Clio’s Psyche Understanding the "Why" of Culture, Current Events, History, and Society

Volume 9, Number 2 September 2002

Psychology of Religious Experience Special Issue Celibacy Symposium Islam: Imitation of Judaism? The Psychological Damage of Psychoanalytic Food for Forced Celibacy Thought Nancy Hartevelt Kobrin Anthony T. Massimini Hennepin-Regions Psychiatry Training Program When the Roman persecution of Christians and Private Practice, St. Paul ended in the fourth century, some Christian men began looking for a new way to “take up their When Moses received the Law at Sinai, for cross” and live the harsh life they had experienced believers, divine will was made manifest in human under the Roman death threat. They went out into discourse. (Nancy Hartevelt Kobrin, Moses on the the desert and adopted an ascetic regimen of life. Margin, 2 vols., PhD thesis, 1984) It was the most In time, women did the same thing. As others fol- important moment for Judaism's identity. Like a lowed, monasteries and convents were founded, ladder song, with a new round being added with and the gift of celibacy became established in the each verse, Christianity accepted the Mosaic Law Christian church. Celibacy is a gift given to a few but sought to climb above Judaism by adding the Christians whereby they can live psychologically (Continued on page 65) (Continued on page 101) Psychological Light on the

Religious Landscape A Biographer and His Subject: Michael E. Nielsen Ralph Colp and Georgia Southern University Charles Darwin When 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate Paul H. Elovitz group committed suicide because of their religious The Psychohistory Forum and Ramapo College beliefs, many people asked themselves, “Why?” How could apparently intelligent people be con- Ralph Colp, Jr., was born October 12, vinced that in order to reach the next level of exis- 1924, in New York City. He received his MD from tence, they must euphemistically “shed their Columbia in 1948 and was an active surgeon for earthly vehicles” so that they could then travel on a five years before becoming a Diplomate, American spaceship hidden behind a comet? Similar ques- Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (Psychiatry) in tions arise when we learn of significant changes in 1965. As Attending Psychiatrist at Columbia Uni- people’s religious life, as when actress Jane versity Health Services from 1960-1993, Dr. Colp Fonda’s search for significance led her to adopt performed diagnostic evaluation and psychother- evangelical Christianity or when former Black apy with graduate students as well as workshops on identity formation. He also supervised the psy- Turn to the next page for (Continued on page 114) IN THIS ISSUE Page 62 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

IN THIS ISSUE Psychology of Religious Experience Drawing on God: Psychotherapy and Images of God ...... 95 Islam: Imitation of Judaism? Calvin Mercer Psychoanalytic Food for Thought...... 61 Nancy Hartevelt Kobrin Bin Laden’s Hopes and Fears: Dreams of the Future...... 97 Psychological Light on the Religious Landscape ...... 61 James Gollnick Michael E. Nielsen When Millennialism Fails: Cruelty to Slaves at Religious Behavior and the Oedipus Complex...... 69 Providence Plantation...... 99 Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi Norman Simms The Psycho-Theological Work of W.W. Meissner...... 71 Gender Differences in Negotiating the C. Kevin Gillespie Discipline of the Quakers ...... 100 Luther and Freud on God...... 73 Neva Jean Specht Carol Jeunnette Celibacy Symposium John Wesley and the Emergence of Methodism...... 75 Kenneth A. Rasmussen The Psychological Damage of Forced Celibacy...... 61 Anthony T. Massimini Reverse Conversion: From Mormon Devotion to Depth Inquiry of Joseph Smith...... 78 Father Joseph Bosetti: Pioneer Priest in the Rockies. 103 Robert D. Anderson Dan Dervin Look Before You Leap, and Afterwards, Too: Something Beautiful for God ...... 106 On Kierkegaard and Abraham...... 81 Daniel C. O’Connell C. Fred Alford 1001 Celibate Nights ...... 107 On the Resiliency of Religion...... 83 Christopher T. Burris Joe E. Barnhart Infinite Denial: Religious Celibacy and William James, Carl Jung, and the Beginnings of Priestly Repression...... 108 Alcoholics Anonymous ...... 86 Dereck Daschke Matthew T. Evans Psyche’s Mystery: A Reply to Dervin and Two Ordinary Deaths ...... 88 Massimini on Celibacy...... 109 Daniel C. O’Connell Joseph J. Guido The Problem of Evil in the Analytic Process...... 89 Celibacy and the Child Sexual Abuse Crisis ...... 110 Joanne Marie Greer Thomas G. Plante Omnipotence, Religion, and 9/11 Terrorism ...... 91 Celibacy, Marriage, and Generativity...... 112 Jorge W. F. Amaro Kathy Overturf Two Forms of Transference and Implications...... 92 A Biographer and His Subject: James William Anderson Ralph Colp and Charles Darwin...... 61 Paul H. Elovitz The Medical Ministry of a Secular Priest-in-Training...... 94 Call for Papers, December 2002: Geoffrey T. Hutchinson “Psychology of the Arab-Israeli Conflict” ...... 124

Panther activist Eldridge Cleaver stated, “[I] want Several important themes recur throughout someplace to fit in…. I just feel at home in the psychology and religion today, such as the function [Mormon] church.” (Newell Bringhurst, "Eldridge of religion in an individual’s self-concept and the Cleaver’s Passage Through Mormonism," Journal role of women in religion. By identifying with a of Mormon History, 28:1, 2002, p. 90) Clearly, religious group, one gains a sense of belonging and religion can have a tremendous impact on people, “place” in the world. Surveys comparing rates of resulting in great extremes in behavior and iden- church membership and attendance in the U.S. tity. Its influence on culture shapes our surround- with those of other countries find higher rates in ings and it is a focal point for individuals’ psycho- the U.S. Concomitantly, belief in God or a univer- logical hopes, dreams, and fears. sal spirit is markedly higher in the U.S. (96 per- September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 63 cent) than in other countries (for example, 70 per- in religious groups, they are more likely to be in- cent in Canada and 61 percent in Great Britain). volved in religious activity. Changing social mo- (George Gallup, Jr., and D. Michael Lindsay, Sur- res highlight the conservative and patriarchal na- veying the Religious Landscape, 1999, p. 122) At ture of many religious organizations. Illustrative least one factor in this pattern is the vibrant examples come from the two largest religious de- “religious marketplace” in which religious affilia- nominations in the U.S. For instance, despite clear tion is, at some level, a choice that becomes part of statements from Rome that the Catholic Church's one’s identity. It announces one’s aims and alle- position on women's ordination is not open for de- giances, and even one’s effort to deal with mortal- bate, two-thirds of U.S. Roman Catholics favor it. ity. As with other aspects of identity, the individ- Similarly, when the 1998 Southern Baptist Con- ual finds comfort, a sense of belonging, and a so- vention adopted a statement on gender roles, The cial support network through the religious group. New York Times carried the front-page headline: There is variation in this pattern, of course, “Southern Baptists Declare Wife Should ‘Submit’ among men and women. For years, sociologists to Her Husband.” and psychologists have recognized an apparent Yet, women are more likely than men to contradiction in comparisons of men and women’s state that religion is very or fairly important; be religiousness: even though women are traditionally members of a church or synagogue; believe that less likely than men to have positions of leadership religion can answer most of today’s problems; and believe that religion’s influence in society is in- creasing. (Gallup, Religious Landscape, pp. 10&11, Clio’s Psyche 13, 20) Why this pattern? One factor is that women are gaining leadership positions in many religions, Vol. 9 No. 2 September 2002 not only serving in pastoral roles in progressive

ISSN 1080-2622 Christianity and Judaism but also heading signifi- cant service or missionary committees in some Published Quarterly by The Psychohistory Forum 627 Dakota Trail, Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417 more conservative Christian denominations. By Telephone: (201) 891-7486 breaking the social and psychological strictures e-mail: [email protected] limiting their involvement in institutions, women

Editor: Paul H. Elovitz, PhD are able to realize their hopes and achieve a meas- Associate Editor: Bob Lentz ure of power over their world. Indeed, American religious history is incomplete without recognizing Editorial Board the contributions of women such as Mary Baker C. Fred Alford, PhD University of Maryland • David Beisel, PhD RCC-SUNY • Rudolph Binion, PhD Eddy (Christian Science) and Ellen G. White Brandeis University • Andrew Brink, PhD Formerly (Seventh-day Adventism), who used spirituality to of McMaster University and The University of transcend their physical illnesses and in so doing Toronto • Ralph Colp, MD Columbia University • gained followers seeking to transcend their mortal- Joseph Dowling, PhD Lehigh University • Glen ity. Jeansonne, PhD University of Wisconsin • Peter Another important explanation is more Loewenberg, PhD UCLA • Peter Petschauer, PhD analytically oriented, emphasizing the role of reli- Appalachian State University • Leon Rappoport, gious figures in filling psychological needs, as PhD Kansas State University when a deified personage represents an idealized Advisory Council of the Psychohistory Forum feminine figure. In Christianity, Mary, mother of John Caulfield, MDiv, Apopka, FL • Mena Potts, Jesus, serves as an obvious example as a woman PhD Wintersville, OH • Jerome Wolf, Larchmont, NY who is essentially deified. It is important to recog- nize that other religions frequently have female Subscription Rate: Free to members of the Psychohistory Forum deities who represent the ideal feminine, the per- $25 yearly to non-members fect mother. Such deified female images enable $40 yearly to institutions women to identify with that which is most holy, (Both add $10 outside U.S.A. & Canada) giving them power over life, the most sacred of Single Issue Price: $12 gifts. The divine woman also gives men a perfect

We welcome articles of psychohistorical interest mother, a figure who has not failed them as their that are 500 - 1500 words. own mother undoubtedly has failed them.

Copyright © 2002 The Psychohistory Forum The most noteworthy trend in the U.S. reli- Page 64 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 gious landscape is that membership in mainline in traditional theological beliefs. liberal, liturgical Christianity is on the decline. As Another change is the influence of the the mainline Protestant churches have incorporated Internet, which has acted as something of an equal- the mainstream culture and reduced their distinct- izer among religious groups. Although religion has iveness from other social institutions, they have a reputation in some circles as being opposed to lost membership. For example, between 1965 and modernity, most religious groups have actually 1992, the Episcopal Church lost 28 percent of its adopted this new technology in order to communi- membership, the Presbyterians lost 32 percent, and cate their message to interested people, whether the United Church of Christ lost 23 percent. active followers or prospective members. The Meanwhile, conservative or evangelical Protestant Internet can be the site of intense conflict, as pro- denominations which have accentuated their dis- and anti-Scientology battles have demonstrated. It tinctiveness from secular society have either main- may even be playing a part in the formation of a tained or increased their membership. (Dean R. new religion. For example, in the United Kingdom Hoge, "Religion in America," Edward P. Shafran- the upstart “Jedi Religion" (www.jediism.org), ex- ske, ed., Religion and the Clinical Practice of Psy- pressing messages of spirituality presented in Star chology, 1996) David Wulff interprets these pat- Wars films and present in New Age and Eastern terns as stemming from a declining sense of tran- religious traditions, gained enough support via the scendence. (The Psychology of Religion, 1992, p. Internet that it was placed as a religion option on 639) Although this might appear to bode well for the most recent national census. Although it is too conservative denominations such as the Pentecos- early to tell exactly how seriously to view Jedism, tals and the Southern Baptists, current research in- this marks the first time that an Internet-based dicates a growing number of people who claim to movement has garnered sufficient support to be be spiritual but not religious. (Ralph W. Hood, Jr., included in a national survey, listed neatly before et al., The Psychology of Religion, 2nd ed., 1996, the options for Heathen, Atheist, and None. p. 115) This is attributable, at least in part, to dis- (www.sltrib.com/2002/jun/06012002/ satisfaction with evangelical Christianity leaders’ Saturday/741596.htm) increased involvement in right-wing politics. Con- sequently, some state Baptist conventions are con- We have examined some important devel- sidering withholding their funds from their national opments in religion but what of psychology and organization. Likewise, rates of participation at the religion? How do these two disciplines interact? Southern Baptist annual national convention have Adherents of psychology and those of religion plummeted from a high of 45,000 conferees in share a desire to understand unseen, inner experi- 1985, when conservatives orchestrated a takeover ences, but are their explanations conflicting or of the organization, to only 9,500 in 2002. (Allen compatible? Historians of psychology often point Breed, "Baptist Leader Sees New Day," Boston to psychologists’ therapeutic role, supplanting the Globe Online, June 13, 2002) clergy in the confessional, as illustrative of a basic conflict between psychology and religion. Psy- Some of the most fascinating trends con- chology and religion compete for “the right to ex- cern the content of people’s beliefs. About a quar- ercise influence over someone’s inner ter of the population believe in astrology; 17 per- life.” (Patrick Vandermeersch, "Psychotherapeutic cent have consulted a fortuneteller; 24 percent be- and Religious Rituals," Hans-Gunter Heimbrock lieve in reincarnation; and 30 percent believe in and Barbara Brudewijnse, eds., Current Studies on ghosts. More surprising, the Gallup data indicate Rituals, 1990, p. 153) Yet, the contents of the reli- that “born again” Christians are more likely than gious message frequently include themes, con- other Christians (by 17 percent to 9 percent) to be- cepts, and terminology borrowed directly from lieve in the New Age practice of “channeling,” in psychology and psychoanalysis. For instance, the which it is thought that a deceased person takes notion of catharsis is used extensively in Midrash control of a living person’s body in order to com- lessons available at Yeshivat Har Etzion (for exam- municate with the living. (Gallup, Religious Land- ple, www.vbm-torah.org/archive/rav/rav07.htm). scape, p. 40) Although there are few reliable fig- Another example is the work of Robert Schuller, ures available regarding involvement in New Age whose ministry focuses on matters of self. His religion, data such as these suggest that these forms book Self-Esteem: The New Reformation (1990) of "spirituality" are gaining prominence in the includes the idea that poor self-esteem lies at the American religious landscape, as people seek tran- core of sin (p. 98), a notion quite contrary to ortho- scendence over their mortality but are not finding it dox Christian theology. A more feminist-oriented September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 65 psychology prompts Mary Daly to write, “To put it organizations such as the American Psychological bluntly, I propose that Christianity itself should be Association’s Division 36, the Society for the Sci- castrated…. I am suggesting that the idea of salva- entific Study of Religion, and the Society for the tion uniquely by a male savior perpetuates the Psychological Study of Jewish Issues suggest. problem of patriarchal oppres- Members of other organizations, such as the Chris- sion.” (www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/godd- tian Association for Psychological Studies, readily chu.html) These examples have spurred conserva- acknowledge the pre-eminent role of religion in tive Christians to denounce psychology’s infiltra- shaping their practice of psychology. In addition, tion into religion. (For example, see with little effort one may find elaborate formal www.psychoheresy-aware.org.) In one interesting statements regarding the use of religion in therapy and self-serving twist, the Church of Scientology in books such as P. Scott Richards and Allen E. decries what it considers to be an increasing and Bergin, A Spiritual Strategy for Counseling and negative impact of psychology and psychiatry on Psychotherapy (1997), which was among the best- Christian seminary curricula. (www.cchr.org/ selling books published by the American Psycho- religion/indexpr.htm) logical Association that year. Perhaps most ex- Psychology and mental health have also treme in this regard is the position taken by schol- become causes taken up by religious organizations. ars who see psychology as a sub-discipline of re- Indeed, Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral even offers ligion or theology, rather than as independent or live, online counseling to adults and teens by vol- intersecting disciplines. (Bonnie Miller- unteers supervised by a licensed psychologist. McLemore, "Feminist Transformations in Pastoral (www.newhopenow.com/counseling/ Theology," Jonte-Pace, Religion and Psychology) liveperson.html) One may question the quality and Discussions of psychology and religion legitimacy of such efforts, but that they are ad- may seem to imply an inverse relationship between dressing the needs of certain segments of the popu- the two. Such a conclusion, however, frequently lation is undeniable. Nowhere is psychology’s ef- assumes simple definitions of psychology and/or fect more noticeable, however, than in the New religion. Both fields are too multifaceted for such Age religious movement. New Age spirituality, simplicity to do them justice. Even within a single according to G. William Barnard ("Diving into the religion, religious belief may range from literal to Depths," Diane Jonte-Pace and William Parsons, metaphorical, and from orthodox to heretical, just eds., Religion and Psychology, 2001), shares Wil- as there are many different orientations within psy- liam James’ rejection of institutions; Jung’s inter- chology and psychoanalysis. In recognizing the est in spirituality; and the experiential focus of complexity and the nuances within each domain transpersonal psychology. Underlying New Age and by noting areas of constancy or change, we religion and its neo-Platonic philosophy is a reac- gain a better understanding of psychology, relig- tion against modern life and its accompanying ion, and, ultimately, of people. problems of technology and bureaucracy. Michael Nielsen, PhD, is Associate The relationship between the two disci- Professor in the Department of Psychology at plines is not unidirectional, however. Religion has Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. He is affected an untold number of psychologists, from the author of Psychology of Religion Pages on the Freud, who resented the mistreatment he and his Internet at . He may family received as religious minorities, and who be reached at .  himself suggested his Jewish identity contributed to the techniques he developed (Wulff, Psychology of Religion, pp. 255, 260); to Skinner, whose dis- Islam: Imitation of Judaism? dain for punishment may be rooted in his grand- Psychoanalytic Food for Thought mother’s reliance on hellfire and its accompanying sense of sin (Wulff, Psychology of Religion, p. (Continued from front page) 127); to Rogers, who recalled feeling “wicked” New Testament to proclaim Jesus the Messiah. when he “drank [his] first bottle of ‘pop’” and re- Then Islam also accepted the Mosaic Law as well acted to his rigid upbringing first by studying for as the New Testament with Jesus as a prophet of the ministry and then abandoning it (James Good- Islam and precursor of Muhammad but then added win, A History of Modern Psychology, 1999, p. the Prophecy of Muhammad, yielding the Koran. 392). Religion has become an object of study, as (Muhammad 'Ata UrRahim, Jesus: Prophet of Is- Page 66 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 lam, 1992) Islam tried to claim the Truth over Underlying the idea of first is the concept of one. Christianity and Judaism by reopening revelation The ordinal equivalent of counting 1, 2, 3, 4 is 1st, with the Prophet of the Seal. Moses' Law initiates 2nd, 3rd, 4th. First and the number one are inextri- the particular shaping of each respective group’s cably linked semantically in the unconscious. sacred scriptures: the Hebrew Torah, the Christian This connection is of no small consequence New Testament, and the Muslim Koran. Psycho- when considering the fact that the idea of monothe- analytically, each scripture serves as a distinct self- ism (Greek, monos, alone or singular) is also object for the group self of the faith community. grounded in the notion of oneness, i.e., one God. Besides Moses, Abraham is also a figure of Oneness is the essence of the maternal symbiosis. authority. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are re- Monotheism is obsessively preoccupied with one ferred to as "the children of Abraham" (F.E. Peters, God. Psychoanalytically, this has signaled a refer- The Children of Abraham, 1984; R. Firestone, ence to the unity as represented by the maternal Children of Abraham, 2001) while Judaism and symbiosis of mother and infant. An image held Christianity have often viewed themselves as the sacred by Christianity and Islam (even though "parents" of Islam (Rabbi Daniel Polis, “Who graven images are forbidden) is that of the Virgin Owns the Soul of Jerusalem?”, , July 7, 2002). Each has an "maternal cameo" and it represents graphically the ongoing relationship in real time with each other. idea that the psychological birth of the infant While Freud described authority as paternal/ equals the maternal symbiosis. (Kobrin, 2002 in Oedipal, contemporary psychoanalysis understands press) that often the father is a stand-in for the “Early Space does not permit me to examine the Mother” because the infant’s first power struggle Abrahamic familial relations in depth nor to ex- in life is with the mother. (R. Abraham, "Freud's plore how Judaism has borrowed from Islam, espe- Mother Conflict and the Formulation of the Oedi- cially from the seventh century to the fifteenth cen- pal Father," Psychoanalytic Review 69, 1982, pp. tury. (Though, regarding the latter, Judaism bor- 441-453; A. Falk, "Political Assassination and Per- rowed heavily in poetic, grammatical, and literary sonality Disorder," Mind and Human Interaction, forms; scientific learning; architecture; and even 12, 2002, pp. 1, 2-34) Man created religion in or- women's head covering from Islam. More than der to fill a painful void left by the inability to just a list of items, Jews and Muslims often inter- mourn the loss of the Early Mother. (D. Capps, married, especially during the eighth century, re- Men, Religion, and Melancholia, 1997; A. Falk, A sulting in mutual borrowing. "Many present-day Psychoanalytic History of the Jews, 1996) While Israeli Jews who came from Muslim countries re- Judaism is accepted as temporally the first Abra- semble the Muslims of their countries of origin in hamic faith by Christianity, Islam rejects this looks, speech, food, and habits more than they do through the belief (fitra in Arabic) that Abraham their fellow Jews from Western countries." [Falk, was never a Jew. (Sura 3:58-60) Islam's goal is to Psychoanalytic History, p. 381]) My remarks are usurp Abraham's authority and thereby to claim the limited to an assertion that Islam is an “imitation” ultimate authority. This is understandable given the of Judaism -- an assertion made by Thomas Patrick hurt that Muhammad must have experienced when Hughes and Sigmund Freud. the Jews of Medina did not accept him as Prophet. However, this belief (fitra) cannot hide the fact that In A Dictionary of Islam, published in 1885 in historical time as opposed to religious/mythic in London, Hughes wrote: time, Judaism occurred first. Many of the doctrines and social Let me speculate that being "first" may be precepts of the Qur’an are also from the fundamental psychoanalytic reason why Juda- Judaism…. Whilst, therefore, Muhammad ism and Jews are so hated, why anti-Semitism is so took little of his religious system from pervasive and persistent. Judaism may be identi- Christianity, he was vastly indebted to fied unconsciously with the Early Mother. At times Judaism both for his historical narratives and Judaism is venerated and at times reviled. This is his doctrines and precepts. Islam is nothing splitting which also occurs with the Early Mother more nor less than Judaism plus the because she is the first who is experienced inti- Apostleship of Muhammad. The teachings mately by the infant -- both blissful eros and miser- of Jesus form no part of his religious system. able terror. The Early Mother is the first Other. (p. 236) September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 67

