ponticus was a very astute observer of human experience and behavior.

His writings reveal the desert fathers to be our first psychologist.

His observations noted in, The Eight Thoughts, are quite consistent with scientific observations including developmental psychology, dynamic descriptive and cognitive-behavioral psychology, as well as attachment theories Evagrius “thoughts” are divided in a way that depict their origins from more primitive (“instinctive”) aspects of the soul to those of a higher cognitive level (“self”),

This pattern is consistent with how the prefrontal cortex matures, regulating affectivity and developing executive function (assessment of one’s values, virtues and priorities),

A primary significance of Evagrius’ work is his diagnostic approach toward conditions of the soul.

Evagrius outlined the path of spiritual growth towards “theoria”, which is the final stage of contemplation: being mystically present with the Holy Trinity. The Eight Thoughts (cont.)

“Thoughts” refer to “ideas of the mind” - a mental conceptualization or comprehended image;

-when considered with physical-sensory drives, they imply “passion”; (i.e. instinctive drives or subconscious) -Evagrius refers to them as “demons” when they are associated with “temptations” or negative spiritual influences.

Evagrius’ typology identifies tendencies in which the soul acts toward self.

He offers particular “remedies” in the form of opposing behaviors or cognitive challenging/reframing. The “thoughts” are not a systemic outline in moral theology! The Eight Thoughts (cont.)

The Eight Thoughts include: gluttony, fornication, avarice, sorrow, anger, accedia, vainglory and pride.

Self-love (philautia) underlies all “thoughts”. [Love is the gifting of self; anything that directs activity toward self acts away from love and is, thus, defeating.]

Accedia cannot be translated directly - in many ways it appears to be clinical depression, but it is a spiritual illness that is the ultimate form of self focus -- to the point of despair. - It is not a psychological condition based on a neurobiological problem, and does not tend to respond to medication. (Ex: Fr.’s directee) - It can present concurrently with a genetic/biochemical depression but if not addressed as a spiritual problem within a person who has responded to medical treatments, that individual remains at great risk for relapse. Or a person may not respond to medical treatment unless this spiritual illness is addressed concurrently Integrating with Contemporary Perspectives I. Evagrius’ “thoughts” closely resemble stages of development identified by contemporary psychologists (albeit different labels)

II. From a psychological perspective, these “thoughts” reflect arrested development manifesting with behavioral patterns associated with that age.

III. In contemporary psychology, “Attachment Theory” identifies early relationship patterns as critical to emotional, psychological, even physical development. It has recently been postulated to also significantly influence learning and how the brain establishes neuronal connections.

IV. Attachment theory demonstrates consistency with our ontology: we are not born to be alone - we have an inherent desire for intimacy (“oneness”) and need for security in order to blossom into the person we are created to be.

VI. Attachment theory reflects an intuitive longing, even knowing, that we are created to be loved and to love.

VII. When we do not experience “secure attachment” behavioral patterns emerge to establish connectedness and self-soothe (i.e. deceivingly “take control” by deflecting away from sense of helplessness/powerlessness -- “to be god”). - these reactive behaviors are consistent with “attachments” as used from a spiritual perspective: looking to things of this world to satisfy, away from our primary care-giver and Lover, God.

VIII. Evagrius’ thoughts are consistent with attachment patterns that reflect arrested development associated with unmet emotional needs.

IX. Examples: -unmet early dependency needs: gluttony (overeating, eating under stressful conditions; trying to “fill up” loneliness or emptiness; putting up a “wall” to not risk hurt or disappointment = pain; staying in bed; hoarding behaviors, etc.). -unmet dependency needs transition into deep sorrow and resentment - “anger turned inward” -arrested narcissistic stage tends to manifest with avarice: seeking “control” over one’s environment, possessions reflect money which = power communicating that “I am important”; and vainglory: self-flattery, seeking praise -it is in arrested adolescent development that we tend to see sexual acting out (fornication) and pride: not needing anyone - especially God (normal agnostic stage as we explore values and “who I want to be when I grow up”); -despondency (accedia) is extreme self-focus on one’s helplessness Genesis: reveals psycho-spiritual consequences of broken covenant relationship

Ontological and eschatological nature of the Bible

• Shame: Adam & Eve - cover up/blame • “knowledge of good and evil”; • Appropriate shame: response to “forbidden behavior”

• Arrested development (inappropriate shame): unmet dependency needs - gluttony and avarice • Anger: Cain and Abel - murderous rage • The narcissistic phase of childhood development: developing an ego and sense of “I” • Inappropriate anger/rage if development arrested

8 5 Genesis: reveals psycho-spiritual consequences of broken covenant relationship

• Pride: Cain names city after Enoch/Tower of Babel • school age/normal development: autonomous, full of initiative; cooperative; respectful; • arrested: entitlement; being “important”, • connection between “to make a name” (Shem in Hebrew) and relationship with God; connection between exalt oneself and not need God • righteous ones: rejoice at blessings of God

• Lust: Ham “uncovered his father’s nakedness” • adolesence: transition from self-focus to genuine intimacy

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