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Psychotherapy: Healing the Soul Wisdom of the Holy Fathers

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Psychotherapy: Healing the Soul Wisdom of the Holy Fathers 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
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