Hughes spent 20 years as a Christian mis- an imitation raise the issue of whether Freud had sionary in Peshawar, Pakistan, composing the dic- access to Hughes’ Dictionary. A cursory review of tionary for scholars of comparative religion, British his library does not confirm an instance of source- colonial administrators, and travelers. He disin- influence (personal communication with Freud Li- genuously claims that it was not meant as a brary, London), though this does not rule out the weapon against Islam. Furthermore, Hughes mis- possibility that he unconsciously drew upon a leads the reader by claiming that Jesus plays no 19th-century Orientalist stereotype of Islam or was important role in Islam. He contradicts himself acquainted with Abraham Geiger's Was hat Mo- because not only is the Koran replete with verses hammed aus dem Judenthume auf genomen? about Jesus but his own dictionary cites them. It is (literally, What Has Mohammed Taken [or Bor- a curious comment which signals his own uncon- rowed] from Judaism?). scious distancing from both of the Semitic peoples What is also so startling is that during this and their scriptures, with Christianity coming out same time frame, Helene Deutsche, one of Freud's on top! Hughes' Dictionary is still in print to this disciples, described a personality type which she day, remaining a critical reference for many schol- deemed imitative, called the "as-if" personality. (H. ars. Deutsch, "Some Forms of Emotional Disturbance In Moses and Monotheism (1939), Freud and Their Relationship to Schizophrenia," Psycho- wrote: "The founding of the Mahommedan religion analytic Quarterly, 11, 1934, pp. 301-322) The seems to me like an abbreviated repetition of the designation describes an individual who has a Jewish one, of which it emerged as an imitation weak sense of self though he creates a convincing [emphasis mine]." (S.E., 23, p. 92) This reference illusion of having a solid identity which masks the to Islam is a hapax legomenon, the only time that fact that he is dependent on others in a parasitic Islam is ever mentioned in all of Freud's scientific way in order to facilitate a temporary persona of writings. Lost in Strachey’s sanitized translation is what to do and how to be moment to moment -- the not just a specific gesture to both Luther and Eras- tendency to imitate is pervasive and at first not no- mus (F. Kluge, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der ticeable. "Imitation" in this discussion certainly Deutschen Sprache, 1975, p. 499; N. Kobrin, has a pejorative meaning. "Freud’s Concept of Autonomy and Strachey’s It is as if Islam is an “as-if” religion. But is Translation," The Annual of Psychoanalysis, 21, this not defensive on Freud and Hughes' part, who 1992, pp. 201-223) but that Nachahmung connotes represent Judaism and Christianity by proxy? Is it a counterfeit or bad imitation (Capitol’s Concise not a means by which Freud and Hughes could dis- Dictionary, 1978, p. 69) miss the need to have to deal with the reality of Was Freud anxious when he wrote this? Islam in a mature manner? A way of relegating Did he displace his mounting fears? On the pre- Islam to the realm of fantasy through denial? ceding page Freud pondered the haunting eternal Would it not also be offensive to Muslims? Such question as to why the Jews, his people, are so stereotyping does not promote peaceful coexis- hated. His reply is simple -- they were the “first- tence nor does it act as a deterrence to violence. born” of God. (S.E., 23, p. 91) Is it possible that Perhaps Judaism and Jews have not been Freud dreaded the maternal presence lurking be- able to deal with their pain of watching the Holy hind the chosen son theme? His mother called him Torah being tampered with, taken over by Islam as "mein goldener Sigi" and she made it known that Muhammad "amended" it with further revelations. he was her favorite son. Nonetheless, Freud's Could it be that even today Jews continue to feel anxieties about Islam were, in part, reality-based "shadowed" by Islam because of irrational fears because the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was busy and unarticulated fantasies that Islam will steal forming an alliance with the Nazis. (Z. Elpeleg, even more of their identity? Such unidentified fan- The Grand Mufti, 1993) In turn, they were breath- tasies may have inadvertently caused Judaism and ing down Freud's neck in Vienna while he labored Jews to cling to the idea of "chosenness," which over this very manuscript. Ultimately he was can easily become confused with the grandiosity of forced to flee to England for his life. His three sis- being special. Poorly understood even among ters were not as fortunate as they were murdered in Jews, chosenness or "electedness" is not supposed German concentration camps. It is a complicated to be an exclusionary doctrine. Anyone can con- psychohistorical picture. vert to Judaism should he or she desire to do so, Strikingly similar accusations of Islam as provided they study and accept the Covenant. Page 68 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

Could Judaism inadvertently be pouring oil borrowing where each Pillar can be traced back to on Islamic flames of rage by inferring that it is a Judaism: the Arabic Shahadah, bearing witness to counterfeit imitation? By not consciously knowing the oneness of God and the prophethood of Mu- its fear and dread of being overwhelmed and en- hammad, and the Hebrew Shm’a, affirmation of gulfed by Islam, Judaism resides in a psychohis- faith in one God; Salat (Ar.), prayer five times a torical blind spot. However, all fear is in part real- day, and Tefilah (Heb.), prayer three times a day; ity-based. Judaism's fear becomes clearer when Tsawm (Ar.), fasting from dawn to dusk during the one considers world demographics of religious ad- month of Ramadan, and Tsom (Heb.), fasting gen- herents. There are approximately 1.2 billion Mus- erally from sunset to sundown (both deriving from lims in comparison to 12 to 14 million Jews -- a the same proto-Semitic root); Zakat (Ar.), the giv- ratio of about 100 to 1. (www.adherents.com/ ing of alms, and Tsedaka (Heb.), the giving of alms Religions_By_Adherents.html) The disparity in (again the Arabic and Hebrew terms are cognates); numbers suggests engulfment. and, finally, Haj (Ar.), the pilgrimage to Mecca, Imitation or copy can also suggest a dou- and Aliyah (Heb.), pilgrimage to Jerusalem three ble, almost a twin. Having a double helps and hin- times a year as cited in the Bible. ders. On the one hand, it protects the self from Could unacknowledged indebtedness on isolation and loneliness. (R. Ullman and D. Broth- the part of Islam to Judaism be another part of the ers, The Shattered Self, 1993) On the other, the problem? Debt is a reminder of maternal depend- double can be split off, projected on to the other ency. (M. Dimen, "Money, Love and Hate," Psy- and then attacked. A person or a group never has choanalytic Dialogues, 4, 1994, pp. 69-100) Is to learn how to contain aggression and rage be- Judaism asking too much of Islam to acknowledge cause they can simply blame and attack the other. its Judaic roots? Allow me to extend the metaphor Could this be the case for Judaism and Islam who of mother-son for the sake of argument: Should the have a long-standing ambivalent, bloody relation- Judaic mother demand of her Muslim son such ship (as well as times of peaceful coexistence, for gratitude? But gratitude can never be coerced; it example, in medieval Spain and the Ottoman Em- must be of one's own volition. Cast as the Early pire) because they are so close in sacred Semitic Mother and blind to it, Judaism may be looking for languages, customs, law, and geography? They are recognition in all the wrong places. nearly doubles in some key respects. By way of conclusion, there is one recent Islam is not without its problems, which development that might be food for thought: the may be detected in its globalizing tendency to lay commonality of Jewish and Islamic dietary laws claim to everything and everyone from the moment known respectively as Kashrut (Heb., allowed) and of Creation as mentioned above, as it asserts its Halal (Ar., lawful). At a growing number of uni- legitimacy, claiming to be the first of the monothe- versities, such as Mount Holyoke and Dartmouth, isms. Take for example, the belief (fitra) that an effort has emerged to meet the dietary needs of Abraham was a Muslim not a Jew. Another retro- Jewish and Muslim students by providing Kosher spective belief is that Allah created Islam at the and Halal food service. While Middle East politics beginning of time with Adam as the first Muslim. may be too sensitive an issue to discuss at the ta- Yet a third claims that every human being is born ble, Jewish and Muslim students are sharing the Muslim but that it is only parental ignorance which same food, though reciting different blessings over has led the child away from the true religion, Is- it according to their respective traditions. Sitting lam. Even the Islamic creation of Dhimmeh, (Ar., together they make manifest the etymological protectorate status for the People of the Book, i.e., meaning of companion (literally, com- or with + Jews and Christians) is patronizing. (B. Ye’or, The panis or bread), breaking bread together. Explic- Dhimmi, 1985) Ironically, these beliefs begin to itly maternal, dietary laws articulate a safe frame show how Islam differs from Judaism. around food that nurtures. Whoever sits at the din- The idea of imitation itself is part of the ner table should always be counted as a full- source-influence conundrum; under other condi- fledged member in a family. The fact that Islamic tions, imitation is said to be the highest form of law allows the eating of Kashrut as Halal for its flattery. Borrowing goes on all the time, yet no adherents is also an unconscious gesture recogniz- group owns language nor even has exclusive rights ing its Jewish mother. to sacred writings. However, for Jews Halal does not equate The Five Pillars of Islam is an example of with Kashrut. It is a reminder of difference and September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 69 that the metaphor of familial relations has its limi- analytic concepts has been psychoanalytic treat- tations. In reality, Judaism is not Islam’s mother, ment with its dreams, free associations, resistances, nor is Islam Judaism’s son. As metaphors, though, and symptoms. This assumption cannot be taken they create and shape powerful unconscious wishes for granted; in actuality, psychoanalytic theorizing and fantasies in the psychodynamics of the Abra- has never relied only on data collected in treat- hamic family. In the end, Judaism and Islam are ment. Freud himself used literary materials, his- religious systems tied to cultures, languages, and torical data, anthropological reports, and observa- geography that are very similar but also different. tions of everyday behavior in children and adults. Therefore, they should not fear and dread each I suggest the study of religion as the royal road to other the way that they do. testing psychoanalytic theories. Religious behav- It is when Jews and Muslims attempt to ior, which is natural and collective rather than work out their respective unconscious issues with clinical and individual, and involves a variety of their own parents in the public arena of inter- beliefs and rituals, provides us with considerable religious warfare that they have problems. By rec- information for validating the ideas of classical ognizing and containing one’s own feelings of psychoanalysis. shame, humiliation, and rage, rather than experi- Religion is a belief system based on the encing these internal persecutory feelings as veridi- notion of a supernatural invisible world, inhabited cal and equal to external reality, there exists the by souls, divine beings, and other "spiritual" enti- real possibility to avoid war. War is the misrecog- ties. Our connection to these entities derives from nition of the Other as feared when, in fact, the a belief in revelation. (Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, Other is familiar and legitimate. The language of Prolegomena to the Psychological Study of Relig- metaphor locks-in projective identifications about ion, 1989) Every religion is a collection of group family issues that belong in their respective fami- fantasies, produced with the help of projection, lies but, even more importantly, the rageful feel- condensation, displacement, and symbolism, offer- ings need to be contained within the self and not ing respite from existential anxieties and mundane projected even onto one's own family members. difficulties. As such, they become the focus of so- (J.H. Berke et al., eds., Even Paranoids Have Ene- cial identity, attached to claims of uniqueness and mies, 1998) Admittedly this is a tall order. How- superiority. Interpreting religion is similar to the ever, pondering the dilemma may clear the ground analysis of literature or art but the behavioral con- to identify more islands of coexistence from which sequences in response to sacred fantasies may be to build a more viable peace. This little table talk dramatic, momentous, and, at times, even quite in Clio's Psyche is offered as psychoanalytic lethal. A salient cultural or universal fantasy raises food for thought. Consider it a Kosher-Halal the question of its special power over a substantial snack. number of individual minds, beyond its contribu- Nancy Hartevelt Kobrin, PhD, a psycho- tion, if any, to individual self-esteem. Rituals that analyst who supervises psychiatry residents in the are public and involve millions are not "clinical Hennepin-Regions Psychiatry Training Program, data" that are impossible to verify and replicate. maintains a private practice and a kosher home in Basic religious fantasies persist and survive over St. Paul, Minnesota. Dr. Kobrin does most of her time -- the essence of religious ritual and belief has research in Arabic, English, and Hebrew. She is not changed over the last 10,000 years. So the be- currently working on a book on Islamic suicidal havioral information involved is uniquely relevant terrorism as political domestic violence. Dr. to a theory that claims universal and supra- Kobrin may be contacted at historical validity. . Freud's writings offer a rich variety of spe- cific hypotheses regarding various religious beliefs and practices, and they have been expanded and Religious Behavior and the elaborated over the years. (Benjamin Beit- Oedipus Complex Hallahmi, Psychoanalytic Studies of Religion: Critical Assessment and Annotated Bibliography, Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi 1996) Some of the better known hypotheses de- University of Haifa, Israel rived from psychoanalytic theory are the father- projection and the super-ego projection. It is as- The traditional venue for testing psycho- sumed that the Oedipal master narrative will play a Page 70 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 central role in all cultures and all cultural products. males, by mother figures. Assessing the frequency and prevalence of patterns Among the findings on religiosity around repeatedly found in religious traditions can test the world, women show a stronger commitment to this. religion than men do. (Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi It was Otto Rank (The Myth of the Birth of and Michael Argyle, The Psychology of Religious the Hero, 1914) who pointed to the prevalence of Behaviour, Belief, and Experience, 1997, p. 139) Oedipal mythology and connected it to a more gen- This comes as a surprise to many who rightly con- eral theme of the life of the hero, which fits the sider all religions to be not only patriarchal but also well-known myths of Krishna, Moses, Isaac, Oedi- misogynistic. Further, among Christian denomina- pus, and Jesus. Rank's contribution, however, is tions, the Roman Catholic Church attracts more not in discovering the general pattern but rather in men while all Protestant denominations enjoy the offering a psychoanalytic interpretation in terms of support of significantly more women. To explain early childhood experiences. It is the family ro- these differences we can use the pantheon hypothe- mance of neurotics, common to all cultures, which sis, a derivative of parental projection. Images of is the root of this myth pattern. In this fantasy, the God are similar to images of parents, particularly child gets rid of his parents and is adopted by oth- to opposite-sex parents. (Beit-Hallahmi, Psychol- ers of much higher status. The hostility towards the ogy of Religious Behaviour, p. 106) For women, father is projected onto him in the myth, where the the image of God and attitudes to God are more child is always the victim. Fifty years after Rank, similar to those towards the father, and for men, to Clyde Kluckhohn ("Recurrent Themes in Myths those towards the mother. If a tradition offers an and Mythmaking," H.A. Murray, ed., Myth and image of God as an adult male, as in Protestantism Mythmaking, 1968) presented, at the center of his where the main object of worship is Jesus, this im- summary of cross-cultural data, what he calls age will appeal more to women. The Virgin Mary “Oedipus-type myths” as a universal pattern com- and some female saints are very prominent in bining themes found in most mythologies, with Catholic worship. This produces a stronger reli- especially vivid myths tied to the fantasy figures of gious response from males. Jesus, Krishna, and Moses. Since the middle of the 20th century, there The expression of the Oedipal template in have been various failed attempts by feminists to religious traditions is sometimes quite striking develop Goddess religions, designed to serve the even to those who do not easily accept psychoana- special needs of women. Goddess religions fail to lytic ideas. Adolf Grunbaum has been a well- attract women because the pantheon must be known, methodical critic of classical psychoanaly- headed by a true and natural (Oedipal) love object. sis, who has dissected every one of its traditional Further, from Freud’s account in "A Religious claims and found almost all inadequate because of Conversion" (S.E., 21, 1928, pp. 167-174), prob- the lack of clear empirical evidence. The one clear lems within the relations with one’s father exception he makes is the classical treatment of (including absence and loss) will increase the like- religion. In particular, he uses examples such as lihood of involvement in religious conversions and the doctrines surrounding the Virgin Birth and is a heightened commitment to a religious career (as forced to conclude that Freud’s notion of repressed monks or clergy). This general prediction is sup- Oedipal conflicts is much more plausible than any ported by observations from various cultures and conscious explanations offered to justify these be- settings, including Indian ascetics and Western liefs. (Adolf Grunbaum, Validation in the Clinical converts to Iskcon (“Hare Krishna”). (Beit- Theory of Psychoanalysis: A Study in the Philoso- Hallahmi, Psychology of Religious Behaviour, p. phy of Psychoanalysis, 1993, p. 297) 118) The Oedipal template is relevant not only The observations presented here seem to to mythology but also to some rituals. Genital mu- indicate that some classical Freudian ideas, almost tilation, part of initiation rites for about 20 percent 100 years old, seem still more than relevant and of humanity, is consciously interpreted in various better than adequate. They are still quite young cultures as completing the process of gaining a full compared to religion. Early experience within the sexual identity. Genital mutilation rituals are cen- human family is the key to myth and ritual, both tral to Judaism and Islam, and prevalent in some ontogenetically and phylogenetically. The Oedipal versions of African Christianity. The mutilation of template is supposed to be out of fashion and obso- males is performed by father figures and of fe- lete, replaced by a variety of newer concepts. But September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 71 for understanding the behavior of billions of be- theological dialogue in his Annotated Bibliography lievers in the real world, this template is still highly in Religion and Psychology (1961). Developed relevant. when he was just a Jesuit scholastic at Woodstock Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, PhD, received College in Maryland, the bibliography offers an his doctorate in clinical psychology from Michigan exhaustive compilation consisting of more than State University in 1970. Since then he has held 2,900 articles published between 1900-1960 from clinical, research, and teaching positions in the more than 300 journals in English and in French. U.S., Europe, and Israel where he is Professor of Organized into some 40 sections, the bibliography Psychology at the University of Haifa. He is the established points of dialogue among various pas- author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of 17 books toral and psychological domains, and equipped the and monographs on the psychology of religion, young Jesuit with the resources needed to sail social identity, and personality development. In through the precarious straits of future scholarship. 1993 he was the recipient of the American Interestingly enough, as Meissner reported Psychological Association's William James Award to me in an interview, his earlier intention as a Jes- for his contributions to the psychology of religion. uit was to concentrate his studies in biology. Dur- Dr. Beit-Hallahmi may be contacted at ing his Jesuit formation, however, his superiors .  approached him to consider pursuing work in psy- chiatry. Such a suggestion went against the view of many Catholic leaders, among them Bishop Ful- The Psycho-Theological Work ton J. Sheen, who were suspicious of a psychiatry of W.W. Meissner: heavily influenced by a psychoanalytic theory whose Freudian principles tended to be hostile to- Charting a Course Between ward religion. However, during the late 1950s Charybdis and Scylla there were increasing indications of growing coop- eration and less antagonism between the two disci- C. Kevin Gillespie plines, with major conferences on psychology and Loyola College in Maryland religion beginning to take place on an annual basis at such Catholic institutions as Fordham University Readers of Greek mythology are well fa- and St. John’s College in Minnesota. Meissner’s miliar with the tale of Charybdis and Scylla, the mentors no doubt saw the significance of these two monsters whose positions on opposite sides of conferences and the need for more Catholic psy- the Strait of Messina threatened passing navigators. choanalysts. This image may be helpful in characterizing the skilled scholarship required to engage the often- It was during his theological studies that tumultuous controversies between psychoanalysis Meissner began to integrate psychology and theol- and religion. Those who have followed the dia- ogy in a modern-day version of the medieval scho- logue are well acquainted with the work of Wil- lastic enterprise of integrating reason and faith. liam W. Meissner (1931-), who has at times em- Unlike scholasticism, however, the reason compo- ployed the image of Charybdis and Scylla to de- nent was often an articulation of unconscious and scribe some of the careful nuances required to han- irrational structures. The faith component would dle the conflicting tensions involved in his work. soon have some of its traditional structures chal- Certainly, in more than 40 years of research and lenged and changed through the Second Vatican dozens of publications, Meissner has been influen- Council (1962-1965). tial in forging the dialogue between the domains of Following his ordination in 1961, Meissner psychology and theology. He has done so by ma- entered medical school and later psychoanalytic neuvering between the Charybdis of psychoana- training, and so became personally and profession- lytic formulations and the Scylla of theological ally engaged with the question of how to relate technicalities. This essay will present examples of psychological with spiritual identity. He found a the principles and themes whereby Meissner has helpful approach in Thomas Aquinas’s axiom, gra- created new understandings relevant to both do- tia perficit naturam (grace perfects nature). For mains, showing how Meissner as a priest and a Aquinas and then for Meissner there is a basic cor- psychiatrist, a Jesuit and a psychoanalyst, has relation between the motivations of one’s psycho- proved himself an able navigator. logical identity with the movements of one’s spiri- Meissner first entered the seas of psycho- tual nature. First formulated in works such as Page 72 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

Foundations for a Psychology of Grace (1964), soothing touch. Such phenomena, in turn, are of- Meissner has carried this principle forward ten the means whereby representations of God and throughout subsequent writings. Guided by the hence religious beliefs are developed as a means of psychoanalytic formulations of Erikson, Mahler, facing reality. Rizzuto, and Winnicott, Meissner developed inno- By incorporating the work of Winnicott vative understandings through which he has articu- and Rizzuto, Meissner goes on to state a case lated his psycho-theological correlations. against Freud’s position that religious belief is illu- In Life and Faith (1987), Meissner demon- sory and avoidant of reality. He argues that what strates his method by articulating three principles Freud saw as pathological in religion can really be that can be used to correlate the psychological with healthy and helpful. For Meissner, some sharing the spiritual. First, there is the principle of recipro- of illusion is necessary for individuation as well as cal influence by which Meissner means that for a sense of sharing in community. Meissner further grace to be operative with the ego, it depends upon suggests that religions employ symbols as transi- the functioning of the ego to produce a desired ef- tional objects so as to keep the God representation fect. That is to say, spiritual movements build alive, for example, the cross for Christians, the Star upon psychological capacities and conditions. of David for Jews. While he would agree with As a second principle, Meissner presents Freud that such use of symbols fosters an illusory compensatory activation whereby the movements world, Meissner would concur with Winnicott that of God’s grace energize ego-functions. Such ener- this illusory world is what makes us most human. gizing serves as a sanative function, which allows Meissner’s reinterpretation of one of the central psychological healing to take place. The energiz- tenets of Freud’s psychoanalytic critique of relig- ing of the ego, however, cannot force healing for it ion serves to establish a bridge over which other cannot violate the functions of one’s ego. forms of dialogue and understandings between psychoanalysis and religion may flow. Meissner sees epigenesis as a third princi- ple. Simply put, the psychological and the spiritual Meissner's study of the case of the founder interrelate developmentally through the course of a of his Jesuit order, Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), lifetime. Using Erikson’s eight stages of develop- employs material from the saint’s biographies and ment he postulates that ego strengths, especially the more than 7000 letters that Ignatius wrote in his earned through crisis, can be considered virtuous, capacity as the founder of the Society of Jesus. In implying a spiritual growth. He goes on to postu- Ignatius of Loyola: The Psychology of a Saint late psychospiritual virtues or correlates with each (1992), Meissner presents what he views as a dem- one of Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial cri- onstration of how the conditions of nature and the ses, for example, Identity/Humility and Intimacy/ movements of grace are evident in the life of Love of Neighbor. Loyola. Earlier, in perhaps his most influential As a psychoanalyst, of course, Meissner sees work, Psychoanalysis and Religion (1984), for great significance in the fact that Ignatius’s mother which he won the prestigious Oscar Pfister Award died shortly after she brought him into the world of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and that his father and brothers exemplified the Meissner works out a relationship between psycho- gallantry, at times chauvinism, common to Spanish analysis and religion through the work of the ob- hidalgos (lower nobility) of the time. When a can- ject relations theorists Donald Winnicott and Ana- nonball in battle broke Ignatius’s leg his career as a Maria Rizzuto. Winnicott’s concept of transitional cavalier was shattered, but Meissner saw the more phenomena became the lynchpin for Meissner’s important blow as that suffered by Ignatius' phallic formulations. With Winnicott, Meissner asserts narcissistic self. He suggests that such a loss of that illusions, rather than necessarily constituting self led Ignatius into a depression that bordered on pathological phenomena, could also be conceived the suicidal. Subsequently, Ignatius underwent a as sources of creativity and play. Supported by religious conversion, a process that Meissner sees Rizzuto’s application of Winnicott’s construct in psychologically as transvaluation and theologically her Birth of the Living God (1979), Meissner as prompted by the healing energies of grace. shows how illusions can lead to the transitional Such a process became internalized when Ignatius phenomena necessary to face rather than to avoid saw in the person of Christ an identity fulfillment reality, for instance, a blanket or a teddy bear acts that was once sought in battles and bosoms. as a replacement for a mother’s presence and Meissner proceeds to trace, through psy- September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 73 choanalytic formulations, some of the unconscious  movements and motivations found in Ignatius’s ego, relating how Ignatius moves from being a “pilgrim” to the founder of what was to become the Luther and Freud on God largest religious order of the Catholic Church. Carol Jeunnette Meissner, for example, finds evidence that Ignatius struggled with a self-punitive superego and dis- Iliff School of Theology and the played such defense mechanisms as isolation, intel- University of Denver lectualization, and reaction formation. He goes on It is difficult to imagine Martin Luther, to describe how such mechanisms tended to be- 16th-century church reformer, and Sigmund Freud, come sublimated through the mystical movements father of 20th-century psychoanalysis, as respectful and spiritual disciplines that Ignatius experienced conversation partners. Given Luther’s anti-Semitic through his conversion process. views, it is easy to hear his condemnation of Freud A final example of Meissner’s ability to as a heretic and as the personification of everything navigate the currents of psycho-theological contro- that is wrong with the Jews who have rejected versies may be found in The Cultic Origins of God’s gift of grace. From Freud’s perspective of Christianity: The Dynamics of Religious Develop- religion as infantile wish fulfillment, Luther would ment (2000), where he describes the early Christian need long-term, intensive psychoanalysis to work communities as exhibiting cultic processes. Given through his obsessional neuroses. (Erik Erikson their periodic persecution and their marginalized has already suggested conflicts Luther should face status from the economic and political structures of in analysis in Young Man Luther: A Study in Psy- imperial Rome and the spiritual systems of Juda- choanalysis and History, 1962.) Despite the ir- ism, these communities as cults tended to emerge resolvable conflict between Luther’s devout theism through a paranoid process that was not necessarily and Freud’s adamant atheism, I propose that there pathological. For Meissner, such a process in- is a basis for conversation: Luther and Freud were volved the mechanisms of introjection and projec- actually arguing against comparable ideas of God tion, which were maintained and reinforced (although their subsequent re-creations were radi- through paranoid construction. He asserts that cally different). such psychodynamics were to be theologically ex- How can there be similarities between the pressed in the Christian assimilation of the Apoca- unquestionable ontological reality of Luther’s God lypticism and Gnosticism of the period. and the projected, non-existent God of Freud? To Meissner’s psycho-theological understand- discern them necessitates circumventing any dis- ings are not without controversy. Psychoanalysts cussion of the reality of God and attending instead and theologians alike question his theoretical ex- to perceptions of God. Ana-Maria Rizzuto’s idea cursions into history and the conclusions that he of “God representation” is central to this project. draws for both fields. Yet, as I have attempted to She argues that “no child in the Western world, show, his scholarship has helped to shape the dia- brought up in ordinary circumstances, completes logue between psychoanalysts and theologians the Oedipal cycle without forming at least a rudi- alike. The fact that he has been engaged in such an mentary God representation, which he may use for enterprise for so long and performed so well sug- belief or not.” (Rizzuto, The Birth of the Living gests that W.W. Meissner is an accomplished navi- God: A Psychoanalytic Study, 1979, p. 48) gator whose writings continue as important charts Rizzuto differentiates between "concepts of God" that may guide readers through the turbulent cur- which are generally seen to result from intentional, rents between Charybdis and Scylla. intellectual, theological processes, and which may Fr. C. Kevin Gillespie, SJ, PhD, is preclude any emotional engagement or acceptance, Associate Professor of Pastoral Counseling, and "God representations" which include a concept Loyola College in Maryland. While studying for a of God but require its integration with images and PhD in Pastoral Psychology at Boston University, sources of the representation, which "requires a he studied under W.W. Meissner in a course persistent psychic work of soul searching, self- entitled “Psychology of Grace.” Fr. Gillespie is scrutiny, and internal re-elaboration of the repre- the author of Psychology and American sentation.” (Rizzuto, Birth, pp. 47&48) Catholicism: From Confession to Therapy? (2001). The impetus for much of the work of Lu- He may be contacted at . ther and Freud was their perceptions of God, based Page 74 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 on their emotional and experiential struggles with Admittedly, Luther’s spiritual struggles the prevailing concepts of God, rather than merely were unusually intense. Yet they were rooted in a on intellectual ideas. Freud, despite his denial of representation of God as an unforgiving and un- the existence of a divine being, held an identifiable compassionate judge holding the promise of para- God representation, which was surprisingly similar dise in exchange for radical obedience to His indis- to the understanding of God against which Luther cernible and seemingly capricious will. Driven by struggled. Both men were concerned about human his own pain to struggle with this concept of God, suffering, both believed that prevailing understand- Luther came to believe this concept was harmful, ings of God were implicated in suffering, and both even damning, to all Christians. presented alternative concepts of God that were The words "righteousness of intended to help alleviate suffering. God" (Romans 3:21, NRSV) terrified Luther. A The concept of God dominant in Luther’s righteous God must punish. In what Luther de- (1483-1546) context is easily discerned by looking scribed as his "tower experience," it came to him at his life, beginning with the infamous thunder- that “the righteousness of God is his mercy, and storm vow he made when lightning struck too that he makes us righteous through it.” ( Luther's close: “Help me, St. Anne, I will become a Works, Vol. 54, 1999, p. 309) “By the righteous- monk!” (Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand, 1950, p. ness of God we’re justified and saved through 25) In our time it is almost impossible to imagine Christ.” (Works, 54, pp. 193&194) Christ -- God the devils, witches, evil spirits, and hell and dam- incarnate -- was seen as the one who carried the sin nation that, in Luther’s milieu, threatened the and suffering of humanity to the cross. Although Christian from all sides. A 1493 woodcut entitled simplistic, this description gives a sense of the shift Christ the Judge Sitting Upon the Rainbow in Luther’s God representation from a transcen- (Bainton, Here, p. 31) illustrates the terror of death dent, wrathful judge to one whose love for human- and judgment permeating his culture. A lily ex- ity is established in suffering and death on the tending from Christ’s right ear symbolizes the re- cross and whose power is shown in the resurrec- deemed who are being ushered into paradise by tion. In the process of this shift, Luther trans- angels. A sword protruding from his left ear sym- formed the “abstract question of a just God into an bolizes the “doom of the damned, whom the devils existential quest that concerned the whole human drag by their hair from the tombs and cast into the being, encompassing thought and action, soul and flames of hell.” (Bainton, Here, p. 30) Everyone body, love and suffering.” (Heiko A. Obermann, would one day rise from the dead and stand before Luther: Man between God and the Devil, trans Ei- the judgment seat to await the words “well done” leen Walliser-Schwarzbart, 1982, p. 151) Life, or “depart from me into the everlasting healing, and hope can be found in this God repre- fire.” (Matthew 25:31-46 NRSV) Only the right- sentation. eous could escape God’s wrath. The depth of Freud’s (1856-1939) atheism In light of his context, it is clear that the is obvious in his antagonism toward religion. Not question that drove the young Luther into a spiri- only did he not believe in the existence of God, but tual crisis was rooted in the belief that he needed to he also diagnosed belief in God as pathological. In do something to earn salvation: 'How do I, a sin- light of that, description of Freud’s God represen- ner, become acceptable in the eyes of a holy and tation can only be a description of his projection of righteous God?' The theology he had learned pro- a God representation onto believers. Freud saw claimed Christ's work of atonement inadequate. God as the father figure onto which infantile Luther’s overly-scrupulous self-examination con- wishes for protection are projected and for whom stantly revealed his dilemma, that he could have an individual has ambivalent, unresolved Oedipal done more: feelings of fear and hatred. God is both loving fa- …the fear of being damned led to the ther and angry judge, although the angry judge desire that God might not exist. Within him holds dominance. God’s task is “to even out the there grew up a hatred against this God who defects and evils of civilization, to attend to the expects the impossible … who ties his grace sufferings which men inflict on each to the condition of accomplishing the other….” (Freud, The Future of an Illusion, trans. impossible. (Bernhard Lohse, A Short James Strachey, 1961. p. 22) God is a controlling History of Christian Doctrine, trans. F. and punishing judge who demands and ultimately Ernest Stoeffler, 1966, p. 103) rewards appropriate behavior (control of sexual September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 75 and destructive instincts). God is also a protector Jeunnette may be contacted at -- although the reality of human suffering indicates .  a lack of effectiveness, maybe even a capricious- ness, in that role. Freud believed that there is no God and John Wesley and the that civilization should abandon the illusions of Emergence of Methodism: religion, submit to fate, and face up to the ordinary The Need for a Self unhappiness of a reasoned, scientific view of real- ity. However, using Luther’s explanation of the Psychological and first Commandment, “We are to fear, love and trust Intersubjective Perspective God above anything else” (Luther, "The Small Catechism," The Book of Concord, ed. T. G. Tap- Kenneth A. Rasmussen pert, 1959, p. 347), it can be argued that because Santa Monica College Freud placed his love of and trust in science above anything else, Reason (or Logos) can be named as An often-overlooked aspect of the 18th- his God representation. After acknowledging that century "Age of Enlightenment" is the emergence Reason may only be able to fulfill a small part of of a powerful religious revival within Protestant what "God" had promised in the past, Freud main- Christianity, culminating in the rise of Methodism tained, “it is possible for scientific work (Logos) to in England and the "Great Awakening" which gain some knowledge about the reality of the swept through the Anglo-cultural world in this pe- world, by means of which we can increase our riod. No individual played a greater role in this power and in accordance with which we can ar- revitalization than the Anglican clergyman John range our life.” (Freud, Illusion, p. 70) Wesley (1703-1791), who remains in the words of a recent and definitive biography, “despite the Luther and Freud transformed surprisingly large body of literature about him, an enigmatic similar perceptions of God -- God representations personality.” (Henry Rack, Reasonable Enthusiast: they experienced as inadequate and harmful. Al- John Wesley and the Rise of Methodism, 1992, p. though their reconstructions are significantly dif- 27) Although psychobiographers have illuminated ferent, each can contribute to a contemporary con- much about the character of this man and the versation. In a world that, since September 11, movement he founded, the insights of contempo- 2001, has lost a sense of safety, Luther’s image of rary psychoanalysis -- especially those of self psy- God’s presence in the suffering of humanity offers chology and the intersubjective perspective -- are comfort, just as Freud’s vision of the power of hu- needed to reach a more complete understanding of man reason to decrease suffering offers hope. this complex topic. Conversation -- constructive conversation -- be- tween their followers is possible. John Wesley, the son of a High Anglican clergyman and a fervent Puritan mother, arrived at Carol Jeunnette, M.DIV., MA (Family age 17 at Oxford University with a yearning for an Studies), MA (Counseling), just finished serving authentic and heartfelt spiritual experience. With as an interim pastor at a Lutheran congregation in his brother Charles, Wesley led a small group of Lakewood, Colorado, and is a student in the students that met regularly to share their spiritual Religion and Psychological Studies concentration shortcomings and organize good works, calling of the Joint PhD Program at Iliff School of themselves the “Holy Club.” At this early date, Theology and the University of Denver. Ordained they were already attacked by their critics, who in 1989, her primary areas of interest are the derisively called them “Methodists” for their "rule applications of Murray Bowen’s Family Systems and methods," a term which Wesley and his Theory to congregations and pastoral care. Rev. brother later embraced. Wesley's life-long "journey of faith" was to Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting be a difficult and arduous one. After leaving Ox- Saturday, September 21, 2002 ford, he spent two unsuccessful years in the North Paul H. Elovitz American colony of Georgia as a missionary, writ- ing in his journal upon his return to London that "I "Psychoanalytic Approaches to the who went to America to convert others, was never American Presidency" myself converted to God." (Elisabeth Jay, ed., Page 76 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

Journal of John Wesley: A Selection, 1987, p. 24) ways idealizable, was a "volatile, unorganized and What Wesley lacked was an inner conviction of imminently unpredictable figure" whose Puritan faith and salvation, and his entire theology cen- harshness earned him the enmity of many in his tered on finding this for himself and others. About parish. (Robert Moore, "Justification Without Joy: his famous Aldersgate conversion experience of Psychohistorical Reflections on John Wesley's 1738, Wesley described how, while reading Lu- Childhood and Conversion," History of Childhood ther's preface to the New Testament book of Ro- Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1974, p. 36) Also of in- mans, "I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt that terest is Wesley's close but difficult relationship to I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and his brother Charles, a theological and psychologi- an assurance was given me that He had taken away cal (Kohutian) "twin" whose powerful hymns gave my sins, even mine, and me from the law of sin and Methodism an emotive dimension that comple- death." (Jay, Journal, pp. 34&35) The decisive mented John's more pragmatic and intellectual ap- event in bringing about this assurance had been his proach to the expression of faith. encounter with Moravian German Pietists during The Eriksonian interpretation of Robert his otherwise frustrating time in Georgia. Their Moore ("Justification" and John Wesley and Au- simple and inspiring faith of Bible study and per- thority: A Psychological Perspective, 1985) goes sonal religious experience taught Wesley that re- far in illuminating Wesley's creative development form of Christianity meant focusing on an inner from the perspective of ego psychology. Yet his moral and spiritual transformation that Wesley, view that the "intrusive maternal authority" of quoting Paul in Galatians 5:6, called the "faith that Susanna Wesley was determinative of Wesley's worketh through love" (Sulu D. Kelley, ed., theology and career offers only a partial under- Wesley's Notes on the Bible, Internet version, standing of this complicated individual. Wesley's 1997) -- not empty ritualism, slavish devotion to key developmental task, Moore argues, was "to authority, or solitary and quiescent mysticism -- integrate into his mature identity the claims of the and that would bear fruit in a joyful active love of maternal authority while neutralizing the problem- both God and the humanity which He created. atic potency of the capricious father." (Moore, Psychobiographers of Wesley, such as "Justification," p. 36) Wesley's acceptance of the Robert Moore (see below) have found a wealth of "providential role" which his mother chose for him behavior and information that invites psycho- allowed him to carry forward the "spiritual regime" dynamic interpretation. Prominent in Wesley's life of Susanna's nursery and to "initiate action without was a lifelong impairment in relationships with being immobilized by guilt." (Moore, John Wesley, women, which included several mismanaged over- p. 204) While Moore's analysis helps us under- tures for marriage and, at age 48, a disastrous mis- stand how Wesley was able to function so effec- alliance to a pathologically jealous and physically tively as a leader despite his inner conflicts, it ne- abusive widow. Wesley had been raised under the glects attention to what was new and innovative in strict religious supervision of his mother, Susanna, Wesley's approach to Christian salvation. the pious daughter of a Puritan clergyman. A At the core of the "Methodist Revolution" woman of no small talents and religious ambitions, were two creative innovations: Wesley's vision of she had given birth to 19 children (nine of whom an empathic God and his use of small groups to lived to adulthood). Susanna Wesley's strict regi- consolidate and carry forward his vision. Wesley men stressed firmness rather than indulgence of grew up immersed in the God of Puritanism: in- children. “In order to form the minds of children," scrutable, arbitrary, unyielding, and harsh. George she wrote, "the first thing to be done is to conquer Whitefield, Wesley's Calvinist associate and theo- their will, and bring them to an obedient temper," logical rival in the great revival of the 1740s, once with no crying allowed after the age of one. (John wrote that "If I trace myself … from my cradle to A. Newton, Susanna Wesley and the Puritan Tra- my manhood, I can see nothing in me but a fitness dition in Methodism, 1968, p. 114) At the same to be damned." (Robert Southey, The Life of time, Wesley recalled his mother's "calm serenity" Wesley and the Rise and Progress of Methodism, and her attentiveness to all her children's needs. Vol. 1, 1925, p. 35) Wesley came to strongly op- She set aside a special time each week to provide pose the predestinarian image of the deity, offering spiritual guidance to each child, meeting with John instead to his followers the idea that no one will on Thursday evenings and considering his spiritual arbitrarily be left unsaved, once a sincere attempt development her special project. Wesley's schol- to live "in the image" of God and Christ is arly father, on the other hand, though in many September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 77 achieved: upon his early experience at Oxford and, as Moore If you walk by this rule, continually points out, that of his childhood. He set up small endeavoring to know and love and resemble groups, or classes, called "select bands," which, as and obey the great God and Father of our with his special time with his mother as a child, Lord Jesus Christ, as the God of love, of met on Thursday evenings. Wesley later noted that pardoning mercy; if from this principle of in them, "many now happily experienced that loving, obedient faith, you carefully abstain Christian fellowship, of which they had not so from all evil, and labor, as you have much as an idea before. They began to bear one opportunity, to do good to all men, friends or another's burdens, and naturally to care for each enemies; if, lastly, you unite together, to other." (Southey, Life of Wesley, p. 286) This inti- encourage and help each other in thus mate fellowship, forged in small groups, where "at working out your salvation, and for that end each sort of gathering they took turns talking of watch over one another in love, you are they their experiences and feelings" (Abelove, Evangel- whom I mean by Methodists. ("Advice to a ist of Desire, p. 105), and modeled upon his affec- People Called Methodist," Thomas Jackson, tionate connection with his closest followers, be- ed., The Works of John Wesley, 1872, VII, p. came a key element in the movement he founded. 351) Wesley's ability to construct an image of Going beyond the religion of his mother, God that met the emotional needs of his followers Wesley forged an image of God as relational and fits Heinz Kohut's view of the positive role which empathic being, one who serves self-object needs religion can play in human life. What it provides, and exists for the believer in a bond of accepting Kohut argued, is a unique and essential cultural and mutual interconnectedness. (On the concept of function: "to shore up, to hold together, sustain and self-objects, see Heinz Kohut, The Analysis of the make harmonious, to strengthen man's Self, 1971, and The Restoration of the Self, 1977.) self." (Charles Strozier, Heinz Kohut: The Making of a Psychoanalyst, 2001, p. 328) It does this by The turning point in Wesley's career was serving the primal developmental needs of ideali- when he carried forward this vision of an experien- zation and mirroring, especially, Kohut noted, the tial and empathic Christianity to those many who concept of "grace" or "the idea that there is some- had been excluded by the rigid and archaic struc- thing given to you, some innate perception of our tures of the Anglican Church and English society. right to be here and to assert yourself, and that Beginning with the colliers of Kingswood and the somebody will smile at you and will respond to coal miners of Newcastle and Lancashire, Wesley you and will be in tune with your worthwhile- preached to outdoor crowds of several thousand at ness." (Strozier, Heinz Kohut, p. 332) a time, traveling, in one estimate, over 200,000 miles and delivering over 40,000 sermons in his The intersubjective dimension of psycho- lifetime. (Rack, Reasonable Enthusiast, p. 535) As analysis, as Stolorow and others have highlighted, one hermeneutic study of Wesley's "seductive" directs attention to the mutual reciprocal and dia- leadership style shows, the key to his popularity logic influence between individuals and the dis- was that he loved and was loved by those plebeians cerning of "intersubjective transactions" between to whom he offered a free grace that was unknown child and caregivers as well as between analysand to them before. (Henry Abelove, The Evangelist of and analyst. (Robert Stolorow et al., The Intersub- Desire: John Wesley and the Methodists, 1990, pp. jective Perspective, 1994, p. 5) A promising "next 32&33) In his prodigious efforts, Wesley showed assignment" in the psychobiography of John to those in the "rude, populous north" where he Wesley will be not only a self psychological ap- preached that he "cared about them" (John Hagar, proach to understanding his innovative vision of John Wesley: A Biography, 1961, p. 86), dovetail- God but also an intersubjective analysis of his ing, it could be argued, with a group fantasy "subjective organizing principles" and of the mu- amongst his followers of a new dispensation from tual, reciprocal influence between Wesley and above that would accept them as they remade those he interacted with over his long and relig- themselves during the throes of the Industrial iously productive life. Revolution that was simultaneously transforming Kenneth A. Rasmussen, PhD, is an England. adjunct professor of history at Santa Monica More lasting was the success of Wesley's College. He has a doctorate in modern European unique approach to the nurturing of faith, based history from UCLA and is currently completing a Page 78 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

PsyD degree in Clinical Psychology at the canonized scripture, and believes that he has done California Graduate Institute in Los Angeles. He more for the salvation of the world than any other may be contacted at .  person except Jesus. The Book covers (mostly) a period from 600 B.C.E. to about 421 C.E., and contains prophets and prophecies, martyrs and mis- Reverse Conversion: sionaries, sovereigns and sermons, and wayward- From Mormon Devotion to ness and warfare. It ascends to high drama with a geophysical holocaust of earthquake, fire, and tidal Depth Inquiry of Joseph Smith waves which informed its few survivors of the cru- Robert D. Anderson cifixion of Jesus in the land they had left and Private Practice, Bellevue, Washington which shortly preceded his dramatic but brief visi- tation as the resurrected Christ to the New World. There are contradictions in life when one is The last 200 years of this history descends into fu- raised in a home of religious fundamentalism rious and all-consuming hatred of antagonistic so- where there is also significant mental illness. cieties resulting in the complete annihilation of Sometimes such clashes -- for mental illness is what had been a higher civilization of metallurgy, sometimes suspected to occur where there is inade- art, culture, and Christian devotion. The “survi- quate devotion or faith in either the individual or vors” in this ethnic destruction became the ances- family -- can result in new and unexpected crea- tors of Native Americans, while the last righteous tions. In devout Mormonism (“Mormon” is the prophet of the destroyed society would become, 14 nickname for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- centuries later, the angel telling young Joseph day Saints, founded by Joseph Smith, Jr., with Smith where he had buried the account. The Mor- headquarters in Salt Lake City), I served as a mis- mon Church now accepts this religious history as sionary for two years in Great Britain, attended canonized scripture and views it as a companion Brigham Young University, married in the Salt book to the Bible. Two weeks after its publication Lake Temple, and became more than just knowl- (March 1830), Joseph Smith founded “The Church edgeable in Mormon teaching, doctrine, and his- of Christ,” now The Church of Jesus Christ of Lat- tory. I read the Old Testament completely through ter-day Saints. twice and the New Testament and The Book of I followed my father into medical training, Mormon perhaps 15 times. There was pride in hav- and medical school brought some self-awareness ing someone open a book of scripture and read a that my view of the world seemed restricted. I won sentence and then in my being able to peg book, summer grants, including one to travel the United chapter, and, possibly, verse. The personal and States and develop a slide collection on the history very private and prayerful conviction of the valid- of medicine. I saw Eastern historical cities and ity of The Book of Mormon as divine authentic his- almost lived inside the vaults of prestigious medi- tory following the family background had occurred cal libraries, handling the rarest of manuscripts and in my bedroom in my early teens. I had some abili- incunabula. These works sometimes included the ties at speaking and organization, and future local past absurdities of human belief and evidenced the leadership in the Church was in my future. progressive value of scientific thought. Every- Mormonism began around 1829, when its where I looked there were things to learn and ques- founder, Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805-1844), then a 23- tions to be investigated. Not everything seemed to year-old semi-educated farm boy living in upstate fit into Mormon philosophy. I began to wonder if New York, dictated to scribes a 588-page book of absolute conviction -- including mine -- about 275,000 words containing a “divinely written” reli- something -- anything -- could be a result of only gious history of pre-Columbian America. He said cultural and psychological factors instead of ra- he had been directed to this ancient text, written on tional thinking based on believable evidence. gold plates and buried in a hill near his home, by Meanwhile, the mental illness in the family an angel. “Spectacles” through which the ancient had been handled by institutionalization, every ex- writings could be translated were supplied with the isting form of shock therapy, and then by frontal book, called The Book of Mormon. Today, The lobotomy. Surely there had to be a better way than Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accepts cutting up a living brain. I told my father I wished this young farm boy as its founding prophet and to specialize in psychiatry. He objected, saying that his account of this event (and other miracles) as I might lose my faith. I reassured him, “Mormons September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 79 sometimes need help for mental problems and I mostly against older women, was the result of a can possibly find ways to adapt psychological cultural delusion encouraged by corrupt religious knowledge to the church system.” I wondered what men, and I began to wonder if I might be partici- it would be like to work in a mental hygiene clinic pating in a cultural delusion. at Brigham Young University. Because of what I continued in local leadership positions in would come, there was some small good fortune in the Mormon Church but historical discoveries en- my father’s early death just as I finished medical hanced my religious doubt. Beginning in the late school. My mother lived for another decade as a 1960s, there was a significant upsurge in new fac- practicing nurse struggling with chronic leukemia. tual documentation about Joseph Smith and the With both their deaths, I was spared the conflict start of Mormonism. With studies led by the “New with parents over my developing religious doubt. Mormon Historians” and now dubbed the period of Psychiatric training did intensify the prob- “Mormon Historical Camelot,” virtually every ma- lem of doubt by an increasing awareness of psy- jor supernatural claim made by Joseph Smith was chological factors that affected or determined be- challenged by very good, if not absolutely solid, liefs and life-orientation. Then the eccentric pro- opposing documentation that countered or changed fessor in the department said, “You are going to his official and canonized story. Following this waste. What do you want to do?” I understood period of relative openness by the Mormon hierar- him to mean that I had special abilities to do re- chy -- a “brief shining moment” -- the leaders search. I said that I wanted to return to the photo- closed the doors to the archives, and condemned graphic work of medical history but with a focus and excommunicated intellectuals within the solely on psychiatry. By this time I had a personal Church. This not only left a bad taste about their agenda that didn’t need public discussion. I spe- anti-intellectual stance but also gave evidence of cifically was interested in the history of European censorship and fabrication of Mormon history sup- witchcraft with the goal of understanding beliefs in ported by every period of church leadership since demons, witches, and other related items such as Joseph Smith. possession by evil spirits. (The first healing mira- Partly to provide more professional quality cle in Mormonism occurred when Joseph Smith in my treatment of patients, I entered psychoanaly- reportedly cast a demon out of a twisted, contorted sis that allowed for a reworking of my childhood man who was being hurled around the room but rearing and training. I took psychoanalytic insti- then saw the commanded evil spirit leave his body tute courses, went through a divorce and successful and found himself floating in space up to the ceil- remarriage, withdrew from religious participation, ing.) My travel time was three weeks but I read shied away from religious interest, and focused on furiously before and after. The largest library on private practice and building a new life without a witchcraft in the United States -- perhaps the world supernatural substrate. This period lasted from -- is at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. As 1970 to 1988, when William W. Meissner, SJ, I had done in the previous travel, I took weekend MD, came to town to discuss his Psychoanalysis side trips to the Mormon history route that began and Religious Experience (1984). in upstate New York, crossed the United States through Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois (where Joseph My psychoanalyst office partner would Smith was murdered), and ended with the covered chair the meeting at the Jesuit University. Would I wagon trek into the Salt Lake Basin, led by be part of the panel? No. Reconsider. No. Re- Smith’s devotee and successor, Brigham Young. reconsider. Oh, all right. In the two months re- maining, I read Meissner's book three times and But now I sensed that my religious belief then read 4000 pages on religion and on religion was in jeopardy, for my research led to two results. and psychiatry. All of my previous work on the As I ended my psychiatric training, I presented a history of medicine and psychiatry, the courses at pictorial paper, "A Review of the History of the institute, as well as previous religious knowl- Witchcraft with Some Psychiatric Comments," at edge came into play for my four-minute discus- the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric sion. I had some anticipatory anxiety about this Association. Karl Menninger sat in the front row - program, for childhood training never fully goes - he was interested in and approved of my presen- away. I was entering the "enemy's lair." Mormon tation -- and the paper was published in the Ameri- scripture declares that all other (Christian) relig- can Journal of Psychiatry. The second result was ions are man-made with abominable creeds and that I believed that this European massive pogrom, corrupt leaders. The Book of Mormon singles out Page 80 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

Roman Catholicism as the worst, declaring it to be ures in the book. As has happened to others, a (in language paralleling early 19th-century Protes- mental struggle suddenly gave way to stunning tantism) founded by the devil, “most abominable awareness and clarity. I not only realized from above all other churches,” slaying “the Saints of Joseph Smith's life who the remarkably evil person God,” corrupting the Bible, and filled with gold at the start of the Book was (a doctor who operated and silver, silks and scarlets, fine linens and harlots without anesthesia on seven-year-old Joseph -- all while seeking the “praise of the world.” In Smith's leg became the drunk, thieving, and mur- reality, of course, all the participants in the discus- derous sword-wielding Laban), I also realized, sion with Meissner were fine people. with much greater importance, the mental mecha- I was the one panelist challenging and criti- nisms and technique Joseph Smith used in chang- cal, for I labeled Meissner’s book “scientific but ing his life story into The Book of Mormon stories. not science,” focusing on the basic religious as- Now this hypothesis could be tested again and sumptions inherent in the book. (Science and aca- again throughout this book of 588 pages and demic history exclude supernatural explanations 275,000 words covering a 1000-year period. It from consideration, limiting themselves to “sense” proved repeatedly valid. As one devout Mormon data that can be replicated. Belief in the supernatu- said to me, “It wasn’t the first or second time you ral is non-“sense”ical.) I quoted an early 20th- pointed this out but the 13th or 14th time that it century Catholic theologian who disagreed with a became convincing.” With awareness of Smith’s naturalistic history of the witchcraft craze because mental mechanisms (along with information such it was “based on a false supposition in denying the as court records and his mother’s biography of Jo- existence of evil spirits, and consequently leads to seph Smith) I could begin to understand him and wrong conclusions.” The tension in the air was pal- place him into known psychiatric categories, par- pable but Meissner defused it by a pleasant joke ticularly narcissism. that brought relieving laughter from the audience. As my book progressed over a 10-year What happened next changed my life. Peo- period and was published in 1999, I thought about ple, both known and unknown, told me I had “hit a my experiences with Meissner. In small dinner home run,” “rung a bell,” and “dealt with the es- groups, as well as his writings, he had presented as sentials.” These comments were followed by tele- a pleasant man of erudition, warmth, and excellent phone calls from acquaintances expressing a more knowledge. I contacted him, asked for his review sober appreciation for my comments. I wondered and help. He informed me of his forthcoming whether, because I had some awareness of basic psychobiography of Ignatius (Ignatius of Loyola: issues in religion and psychiatry, I could apply The Psychology of a Saint, 1992), sent some of his these abilities in understanding The Book of Mor- 200 published papers along for assistance, read a mon. Could I re-read The Book of Mormon as if preliminary draft of my book, and sent back a four- the book was a patient on the couch? By this time, page single-spaced very useful critique. I was able it was clear to non-Mormon historians and some to incorporate some of his suggestions as well as non-believing or doubting Mormons that all ideas and references from his book on Ignatius. searches for external evidence for this “divinely When my book was published, he wrote a positive written" pre-Columbian American religious history and insightful commentary for the back of the had failed. As decades had passed, the Book book. showed evidence of being only a product of the Inside the Mind of Joseph Smith: Psycho- early 19th-century American frontier. Reflections biography and The Book of Mormon can be read of U.S. religious and political conflicts of that day on three psychological levels. At the foundation seemed clear. But I knew from psychiatric knowl- level, allegory, simile, and metaphor are used to edge and practice that the Book had to reflect Jo- parallel The Book of Mormon stories with his life. seph Smith’s personal experiences. And that had It is at this level that Smith’s mental techniques hardly been touched on by others. Further, the come into play and become the keys to unlock the Book had to tell us something about his underlying parallels. These techniques are 1) reversal of mis- personality. Was it a disguised autopsychobiogra- fortune and inferiority into the fantasy of conquest phy? and superiority and 2) exaggeration of this fantasy I took an explicitly naturalistic stance, dis- into miracle. counted supernal claims, and set out to know who For example, Joseph Smith was the fourth were the real-life persons behind the (fantasy) fig- child of a man who claimed supernatural abilities September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 81 and whose dreams the family considered visions. truly successful American religion, now growing By the time he dictated this story, Joseph Smith like wildfire. With the contradictions between his had superseded his father as a “visionary.” But supernatural claims and documented history, and Joseph Smith and his family had been and were on the complete failure to find any external evidence the edge of poverty and sometimes hunger. They for The Book of Mormon, one might wonder why. were viewed by their neighbors with amiable con- So my book, which only begins to deal with the tempt as ineffectual and perhaps alcoholic. The acceptance of The Book of Mormon and the forma- Smith family had moved more than 10 times in a tion of a culture, is psychologically incomplete. 16-year period, continually failing to find produc- These issues I have tried to address in other papers tive lives. Then they made one major move from and forums. But, incomplete and faulty or not, a New England to upstate New York in a wagon. At psychoanalytic evaluation of The Book of Mormon the time, 10-year-old Joseph was lame and weak and Joseph Smith has now been done. from his previous leg surgery and treated in a con- Robert D. Anderson, MD, is a semi-retired temptible and brutish fashion by others. psychiatrist who lives (mostly) in the Northwest. The Book of Mormon begins as if written He is the author of Inside the Mind of Joseph by Nephi, the fourth child of a father with super- Smith: Psychobiography and the Book of Mormon natural abilities and whose dreams are stated to be and of articles in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon visions. Nephi is becoming a great prophet, even Thought. Dr. Anderson is a frequent presenter at superseding his father. Similarly to the Smith fam- the liberal Mormon Sunstone Symposia and may ily, The Book of Mormon family, under direction be contacted at .  from God, had multiple small moves to and around the Red Sea extending over eight years (while liv- ing with miracles from God), and then one gigantic Look Before You Leap, and move by ship to the New World, all under divine Afterwards, Too: guidance and emphasizing the spiritual righteous leadership, courage, and strength of Nephi in ad- On Kierkegaard and Abraham versity. C. Fred Alford At the second psychological level, Smith’s University of Maryland, College Park mental processes can be fit into known psychiatric categories, and labels, modified to his unusual I’ve recently started going to church. As a characteristics, can be discussed. The third and child I was active in the church. Returning to the highest abstract level is the discussion from the church after 40 years, whatever that means exactly, psychoanalytic literature, found in brief discus- is no easy matter. One thing it means is that what- sions and epigraphs throughout the book, and then ever I am returning to is not what I left. I’ve emphasized in the last chapter, "Diagnosis and learned too much. I can’t believe now as I did Commentary.” then. What does it mean to believe anyway? This Inside the Mind of Joseph Smith has now is what I’ve been struggling with. gone through a second printing (2001) but it has At first Søren Kierkegaard was a great not jarred the Mormon establishment. The few re- help. “Subjectivity is truth,” he says. In saying views have varied from mixed to positive. The this he became the first existentialist. The way I largest gratifying response has been in letters, e- interpret Kierkegaard’s claim about truth is in mails, and telephone calls from a level of Mormons terms of what are called “performatives,” state- who knew enough to be troubled over the problems ments that create the reality they describe. “It is in early Mormonism. They included professors of raining” is not a performative. “I promise” is a history, psychology, and sociology; physicians; performative; the statement creates the reality it attorneys; and former and present Mormon Bish- describes by the act of stating it. About some ops and High Councilmen. Most had some degree statements, such as “God exists,” it makes the most of conflict stirred by the book and wondered, sense to think about it as a performative truth: we “What do I do now?” make it true by believing and living as though it Indeed. The book is historically incomplete were. Everyone is always trying to stand outside, for it ends with Joseph Smith’s life at the point The to take a God’s eye view, says Kierkegaard. About Book of Mormon was published. During the re- some things this makes sense. About God it makes maining 14 years of his life, he created the only no sense at all. The only person who can have a Page 82 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

God’s eye view is God. For the rest of us, whether Illusion is the medium of transitional ex- God exists is a subjective truth, made true by our perience. Key to illusion is the way in which it decision to believe it. resides in a realm between me and not me, neither Not only does Kierkegaard make sense but inner nor outer. “I create it because it exists with- also he fits my mood when I’m driving to church. out me but I won’t be able to sustain this illusion if Often I find I’m saying to myself something like you keep asking me about it.” If the psycho-logic “If God doesn’t exist, then I had really better be a of transitional experience spoke in sentences, this good Christian.” That is, my fellow parishioners would be one. Illusion connects and separates in- and I had better work even harder together to cre- ternal and external reality, reflecting a separation ate a world in His image -- that is, the image we from reality that is also a fusion with it. In this have of Him. way illusion buffers the swings between losing and fusing, the swings that -- when they are extreme -- Kierkegaard and I got along fine until I mark borderline experience. read Fear and Trembling, where he discusses the famous story of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 22), “Is it Teddy or Mommy?” “Is culture sub- using it to illustrate the leap of faith. Abraham, jective or objective?” “Is God real or just a collec- says Kierkegaard, cannot be understood as a man tive illusion?” Why do we have to know? Does of ethics and morality. He is something more, a not Kierkegaard, with his leap of faith, have to knight of faith, a man who gives himself over to know just as much as the scientist of matter? Isn’t God without question or limit, doing something subjective truth another way to destroy illusion, that would otherwise be not just irrational but im- dividing the world into subjective and objective moral. realms? To be sure, it is not quite this simple. Kierkegaard upsets the traditional way of thinking The standard psychoanalytic reading of about truth as objective and so plays with the truth. Abraham and Isaac says that the myth represents Playing, as Winnicott tells us, belongs to the realm progress in civilization, from human to animal sac- of transitional experience. Nevertheless, one won- rifice. One might even read the story of Abraham ders if Kierkegaard isn’t making the divisions and Isaac in Kleinian terms. For Melanie Klein, sharper than need be and so draining subjectivity one of the reasons we use symbols, such as names, of the power of illusion -- that is, the power to en- is to protect the body of those we love and care chant the world. about from our own aggression. The ram, in this story, would stand on the borderline between sym- Freud referred to religious belief as an illu- bol and thing-in-itself, not the boy, but not quite sion. Marx called religion an illusory sun. Neither yet the idea of sacrifice, but something in between. of these great late Enlightenment thinkers meant the term “illusion” as a compliment. They should Doesn’t Kierkegaard’s leap of faith have have. The alternative to illusion is not reality but the quality of borderline thinking, marked by the reification, in which we no longer feel any connec- inability to inhabit a location between all and noth- tion to what we have made, as it becomes an alien ing at all? Either one gives oneself over to one’s thing. Marx had one or two words to say about belief utterly and so is willing to do anything God this experience as far as labor is concerned. commands or one does not. There is nothing in Kierkegaard’s leap of faith, while fully aware of between and no room for doubt, either. Faith has the way in which human labor (the performance no more room for doubt than it does for rationality. that creates performative truth) creates subjective Borderline thinking reflects an inability to reality, is a little too eager to forget it once one has use what the analyst D.W. Winnicott calls transi- leapt. Look before you leap, and look afterwards, tional objects. By transitional object, Winnicott too. means an object that is neither me nor not me but Transitional experience has the quality of both and neither. The teddy bear or favorite blanket reverie, a state on the borderline between reality is often the child’s first transitional object but tran- and fantasy. Which means that transitional experi- sitional objects are not just for children. Culture is ence is fragile and easily shattered. That’s good. the transitional object par excellence. Culture Had Abraham known God as part of a transitional makes no sense if it is not part of me. But if it were experience, rather than a leap of faith, the com- only in me, culture would be no more than an illu- mand to sacrifice Isaac might have shattered his sion. Culture is me and not me at the same time, reverie, returning him to his human sensibility. In and sometimes it is best not to ask. other words, some things, some experiences, September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 83 should shatter our belief, though even the term I have spent much of my life studying “shatter” is not quite right, suggesting a prior rigid- American folk religion as manifested in the partici- ity that is not appropriate to transitional experi- pants’ practices, feelings, and beliefs. Four of my ence. Transitional experience is not shattered as books -- The Billy Graham Religion (1972), The much as it is dispersed, so that it must be recreated New Birth (1981) (co-authored with my wife, Mary anew every time. In other words, religious belief Ann), The Southern Baptist Holy War (1986), and should be fragile. Jim and Tammy (1988) -- grew out of the folk re- At mass last Sunday, the sermon was about ligion of my youth and reflect a continuing interest Doubting Thomas and how his doubt made his ulti- in it. The writings of Weston La Barre have helped mate faith even stronger. It’s okay to doubt but me understand my religious journey. Like most only so that one’s faith may become stronger in the anthropologists, he implements a functionalist end. That’s not right. We doubt because we do not method that not only stresses our absolute need for know and we do not know because some things are culture (religions being the cultural manifestations unknowable. The question is how to live with this of a terrible finite and desperate species -- biologi- fact. Kierkegaard’s answer is the leap of faith. cally, cognitively, emotionally, and morally), but also investigates and explains those elements that I recommend the attitude of not always contribute to a community’s survival and ability to asking and not always asking about not asking. I cope meaningfully with reality. His approach has advise negative capability, as Keats called it, to allowed me to understand and better appreciate the abide in and with riddles and wonder. I suggest it supportive dimensions of the folk religion of my not just as a good state to be in but a state from youth. At the same time, his psychoanalytic per- which one may be readily driven out by the inhu- spective has given me insight into some of its dys- man command. That’s good, too. function. After all this, the reader may be asking him While growing up in a moderately conser- or herself the question, So why did he return to vative Southern Baptist church in Knoxville, Ten- church? I returned to church to be what physicist nessee, my religious life took two major turns. At Freeman Dyson calls a "practicing Christian," as the age of 16, I read a chapter in a book (the title of opposed to a "believing Christian." I wanted the which I no longer remember) that made a case for community of others. Through attending church (or “eternal security,” a belief that Baptists sometimes rather, by thinking about my experiences attending refer to as “once saved always saved.” When a church), I have learned that the distinction between child or adolescent grows up believing that damna- practicing and believing is another false dichot- tion will surely come to the unsaved, gaining omy, another attempt to split the world. To prac- “blessed assurance” of salvation becomes impera- tice a religion with others is to create a world, a tive. When the book chapter, by a fundamentalist holding environment as Winnicott might call it, in evangelist, introduced me to “justification by faith” which belief and practice become one, at least for a rather than works, my problem was solved, bring- little while, at least while one is so involved in the ing about a profound emotional change. Looking practice that one forgets to ask whether it is prac- back, I can see that my religious tradition had culti- tice or belief. Occasionally I do that and it pleases vated ways to traumatize the young as a necessary me. step toward bringing them into “salvation’s fold,” C. Fred Alford, PhD, is Professor of including eternal security. Sensitive neighbors and Government at the University of Maryland, parents who sincerely believed in damnation went College Park. He is the author of a dozen books along with the traumatizing process, often referred on moral psychology, the most recent of which is to as “being under conviction of one’s alienation Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational from God and goodness.” The Baptist goal in the Power (2001). He is on the Editorial Board of South was that of moving the candidates through Clio's Psyche and may be contacted at the process as quickly as possible so that they .  would no longer have to suffer tormenting doubts about their salvation and could become responsible members of the church. On the Resiliency of Religion Ideally, the process subsequent to receiving Joe E. Barnhart justification (and a guaranteed place in heaven) did University of North Texas not discourage good works but rather cast them in Page 84 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 a new light. Instead of becoming risky stepping- neighbors and relatives regarded him as a religious stones to salvation, good works followed as the gift fanatic because he never ceased trying to convince of the Spirit upon having been born again. Far them that Mussolini was the Antichrist. He even from inflicting a neurotic perfectionism on the be- expected Mussolini to be resurrected. When he and liever, the Baptist way ideally rendered good I went fishing each morning, however, he became works as healthy manifestations (not obligations) a different person. We focused exclusively on the of gratitude for the gift of amazing grace. At the joy of running the lines and hauling in the fish. same time, it acknowledged human imperfection Sometimes he would break out in song -- a secular and finitude as the lot of all mortals, saved and song, never a hymn. lost. Although sins, moral flaws, and failures The foundation issue surfaced probably could not push the born-again believer off the ship because I faced a dilemma that I could not then of salvation, they remained problems. Since the have put into words. I felt or sensed a need to jus- motive for overcoming moral failures was no tify my religion. There is irony in this. The very longer to earn salvation, living a moderately good religion that had helped me believe and feel that I life opened the believer to the reward of goodness had been personally “justified by grace through for its own sake along with the promise of commu- faith” before God stood now itself in need of justi- nity support, fellowship with God and others, and fication. It was at this point that a second major freedom from the overt consequences of a reckless shift took place in my life. life. In high school, while reading religion Years later, I would theorize that all psy- books, almost all by evangelicals, I came to believe chology is social psychology. Freud saw that the that my religion was established on the Bible. If it social dynamics of family life created complex in- was the word of God, how could it be riddled with dividuals with their special drives and complexes. errors and mistakes? Furthermore, as a finite mor- My local church and denomination were a part of tal, how was I to know which passages, stories, and my expanded family. Its dynamics created in me claims were trustworthy? I was not infallible. So, special drives, complexes, solutions, interests, and I adopted the view that all the books of the Bible in crises. the original autographs were trustworthy and free At the age of 16, I became heavily inter- of all errors and mistakes. This belief (or set of ested also in the question of my religion’s founda- expectations) motivated me to take all the Greek tion. Borrowing from the insights of the psycho- courses available in the Baptist college that friends analytic anthropologist Weston La Barre, I now in my home church regarded as the ideal college. I offer the following conjecture as to what happened. wanted to read the New Testament in the original If I had been a tribal member who had never come language. In seminary, while studying both Greek into contact with individuals from other tribes, I and Hebrew, I began to understand that translating might never have raised the foundation question. the text itself required far more interpretation than By working as a waiter in my father’s restaurant, I had expected. Slowly, I began to see that many however, I came into contact regularly with re- streams had emptied into the Bible and indeed into sponsible, friendly people who did not share my the selection process that resulted in the canon and religion. In the public schools, during the 1940s, I Christian theology. knew Jews, Catholics, and others whose religious Psychologically, we do not easily leave the views differed significantly from my own. Ac- emotional-intellectual “ship” on which we have cording to my religion, Jews, Catholics, and all been living for perhaps years. We try to move from others who had not made a “decision for Christ” one part of it to another. In some cases, we begin were among the damned. visiting, as it were, another ship that we discover to Included among the “unsaved” was my be meaningful and perhaps compelling. While in father, whose love and commitment to my three seminary and later while doing my PhD disserta- siblings and me never came into question. By con- tion, I came to see more clearly that one can almost trast, I had an uncle who, though a Baptist believer, always keep one’s original belief by making the seemed to lack the strong paternal commitment necessary adjustments. Some Marxists today, for that my father exemplified. All this created for me example, make adjustments and insist that true additional cognitive dissonance. To complicate Marxism has never been tried, a move similar to matters, this same uncle, though not a model fa- Billy Graham’s view regarding pure Christianity. ther, was a kind and interesting uncle. Some of his For me, the move into another model or way September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 85 seemed more intellectually fruitful, morally accept- velop by individuals and groups struggling some- able, and emotionally satisfying. Far from missing times heroically and desperately to survive and the inerrancy theory, I have found the new ship of make their lives meaningful. biblical criticism, and especially the new literary If prehistoric tribal members believed in and feminist criticism, to be a cornucopia of in- the existence of ghouls, spirits, gods, demons, and sights. By viewing the Bible as a human book, I deceased but returning ancestors, then they as- can appreciate the great skills of many of its au- sumed they had to negotiate with them just as they thors and can often see how the authors and editors had to negotiate with other tribes and with mem- struggled with various crises they inherited from bers inside the home tribe. As long as they contin- their tradition. Biblical criticism has provided me ued to believe that preternatural beings controlled a new freedom for engaging the authors respect- such things as weather, the hunt, pregnancy, life- fully but not uncritically. giving blessings and life-threatening curses, they Years later, after working as a volunteer felt that they had to win their favor or to cushion counselor in a state hospital near Boston and en- their wrath. In time, the negotiation moves became joying the unanticipated benefits of the hospital somewhat stabilized and even ritualized. As an director’s Monday afternoon seminars of 1960- adolescent boy, I had been searching for a way to 1961, I began to see that my studies had functioned come to terms with the natural environment and for me as something akin to psychoanalysis. Al- the preternatural world as I perceived it. though Dr. Donald Kennefick, a remarkably com- My wife Mary Ann wrote a master’s thesis passionate psychoanalyst, called himself an on the sociology of religion, specifically Durkheim “orthodox Freudian,” he introduced the seminar and Weber. She also earned a master’s degree in members to the social class and tribal dimensions counseling and became a practicing licensed pro- of psychiatry. Roughly 15 years later, upon study- fessional counselor. In the 1970s and 1980s she ing the major works of Weston La Barre and inter- helped me see that therapists were in some respects viewing him in his North Carolina home, I better the heirs of the ancient shamans. Instead of guid- appreciated Kennefick’s point. A tribe or a tradi- ing clients into the hinterland of spirits, therapists tion (religious or secular) is in some respects a can sometimes guide them through their past en- family writ large. La Barre’s The Ghost Dance counters, victories, defeats, crises, loves, hates, (1972) and Culture in Context (1980) helped me to misperceptions, and misconceptions. Indeed, these see that just as families can be greatly different phenomena exist as though they were returning from each other, so also cultures and traditions can ancestors in the form of memories, conscious and differ markedly from each other. Meeting La unconscious. Mary Ann’s job has been that of Barre was another momentous experience for me. helping clients (and me) deal with the memories I sensed that he, too, was an orthodox Freudian and their impact. In the words of Erving Goffman, when he asked me how I felt about my father. she did and does “frame analysis.” If, while When he asked if I had undergone psychoanalysis, asleep, a person hears a gunshot, the dreaming I asked him if psychoanalysis was anything like a mind might “frame” the sound by incorporating it shaman’s journey. He, like Kennefick, proved to in the dream, thus protecting the dreamer from be- be a kind gentleman, and his sense of humor gave ing awakened by an external disturbance. On the me a feeling of kinship. other hand, upon awakening, a child might still be It is impossible to communicate the degree disturbed by happenings in his or her dream. A to which I learned from La Barre and am still parent might “frame” the happening by clarifying it learning. To summarize The Ghost Dance is im- as “merely a dream.” Later, a therapist might possible. In this book of 637 pages, La Barre tends “reframe” the dream by connecting it with the cli- to see religion and anthropomorphism as the out- ent’s other experiences. growth of narcissism. From a psychoanalytic per- As a boy I saw a film, The Smiling Ghost spective, narcissism is an individual’s arrested (1941), which scared me more than had any other, state. More sympathetic than La Barre toward my including Frankenstein. Recently, I saw the film prehistoric forebears, I suggest that the species had again, after perhaps 59 years, and was eager to lo- no option but to begin with a bizarre anthropomor- cate the frightening scenes and analyze them. To phic paradigm. The species then was not so much my surprise, no such scenes appeared. Instead, the arrested as forced to live by trial and error. The movie came close to being silly. In some respects, anthropomorphic paradigm was the easiest to de- the modern shaman, taking us back to deal with Page 86 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 our personal “ghosts” (as Hamlet struggled with of this communal grace and generously share it his father’s ghost), helps us see the original scenes with generations yet to be born. in an adult perspective. This, in turn, allows us to Joe E. Barnhart, PhD, is Professor of work through them more appropriately and rigor- Philosophy and Religion Studies at the University ously. In an adult frame, one’s father, for example, of North Texas in Denton. He is a past president does not appear as either a god or a demon. of the Southwest Division of the American Religions have a better chance of surviving Academy of Religion and a member of the Society if they provide some sort of metaphysical view that for Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR). Professor gives believers a sense of orientation. Even though Barnhart is co-author (with Linda Kraeger) of it might be thick with delusions (or the equivalent), Dostoevsky on Evil and Atonement (1992) and has it offers emotional identity, moral structure, cogni- published in such journals as Harvard Theological tive satisfaction, and communal benefits. In a sen- Review, American Philosophical Quarterly, and sitive article about Nancy, a North Carolina child American Journal of Pastoral Counseling. He may suffering from “an emotionally charged blindness,” be contacted at .  Maurine and Weston La Barre show how a psychi- atric community and a holiness church “developed mutual trust” despite their different perceptions of William James, Carl Jung, and the world. By focusing on the “compassionate The Beginnings of love that underlies both religious faith and psycho- therapy,” they succeeded in helping the child and Alcoholics Anonymous learning from each other. Weston La Barre, whom Matthew T. Evans William James would doubtless have classified as Brigham Young University a tough-minded philosopher, dared to portray the faith healing of emotional maladies “as a means of This year marks the 100th anniversary of communicating to Nancy, by and through family the most important work on the topic of religious culture, that her guilt impulses need not be over- experience: The Varieties of Religious Experience: whelming and could be forgiven.” (Maurine and A Study in Human Nature (1902) by William Weston La Barre, “A Child’s Hysteria,” Weston La James, the founder of the psychology of religion in Barre, Culture in Context: Selected Writings of America. James “perhaps first introduced the link- Weston La Barre, 1980, pp. 250&251) age of religion and experience in what has since I have come to believe that within most become the study of religious experience.” (Ralph worldviews East and West, believers generate wis- W. Hood, Jr., ed., Handbook of Religious Experi- dom, insight, and useful guidelines to help them ence, 1995, p. 3, emphasis in original) Thus, mod- survive and live reasonably well. At the same time, ern secular interest in experiences with the divine Weston La Barre is correct in suggesting that just or transcendent, as well as the phrase used to de- as some individuals become deeply disturbed, so scribe such encounters, owes much to James. The some traditions carry heavy strains of psychosocial following describes the fascinating nexus of reli- pathology. Religions usually transmit both creativ- gious experience, psychology, social networks, ity and pathology. Some have perished, not be- religious institutions, and individual agency that cause of their own undoing, but because their led to the creation of Alcoholics Anonymous, and neighbors’ religious pathology could not be re- eventually the literally dozens of similar twelve- strained. During the current surge of pluralism step programs for which it has been a model. (both as expanding secularism and thriving relig- In The Varieties of Religious Experience ions), keeping the civil peace and renewing the James directs a good deal of attention to what he commitment to each person’s dignity have become calls “conversion,” by which he means not adopt- increasingly conspicuous moral and social impera- ing new religious beliefs but tives. We exist, after all, by the grace, doings, and the process, gradual or sudden, by sufferings of the continuous human community (John Dewey). Having freely received much of this which a self hitherto divided, and grace, we enjoy the freedom to embrace the re- consciously wrong inferior and unhappy, sponsibility of conserving, transmitting, improv- becomes unified and consciously right superior and happy, in consequence of its ing, and expanding the heritage of values and in- sights so that those who come after us may partake firmer hold upon religious realities. This at least is what conversion signifies in general September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 87

terms. (1982 Penguin Books edition, p. 189) of the transformative spiritual experiences, de- As an example, he provides the lengthy, clared such an experience might be his only hope, dramatic, and astonishing first-person account of and suggested Hazard seek a religious atmosphere S.H. Hadley, a man who felt “cornered” and suici- and hope to be the recipient of “this benign light- dal: ning.” (Bill Wilson, “Bill W. At Guest House,” address delivered about 1968/1969, "I sat in a saloon in Harlem, a homeless, ) Exactly friendless, dying drunkard. I had pawned or what took place is unclear but Hazard followed sold everything that would bring a drink. I Jung's advice, began associating with an evangeli- could not sleep unless I was dead drunk. I cal assembly known as the “Oxford Groups,” and had not eaten for days, and for four nights lost his compulsion to drink. preceding I had suffered with delirium tremens." (p. 201) Returning to America, Hazard shared the Oxford Groups’ model with another chronic alco- Yet within a couple of days, Hadley had an holic named Ebby Thatcher. It included the reli- experience that so radically transformed him that gious principles that would become foundational to he later asserted, “'From that moment till now I twelve-step programs: self-examination, confes- have never wanted a drink of whiskey'.” (p. 203) sion, restitution, and selfless service to others. What happened? Hadley briefly recounts a series Thatcher applied the principles and was also re- of important transcendent experiences, though the leased from his addiction. “And ['release'] was the final transformation from “'indescribable gloom'” word to use,” said his friend Bill Wilson, whom to “'glorious brightness'” came following a single Thatcher visited in the hospital. “He didn’t say he culminating religious experience, which in turn was on the water-wagon; the obsession had just left followed a pleading prayer from the depths of ego him as soon as he became willing to try on the ba- collapse. Moments later, he says, “'I felt I was a sis of these principles, and, indeed, as he became free man'.” (p. 203) willing to appeal to whatever God there might Just a few months before his death in 1961, be.” (Wilson, “Bill W. At Guest House”) In pre- Carl Jung wrote a private letter to Bill Wilson, the senting these ideas to Wilson, Thatcher became the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), in which second degree of separation between Jung and the he confirmed his knowledge of such alcoholism- man who became the founder of Alcoholics liberating spiritual experiences and his belief in Anonymous. their efficacy. He revealed his deep conviction that Space does not allow a recounting of Wil- alcoholism is rooted in unmet spiritual needs but son’s troubles with alcohol but a statement from said he had learned to be very cautious in sharing his presentation to the New York City Medical So- this conviction because it was badly received by ciety on Alcoholism (April 28, 1958) suffices: “I the many who accepted “the misleading platitudes had gone the familiar course. In the summer of one usually hears about alcoholism.” Fortunately, 1934 my doctor … had given up and had pro- however, Jung had suggested the hope of such de- nounced me hopeless.” (Bill Wilson, “Alcoholics liverance to at least one patient in despair more Anonymous In Its Third Decade,” than three decades before. The conversation “was ) to become the first link in the chain of events that Thatcher visited Wilson in November 1934 and led to the founding of Alcoholics Anony- presented the religious angle, which Wilson took mous.” ("The Bill W.-Carl Jung Letters," AA jour- with a grain of salt. (It should be pointed out that nal Grapevine, January 1963, pp. 2-7, for Hazard and Thatcher, the two intermediaries ) "release" seems to have shifted from dramatic tran- The patient was Roland Hazard. A success- scendent experience to the applied teachings of the ful businessman ruined by alcoholism, he unsuc- evangelical movement.) cessfully ran the gamut of treatments in the United Nevertheless, following a second visit by States. Then as a last resort Hazard moved to Thatcher in December, as Wilson lay in a New Europe to become a patient of famed psychiatrist York hospital experiencing “the blackest depres- Jung. He stayed sober during his year with Jung sion I had ever known,” he cried out to God from but was drinking again within a month of leaving the depths of ego collapse, as had Hadley in Wil- and so returned in despair. Jung made him aware liam James’ classic, and Wilson, too, experienced Page 88 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 an ecstatic transformation: The experience of death is not at all a mo- The result was instant, electric, beyond mentary awareness but is rather a dialogical shar- description. The place seemed to light up, ing of a process of passing away. The familial ex- blinding white. I knew only ecstasy and periences of death detailed in this article are those seemed on a mountain. A great wind blew, shared among family, relatives, and friends by a enveloping and penetrating me. To me, it Roman Catholic priest. I have been a member of was not of air, but of Spirit. Blazing, there the Jesuit order for 57 years, an ordained priest for came the tremendous thought, ‘You are a 44 years, and a professor of psychology for 38 free man’. (Wilson, “Alcoholics years. Anonymous") Among my duties as psychologist are my Like Hadley, who had used almost identi- course in the psychology of religion and my re- cal language, Bill Wilson never drank again. He search on dialogue and conversation. As a social went on to help found Alcoholics Anonymous, scientist, I must consider the experience of death now with more than 2,000,000 members in objectively. As a shared experience, it depends on 100,000 groups around the world (“Membership,” the awareness of a number of people who are ), whose core remains a reliance on somehow present to one another. This presence is and expectation of divine help. Just last year, a usually intermittent and recurrent, rather than con- friend of mine who had a similar religious experi- tinuous. It may be highly verbal and conversa- ence that freed him from the grip of alcoholism tional or very intuitive and nonverbal. But it al- shared this: “There is no question in my mind that ways has affective elements as well as thematic without the spiritual component, people do not content. It involves listening, clarification, empa- heal or truly get well! They might get sober but thy, and reciprocity. This is my psychologist’s ter- not well.” (Personal correspondence, February 20, minology for dialogical sharing. As scientific ana- 2001) lyst of the situation, I am removed from the experi- ences themselves of those involved. Immediately after Bill Wilson's spiritual experience there were two things that convinced My participant role as priest in these set- him that he wasn’t crazy. One was the kind doctor tings is radically different. Among my privileges to whom he related the experience, who assured as a priest is that of comforting many people as him he wasn’t mad and “had perhaps undergone a they go through the experience of dying or the psychic experience which might solve my prob- death of a loved one. I am present as part of the lem.” (Wilson, “Alcoholics Anonymous") The family and as interlocutor in their intimate conver- other was a book he "devoured" that his friend sations. The two roles of psychologist and priest Thatcher had brought him: The Varieties of Reli- are very different from one another but are in no gious Experience by William James. way in conflict. Matthew T. Evans is a PhD candidate in Jim Sabin, a Missouri farmer and a convert sociology at Brigham Young University, whose to Catholicism, had been my brother-in-law, mar- research has focused on religious experience. He ried to my sister Ginny, for a third of a century, may be contacted at . when he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in his mid-70s. He chose to forego pallia- [Editor's Note: The religious quality of Al- tive therapy and, on Easter Sunday, was at death’s coholics Anonymous and other twelve-step pro- door. Since I was a thousand miles away, one of grams is so pronounced that many, who are un- my fellow Jesuit priests was asked to offer the comfortable with religion or religion in a nonde- Mass of the Resurrection in Jim’s bedroom, with nominational setting, refuse to attend these meet- Ginny, his son and daughter-in-law, and their five ings. We hope that another article or two will be children ringed about the bed. The priest himself submitted to Clio, which will explain the psycho- told me afterwards that it was one of the most logical dynamics of religious experiences resulting gratifying Masses he had ever celebrated. On the in the renunciation of alcoholism.]  evening of Easter Thursday, I received a phone call from Ginny: “Come; he won’t last the night; the funeral will be Saturday.” I booked a flight for Two Ordinary Deaths Friday morning, rose very early, and offered a Daniel C. O’Connell Mass for Jim at 6:00. Later that day, I learned that Loyola University of Chicago Jim had died at the very moment of the consecra- September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 89 tion of the Mass. But the way he died was even traordinary and unusual. But for all the impres- more striking: After an excruciating night siveness of his dramatic case histories, one must (“gruesome” in the word of a physician cousin who say that James simply missed the most important was in attendance), family and friends, who had aspect of our religious experiences: ordinary, eve- been watching through the night, bathed him one ryday life -- including familial experiences of last time and put his head down on the pillow. Jim death, not the unusual mystical occasion, is the pri- then looked at them all, smiled, said “Thank you,” mary locus of man’s relationship to God. made the sign of the cross, closed his eyes, and Perhaps, too, it may be clear which hat this died. I couldn’t help thinking back many years to writer is wearing: analyst or compassionate partici- my sister Ginny’s tears upon hearing a homily of pant, scientist or religionist, psychologist or priest. mine in which I described St. Joseph as a simple man. Fr. Daniel C. O'Connell, SJ, PhD, has taught at St. Louis University (where he was David Coolidge graduated from George- President from 1974 to 1978), Loyola University of town University Law School in his mid-40s and Chicago (where he is currently a visiting went to work as a legal researcher for the Catholic professor), and Georgetown University (where he Bishops of America. Within the same decade, brain is emeritus). Fr. O'Connell may be contacted at surgery revealed an inoperable tumor. His wife .  Joan organized a team for home care so that he could continue to experience family life, for exam- ple, by listening to his three young children chat- The Problem of Evil in the tering at the supper table. His ability to communi- cate was gradually reduced to nods and hardly au- Analytic Process dible "Yes" and "No". A month before his death, Joanne Marie Greer we organized a home Mass at his bedside. His Loyola College in Maryland wife, his mother, the three children (Daniel, the oldest, is named after me), and other family mem- America's catastrophic losses on Septem- bers and friends were all there. After the Mass I ber 11, 2001, turn my thoughts to the biblical book spoke with him alone, administered the sacrament of Job, a religious myth about a person in a moral of Reconciliation to him, and then sat together with developmental process. As the story opens, Job's Joan and David to say good-bye (again, I lived a God is a giver of sons, daughters, flocks, and vine- thousand miles away). A month later I was to dis- yards. Then suddenly, not unlike Othello testing appear for eight days for my annual spiritual week Desdemona, Job's familiar God transforms into a of prayer. The night before, I phoned David and jealous lover who contrives a series of mad chal- carried on a completely one-way conversation with lenges to Job's faithful devotion. Like Job, many him in which I said good-bye for good. Joan then Americans have been accustomed from childhood took the receiver from him and said to me, “He to interpret daily reality through a lens of belief in nodded.” Each day during the following week of a benevolent God. But this worldview is strained prayer, David came to mind during the celebration by events such as the attack on the World Trade of Mass. As I ended my retreat, the family began a Center. The evil in the world weighs down the round-the-clock deathwatch, with music and spirit; the youthful sense of invulnerability is gone; prayers, presence and touch. The next morning, as the bell tolls, not for another, but for the self. The the three children sang (yes, in Latin) the dona no- biblical writer obviously has religious faith in mind bis pacem (Give us peace) of the Agnus Dei, a tear but Job’s (and our) suffering also tests what a num- rolled down David's cheek and he died. It was the ber of writers have called "human faith," or a dis- day on which his fourth child, miscarried some position toward meaning-making with regard to months earlier, was to have been born. Reunions life events. For example, Winnicott speaks of the are happy occasions. baby who is willing to go on living because of a Neither of these two experiences of death (non-religious) faith in the mother’s goodness. fulfills the criteria of William James in his Varie- Is a psychoanalytic viewpoint an accept- ties of Religious Experience (1902/1985). For him, able way to deal with discouragement and alien- it is basic that “personal religious experience has ation due to sin and evil in the world? At the be- its root and center in mystical states of conscious- ginning of my own psychoanalysis, my analyst ness.” (p. 379) By that, he clearly intends the ex- said to me that analysis has only two rules: every- Page 90 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 thing has meaning and we always want to know Whether or not the analysand reaches ex- more. This implies that the evil which we perceive plicitly the question of the analyst's evil, such evil that we do and which we perceive that others do belongs in the self-analysis of any analyst who is has meaning for our self-analysis and that it does realistic. For example, let us consider wishes to lie within the scope of psychoanalysis to deal with exploit the analysand's dependency by increasing evil, sin, and moral alienation. sessions and income, or to use a talented or promi- In the beginning, the analysand's faith is nent analysand to build up the analyst's own self- not in the self, or in the goodness of life, but only esteem, or to prolong unnecessarily an interesting in the potential goodness of the psychoanalytic treatment. The wise analyst is not blind to his or process. For a substantial period of time, the ana- her own potential to sin against the analysand. If lysand is able to go on living through faith in the we pursue our analytic stance faithfully, what we analyst and the analytic process, just as the baby is hope for is a more nuanced understanding of evil able to go on living through faith in the mother. and sin in self and others. At this point it becomes But eventually, the analysand figuratively removes bearable and therefore possible to assume true re- the self from the analyst's lap and sits companiona- sponsibility for our own actions. bly side by side with the analyst. From this posi- It has been heartening to see Americans tion, the analysand poses to the analyst this conun- both wanting to know the worldviews of Arab ex- drum: Do you see the evil that I see and what am I tremists who attacked them and being able to to make of it? weigh extremist charges thoughtfully against their Most analysts consider it a strategic error own moral standards. We have not been afraid to to answer direct questions from the analysand listen but neither have we been frightened into ab- about personal views. Yet for the analyst to remain dicating our own moral discernment process, even both effective and mentally healthy, “being an ob- in the light of continuing threats. We have been server/commentator” versus “being a participant” able to recognize that we, like all human communi- always remains in a dynamic tension. The ob- ties, are capable of both good and evil, and that we server/commentator analytic relationship is partly ourselves bear the ultimate responsibility for deter- fictive: in truth, the analyst is also a fellow partici- mining our ongoing moral way of being in the pant with the analysand in the struggle against evil. world. The analyst must always want to know more about In the conclusion of the Book of Job, there his or her own intrapsychic processing of the evil is an intriguing literary device. This important in the self and in the world, as well as in the analy- story about radical belief in the meaning of life and sand's material. It is my perception that these inter- in the meaning of suffering ends without an expla- nal tasks are sometimes avoided because of the nation of either life or suffering. It ends, instead, analyst's fear of feeling helpless, of not having all in a personal encounter between Job and God, in the answers, or, at least, all the good theories. which God refuses to communicate to Job what, as Analysands often invoke defensively the the omniscient, omnipotent deity of this story, God great historical metaphors such as slavery, the certainly knows. I find myself left with the conclu- Holocaust, or terrorism to keep the evil out there. sion that "the medium is the message": that mean- Evil may also be recognized in known persons of ing-making resides within the struggle against evil, current daily life but the analysand and analyst are the refusal of each human spirit to succumb to the perceived as personally free from it. However, as rule of evil, and not in a definitive explanation of the process continues, attention turns to the evil evil, nor in the successful conquest of evil. within the analysand. In the immortal words of the First we undertake to analyze ourselves by comic strip character Pogo, "We have met the en- saying, "Everything has meaning and I always emy and he is us." For some braver analysands, want to know more." Then we come to a place there is yet a third stage: attention turns to the po- where we say, "I want to know more but I accept tential for evil within the analyst. In reality, all not knowing all I wish to know, at least at this human beings contain within them at least an at- time. And I go on in hope toward the unknowable tenuated potential for evil, for example, dissimula- future." From a psychoanalytic viewpoint, this tion or false altruism. The ability to tolerate the stance is a healthy abdication of infantile omnipo- thought of evil in the analyst may be an achieve- tence. In more theological terms, for the religious ment rather than an attack on the therapeutic proc- person, it is an expression of pietas, a reverent ac- ess. ceptance of God’s incomprehensible Otherness. September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 91

Joanne Marie Greer, PhD, ABPP, is teach their people blind obedience and hatred of Professor of Pastoral Counseling at Loyola others. Islam, Judaism, and Christianity cannot be College in Maryland. She is certified in considered responsible for such political abuse, psychoanalysis by the Board of Professional though these religions stimulate people to believe Standards of the American Psychoanalytic in the omnipotence of their version of the good and Association and is a Diplomate in psychoanalysis the ultimate truth. Why do people accept blind of the American Board of Professional Psychology. guidance? Omnipotence is taken as fact, not repre- She may be contacted at .  sentation. Books such as the Bible and the Koran are read as if they had in them the omnipotence of truth and the omniscience of knowledge. Their Omnipotence, Religion, and teachings are considered literal, not symbolic, and 9/11 Terrorism thus not questioned. Some religious leaders take political advantage of the sacred scriptures and in- Jorge W. F. Amaro duce their followers to accept and enact a literal University of São Paulo, Brazil interpretation, as for instance, the story of Noah in the Bible. Thoughts of omnipotence are a universal Fanatic groups are not conscious of the fact function of the human psyche. They include the that God is a cultural representation in the human power to do everything; the knowledge of every- mind, built by cultural interaction. When people thing (omniscience); and the presence everywhere believe in the omnipotence of good in their at the same time (omnipresence). Children mani- thoughts and behavior, they can kill thousands of fest this function in their love for cartoons where people without a trace of remorse, just like the Na- reality’s limitations are ignored. zis killed millions. They don't feel any guilt for When people place the omnipotence func- their destructive behavior because they think they tion outside themselves and institutionalize it by are following God or aiming towards perfection or means of dogmas, it becomes God and religion. a heavenly prize after death. When they place it inside themselves, they become Fighting terrorist groups or countries by all-powerful gods who know all and have the final means of violence cannot work in the long term. word on events. The pathological use of this func- Revenge does not neutralize revenge, just as fire tion can be easily identified even by non-experts, cannot quench a fire. Terrorism is an ancient for instance, in cases of megalomania. It is very weapon that is updated and renewed everyday. It difficult for people to manage the omnipotence will continue to be used if etiologic measures are function with prudence and common sense. not taken. Some people experience the good totally In the first days after the tragic episode at separated from the evil and both as omnipotence. the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Ameri- They believe and work with concepts such as fair- can leaders spoke of the "infinite justice" they ies and witches, God and the Devil. This is a primi- would make, a typical example of omnipotence tive use of the omnipotence function that divides and splitting. When leaders say they will make the personality and reality into completely good or infinite justice, one can understand them to mean completely evil. they will wage infinite revenge. Fortunately, those The tragic events of September 11, 2001, leaders changed their discourse to "lasting free- lead some people to split humanity into all good dom," no doubt under the guidance of less emo- and all bad with tragic consequences on some oc- tional aides. (I believe these leaders would gain casions. (For example, the belief that “All Mus- much if they were guided more by psychiatrists lims are terrorists,” resulted in attacks on innocent and psychologists, sociologists and theologians, Muslims in a few instances in the U.S. immedi- and less by the military.) The United States used ately after the suicide bombings.) Nevertheless, it to live as if it was invincible, which is an omnipo- is my belief that after September 11, the world has tence of the good. After September 11, Americans the opportunity to adopt a position where both had to confront their vulnerability. good and bad aspects of nations can be integrated As a world leader, the United States needs so that the bad aspects can be healed. to decide between a depressive and a schizoid- Certain groups and even some countries paranoid posture. If it assumes a depressive posi- may misuse religion and God as arguments to tion in which both good and evil are mingled, the Page 92 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 country will be able to cure itself by working with  Surprisingly, given their many differences, other nations towards real common interests such a wide variety of psychoanalytic theorists recog- as respect for human rights, democracy, ecology, nize that there are two basic forms of transference. sustainable development, and religious ecumenism. Although these theorists do not use the same termi- If it adopts a splitting posture, it will reinforce the nology nor agree on the dynamic origins, they have notion that the world is divided into two sides: one reached similar conclusions about the main out- omnipotently good and the other omnipotently lines of these two types of transference. (For the evil. This is regression to a very primitive mind most in-depth discussion, see Steven Stern, state that doesn't allow for human vulnerability. It "Needed Relationships and Repeated Relation- makes use of omnipotence as an imaginary de- ships: An Integrated Perspective," Psychoanalytic fense. Pursuit of unilateral interests by terrorism, Dialogues, 1994, 4, pp. 317-345.) I use the term violence, or war invites splitting into the all good transference in the sense of a patient's patterned or all bad of omnipotence, omniscience, and omni- way of relating to the therapist, a way of relating presence. that has deeper, earlier origins. It reflects the pa- Jorge W.F. Amaro, PhD, is an associated tient’s thought, feeling, and behavior toward care- professor in the Psychiatric Department of the takers in early childhood, and it also expresses Medicine Faculty of the University of São Paulo, yearnings, desires, and wishes that the patient had Brazil. Dr. Amaro is a psychoanalyst and a toward caretakers. member of the São Paulo Academy of Medicine. Susan's comments are an example of re- He does research in psychotherapy and religion, played transference. It did not take any leaps of and is the author of (in Portuguese) Psicoterapia e fancy for me to see that she viewed me much as Religião (1996). Dr. Amaro may be contacted at she had viewed her parents, particularly her .  mother. She was replaying with me the trouble- some relationship she had had with her mother. Her parents were often critical of her and regularly Two Forms of Transference: accused her of being a selfish pest and a bad girl. Implications for Religious She imagined that I saw her in much the same way. Experience John's words illustrate something very dif- ferent, what I call the need-fulfilling transference. James William Anderson The individual mobilizes needs with the therapist, Northwestern University Medical School typically those of being accepted, loved, appreci- ated, and having one's growth nourished. John ex- "You must think I'm a terrible human be- perienced these same needs with his parents but ing," my patient Susan said to me. "You see me was usually frustrated. Earlier in therapy his trans- pretending that I'm a nice person but then look ference was similar to Susan's, but after several what really goes on in my mind. I'm selfish and years his usual stance was to visualize me as caring awful. I'll bet you sit there and think, 'She deserves for him and helping him. to burn in hell forever'." Although these two forms of transference The words a short time later from another appear dramatically different, the urge behind each patient, John, had a very different tone. "I feel so of them is similar. In the need-fulfilling transfer- much better after I come here. I feel like, well, like ence, the situation is simple: the individual is in you care for me. I know this must sound funny, touch with basic, legitimate needs and seeks, in since I'm older than you, but you're almost like a therapy, to have these needs met. With the re- father to me. Or a father confessor. It's like you played transference, the individual repeats early have faith in me and then I have more faith in my- relationship patterns with the (unconscious) hope self." that there will be a different outcome. She is fa- Anyone who has done psychoanalytic ther- miliar only with certain ways of being connected, apy will find these patients to be familiar in that ways she experienced with her parents. So she is they exemplify two ways of relating to the thera- drawn to people like them. She also is seeking to pist, that is, two types of transference. After de- have her basic, legitimate needs fulfilled. She scribing these two types of transference, I will con- wants someone similar to her parent to treat her in sider their relation to religious experience. the way she always wanted her parent to treat her. In therapy, she becomes convinced the therapist is September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 93 like her parent (as Susan did in imagining that I the bathmat after taking a shower. His father was a saw her as bad and a pest). perfectionist who expected him to be the best in his With both Susan and John, there was a reli- studies; for example, his father expressed severe gious aspect to their transference -- we could speak disappointment once when he brought home a re- of both of them as having a transference to religion port card with one “B” and the rest “A”s. As an and to God. Susan feared that God would judge adult, he has emphasized the aspect of Orthodox her harshly, much as her parents had, and would Judaism that declares that a person is worthy to the consign her to hell as a fitting punishment for the extent that he is observant. He is preoccupied with person she was. John could visualize a father con- adhering strictly to the many biblical injunctions. fessor, God's representative on earth, as accepting Since it is virtually impossible to be perfectly ob- him and nourishing him, much as he had hoped his servant, he lives with a sense that God considers parents would have done. him to be not-good-enough and that he is someone who is forever inadequate to meet up to the highest One advantage of my thesis is that it is us- standards. able by both those who have religious faith and those who do not. An atheist might conclude that A fundamentalist Christian grew up in a religion is nothing but transference. A believing family which was organized around his parents' person might take the view that the urges behind "us-them" approach. Their view was that the fam- transference -- to make connection with those who ily was good, believing, and smart, while the out- will love, accept, and nourish us -- result from an side world was filled with immoral infidels. The inherent, God-given receptivity to just that kind of children felt constantly threatened by the possibil- relationship with the Deity. ity that they would be grouped with the despised outsiders. As an adult, the patient belonged to a To state my argument directly: religion, at conservative church that took much the same ap- its best, nourishes and satisfies the need-fulfilling proach. The church members were considered to transference, but many central patterns in religions be saved, but constant vigilance had to be taken developed on the basis of their ability to exploit the toward the people who did not belong to their de- replayed transference. nomination; those people were hopelessly tainted An equivalent of the replayed transference with promiscuity, cheating, feminism, divorce, and takes place when religion offers a dead-ended repe- homosexuality. Yet he knew that he frequently felt tition of typical parent-child relationship patterns. temptations along the lines of how the sinful peo- The chief disadvantage of this situation is that it ple acted, for example, he might think of a subtle tends to leave the individual locked into a non- way of shading the truth in a business transaction, nourishing, devitalizing cycle. Consider the follow- or he might be attracted to a woman other than his ing three examples. wife. Hence he felt constantly on the verge of be- Susan latched onto certain aspects of Ca- ing categorized with the people who were evil. His tholicism that replicated her childhood situation. denomination's emphasis on original sin and hell She took to heart the message she heard from the further aggravated the state of anxiety that regu- priests and nuns that we must search ourselves for larly enveloped him. our sins and confess them. She could regularly Yet the equivalent of a need-fulfilling discover her misdeeds, such as defying, in small transference can also characterize a person's reli- ways, her parents, acting selfishly, and harboring gious experience. In this situation the individual sexual thoughts. After unburdening herself in con- has a nourishing relationship with an image of fession, she would feel temporary relief but then God, with clergy, and with fellow believers such would commit "sins" again and would repeat the that he or she feels accepted, cherished, and part of whole process. The net result is that she felt con- a loving communion. firmed in her view of herself as evil but with the James William Anderson, PhD, is added burden that she felt eternal damnation was Associate Professor at Northwestern University her ultimate fate. Medical School, a psychoanalyst, a clinical An orthodox Jew, as a child, was held by psychologist, and the Associate Editor of the both of his parents to exacting standards. His ob- Annual of Psychoanalysis. He has published sessive mother would have angry outbursts at him if he made the smallest mistakes, such as leaving CFP: Arab-Israeli Terrorism - Dec. 2002 his dirty socks on the floor or failing to clean off See page 124. Page 94 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 papers on the writing of psychobiography as well knew that medications could help people with cer- as on such psychobiographical subjects as tain chemical imbalances. When I suggested that Woodrow Wilson, William and Henry James, some clients might benefit from antidepressants, Henry A. Murray, and Sigmund Freud. He may be well-meaning authorities gave me the implicit mes- contacted at .  sage to “do more process-oriented work” and to “try therapy first and then medication if needed." As a Christian, I knew that spiritual issues The Medical Ministry of a could play a major role in the life of human beings Secular Priest-in-Training but felt the implicit message from the priests that these matters were not as important as Geoffrey T. Hutchinson “psychological” ones. During one session, I turned University of North Texas the video recorder off for five minutes so I could talk as a Christian to a client who had serious spiri- As a psychologist-in-training, I find myself tual conflicts, for fear that doing so would be criti- intrigued by the evolving nature of the science and cized during supervision time. Yet, when my "sin" art of psychotherapy and by my own personal de- came to light (through the graduate school grape- velopment as a therapist. I also believe that reli- vine), I was chastised for turning off the tape, not gious issues can be unfortunately pathologized, just for wanting to help the client. This encouraged me as biological problems can be minimized, by many that spirituality could be part of counseling. psychotherapists today. At this time I stumbled upon the works of Initially trained at a university-based men- Viktor E. Frankl, such as The Doctor and the Soul tal health clinic, I often observed (behind a one- and The Will to Meaning, and attended some mean- way mirror) more-experienced students perform ing-centered Franklian conferences in Dallas. Cu- “therapy” with their clients who were from the sur- riously enough, Frankl was never mentioned in our rounding community, which included campus stu- core psychotherapy course at the university, al- dents and rural middle-class whites. During group though we did study other existential therapists. supervision, often called “team,” I was impressed As a physician, Frankl emphasized the “whole” by the sense of confidence and poise displayed by care of his patients. He contended that many times my supervisors as they explained the nature and biological and psychological explanations of prob- treatment of our clients' problems. I was a young lems seem to contradict each other but can be un- apprentice ready to absorb each concept discussed derstood more clearly once we embrace the spiri- during team. Each word, each analytical term, was tual aspect of human beings. He believed that con- sacred and I believed they were the keys to unlock- flicts in the spiritual dimension, such as a sense of ing the kingdom of psychopathology. Terms like meaningless, could contribute to depression, anxi- “dynamics,” “projective identification,” “corrective ety, and other mental maladies. Frankl also encour- emotional experiences,” and, best yet, “core order- aged his patients to draw upon the spiritual part of ing processes” fluttered in my head. I was on my themselves in order to develop powerful coping way to becoming a healer of mental maladies my- resources to face, or learn to accept, their condi- self, a secular priest. One day, I would compre- tions. His ideas resonated with some of my own. hend these healing mysteries related to the psyche His theory gave me the freedom to address value and release my magic on others. conflicts and feelings of meaninglessness with my During my second and third years of train- clients and to encourage them to develop and fulfill ing, I provided psychological services to clients meaningful goals, as well as to advocate treatment regularly and it was not uncommon for me to see with psychotropics. Frankl was the iconoclast I them for more than six months, even up to one needed! year. As a fervent disciple, I spent a significant My transition into a medical clinic, where I amount of time in supervision reviewing my taped saw mostly minority and indigent patients, vali- sessions each week. But as time passed, doubts dated and expanded this exciting, meaning- began to enter my mind regarding the effectiveness centered approach. I was introduced into a highly of the approach I was being trained to take. Not integrated biopsychosocial model of treatment. I only did the secular priests disagree with each focused more energy on my initial evaluations than other about how to treat these clients but also the before and I openly asked patients about their spiri- “biological” and “spiritual” aspects of my clients’ tual and cultural backgrounds. General practitio- problems seemed to be neglected. As a scientist, I September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 95 ners, nutritionists, social workers, psychologists, following brief analyses of two drawings will serve and recently chaplains all treated the same patients as a preliminary report on a forthcoming extensive in order to offer them the best total health care. and systematic study. The dozens of drawings to be For me, this echoed Frankl’s concept of the studied were collected in a variation of a projective “medical ministry,” a comprehensive approach in- test where clients were asked to draw a picture of cluding the spiritual. God, in addition to the usual drawings of a house, In a setting where each patient had a six- tree, and person. Following completion of the digit number, I actually began to value the unique- drawing, I interviewed the client about his or her ness of each of my patients more than ever before. drawing of God. In the planned larger study, I in- I varied my counseling approach to their specific tend to analyze the drawings using insights drawn situations. Some patients needed encouragement from standard projective drawing interpretation. to “keep the faith,” while others had to be chal- The drawing of God in Figure 1 came from lenged. Some greatly benefited from receiving a 43-year-old white male professional with the di- information about their medications, others felt agnosis of recurrent Major Depressive Disorder better after seeing a simple friendly smile. Some (DSM-IV). On entering therapy the client reported patients needed to be referred to other specialists classic depressive symptoms: depressed mood, immediately, while others agreed to be seen by me marked loss of interest and pleasure in usual activi- for a short while. I learned that as a secular priest, ties, weight loss, fatigue, and insomnia. The cur- I needed to be flexible and open to each patient. I rent episode of depression appeared to be at least needed to become "all things to all people," a con- somewhat related to and occasioned by marital cept the Apostle Paul found essential to his conflict. He reported he was very unhappy in the "ministry" in the New Testament. So where do I stand now as a psychologist- in-training? While I still think fondly of my earlier graduate student experiences, I have learned a tre- mendous amount about therapy from the experts and my patients. My medical ministry with minor- ity and indigent populations has helped me realize what Frankl termed the "incredible resilience of the human spirit." I have heard countless reports of how patients have found comfort in their faith and family to face all manner of adversity. How many examples of the resilience of the human spirit will we encounter in the therapy room tomorrow? Geoffrey Hutchinson, MS, is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of marriage but felt pressure to make it work in order North Texas in Denton. He is the author of four to provide a stable home for the nine-year-old son. journal articles covering topics such as religiosity, The man is a practicing Protestant Christian with a Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy, obsessive-compulsive traditional theological belief system. disorder, and alcohol abuse. He may be contacted at .  Figure 1 The drawing can be interpreted as reflect- ing the man's current feelings of depression and Drawing on God: inadequacy, as well as his idealization of how he Psychotherapy and wants his life to be. With other bodily elements intact, the lack of distinctive facial features is re- Images of God markable. Facial features function as sources of Calvin Mercer sensory satisfaction or dissatisfaction and as means East Carolina University of communication. The dim facial features, espe- cially in profile, suggest withdrawal tendencies as Drawings of God by psychotherapy clients well as timidity and self-consciousness in interper- can yield interesting and potentially valuable diag- sonal relations. All of these features are consistent nostic and treatment planning information. The with the client’s verbal report of his situation. Page 96 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

The figure’s arm, hanging limply at his side, probably suggests his felt weakness and cur- rent ineffectiveness. The infantile four fingers also express his feelings of inadequacy. The short legs, covered to a large degree by the deity’s robe, are consistent with a sense of immobility and restric- tion. Emphasis on belts can suggest sexual preoc- cupation. In this case, the belt’s tassels, hanging limp, can easily be related specifically to the man’s report of temporary sexual dysfunction and gener- ally to his feelings of inadequacy. All of his other projective drawings were located on or close to the side edge of the paper, suggesting a feeling of constriction. The drawing of God, however, is located only slightly to the left of center. This placement, along with the sun, the cause it has a vampire mouth. Although he did not rays emanating from the figure, and the slight up- so verbalize, it is reasonable to conclude that the ward direction of the path, suggest both the client’s child has projected onto the sun his sadness and hope and his optimistic evaluation of the future. Figure 2 Other drawings were also embedded with signs of anxieties and that the sun also symbolizes future hope and determination but not to the extent of this threat. God drawing. When asked to explain the various features The dark burden placed on the back of God of his God figure, the boy focused on the arms, is, of course, the burden the man currently feels. which he said were very strong. Strong arms, in When discussing this aspect of the drawing, he had both child and adult drawings, often indicate a per- the insight that he did not have to carry his troubles ceived need for achievement and/or physical by himself. Without prompting, the client indicated strength, and can indicate an active, even aggres- that he felt relieved, finally, to be discussing his sive, contact with the environment. When asked troubles with someone. He expressed the expecta- why they were so strong, the child said God could tion that therapy would help him work through his take care of any bad thing that might happen and issues. The therapist in this case had a beard; note that was why God was smiling. He said God was the beard drawn on the God figure. also praying that nothing else bad would occur. When asked to imagine/fantasize about The undefined hands and feet are age appropriate. what was going to happen with this figure in the Both clients appear to project onto the future, the man, collapsing himself into God in the drawings their current emotional situation (real fantasy, said that the figure would continue walk- self) and their hoped-for life situation (ideal self). ing toward the sun (perhaps symbolizing Jesus at My preliminary study suggests that in the God some level in the client’s mind) and the burden drawings extensive projection occurs, even more would melt into the sun. so than in standard projective drawings of houses, The drawing of God in Figure 2 came from trees, and persons. a seven-year-old boy who was troubled because of Calvin Mercer, PhD, is Associate Profes- the death of his grandfather and mildly anxious sor of Religion at East Carolina University in that some other “bad thing” was going to occur. Greenville, North Carolina. He has an MA in The child lives in a Protestant Christian family clinical psychology, with training in clinical and with a traditional theological belief system. psychometric assessment. In the past he worked for The two most noticeable features of this eight years as a psychotherapist with children and drawing are the sun and the strong arms of God. adultsRecent publications have been in the area of The sun is personified with eyes and what the boy described as a “vampire” mouth. Strongly rein- The Best of Clio's Psyche - 1994-2002 forced eyes, as in this picture, can suggest anxiety. This 153-page collection of many of the best and This child said that the sun is usually shining hap- most popular articles from 1994 to the June 2002 issue is now available for only $30 a copy. Contact pily but that he is somewhat afraid of this sun be- Paul H. Elovitz. See page 63. September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 97 religious experience and gender orientation. Dr. (“Introduction: The Cultural Function of the Mercer may be contacted at Dream as Illustrated by Classical Islam,” Grune- .  baum, The Dream, p. 11) To what degree bin Laden’s ideas and ac- tions can be seen to reflect the doctrines and values Bin Laden’s Hopes and Fears: of Islam as a whole has been hotly debated since Dreams of the Future September 11. His discussion of dreams surround- ing the terrorist attack indicates that some of his James Gollnick ideas, about dreams at least, are consistent with University of Waterloo, Canada traditional views. The relevant segment of the videotape pertaining to dreams documents a cour- Many centuries before psychoanalysts at- tesy visit by bin Laden to a shaykh (a leader in the tempted to make sense of dreams as symbols of a mystical orders of Islam), apparently in a guest- person’s psychological life, the ancients under- stood dreams as nocturnal experiences in which house in Kandahar, Afghanistan. God, the gods, or spirits would give advice or indi- On the tape, bin Laden says that Abu-Al- cate what the future held. Religious and precogni- Hasan-(Masri) told him a year before September tive dreams stand together as the oldest dimensions 11: “I saw in a dream, we were playing a soccer of dream interpretation. Usama (aka Osama) bin game against the Americans. When our team Laden’s conversation about dreams surrounding showed up in the field, they were all pilots. So I the catastrophic events of September 11, 2001, has wondered if that was a soccer game or a pilot reminded us how much these ancient intuitions game? Our players were pilots.” Further, he said about dreams continue to influence many in our the game went on and "we defeated them." Bin multicultural world. Reports of precognitive Laden adds, “That was a good omen for us,” ex- dreams encouraged bin Laden to believe his pressing optimism that the dream predicts victory scheme would succeed but at the same time caused for his side in the attack. Bin Laden states that him to worry that his secret might be discovered. I Abu-Al-Hasan didn’t know anything about the op- want to discuss his view of these dreams in light of eration until he heard it on the radio, emphasizing the history of dream interpretation. the predictive character of the dream. This se- quence reveals a crucial aspect of traditional be- Bin Laden’s interest in the dreams and vi- liefs about dreams, namely that they can show sions surrounding September 11 is in accord with the Muslim tradition of honoring dreams. Islam, events in the future, either directly or symbolically. like virtually all the other major religions of the Artemidorus’ classic, Oneirocritica world, has valued dreams as a primary means of (Interpretation of Dreams), possibly the most divine revelation and a potential form of religious widely known dream book of the ancient world experience. In fact, Toufy Fahd, Director of the and a strong influence on Muslim views, was trans- Institute of Islamic Studies at the University of lated into Arabic in 873, thereby stimulating dream Strasbourg, maintains that Arab-Muslim dream classification in Islam. Artemidorus, one of his- interpretation reached heights known to no other tory’s most renowned dream analysts, distin- civilization. (“The Dream in Medieval Islamic So- guishes between dreams that predict future events ciety,” G.E. von Grunebaum and R. Caillois, eds., exactly as they will happen (theorematic dreams) The Dream and Human Societies, 1966, p. 36) and those that represent the future in symbols re- Dreams hold a central place in the origins and his- quiring interpretation to discern their meaning tory of Islam as much of the Koran, the sacred (allegorical dreams). As an indication of how im- book of Islam, was revealed to Muhammad in portant dream precognition was in antiquity, Ar- dreams over several years. Muhammad regularly temidorus states that he was late in finishing the asked his disciples about their dreams and shared Oneirocritica because he was trying to gather only his own dreams with them. Muslims consider those dreams that came true. dream interpretation to be a great science that God Abu-Al-Hasan’s dream is an allegorical taught Adam and passed down to Muhammad dream which occurs a year before the attack. Bin through successive generations. G.E. von Grune- Laden has no difficulty recognizing the symbolism baum, a noted Near East historian, states that there of the dream in which his side defeats the Ameri- is hardly an aspect of Muslim individual and com- cans in a soccer game or pilot game. Although munity life where dreams do not play a part. Abu-Al-Hasan is unaware of the plan, he dreams of Page 98 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 its succeeding. This supports the dream's interpre- nitive dreams ends with another person recounting tation as involving either telepathy or precognition. his dream about two planes hitting a big building. The dream would be telepathic if it picked up on This sequence foregrounds another aspect the plan as it existed in bin Laden’s mind or pre- of precognitive dreams: they may warn of dangers. cognitive if it anticipated the actual attack. The idea of divine foreknowledge undergirds the Bin Laden himself speaks of the dream as a traditional beliefs about God revealing important good omen that leads us to believe that he inter- events before they occur as well as alerting people prets it as precognitive. From a traditional religious to potential catastrophes. Over the last century, the perspective on dreams, confidence in their predic- annals of the societies of psychical research in tive power stems from the belief that dreams are England, the United States, and Canada have been from God and that divine omniscience includes sources of evidence that dreams illuminate the fu- knowledge of the future. Because precognitive ture. Dr. Louisa Rhine, Hidden Channels of the dreams have been ascribed to prophets, holy men Mind (1961), has collected over 400 anecdotal ac- and women, and shamans throughout religious his- counts of precognitive dreams. Respected dream tory, many believe such dreams to be spiritual phe- researcher Robert Van de Castle’s encyclopedic nomena. Some have proposed the hypothesis of a volume, Our Dreaming Mind (1995, pp. 405-438), spiritual network extended in time and space to provides a lengthy account of research in this area. account for these remarkable phenomena ascribed In the psychotherapeutic context, Carl Jung, be- to religious seers. For example, John Sanford, an lieved that precognitive and telepathic dreams are Episcopalian priest and well-known dream re- most likely to emerge where an important event searcher, suggests that religious instincts may be such as an accident or death occurs and where partly founded on the unconscious perception of an there is a strong emotional tie between the dreamer invisible reality that underlies conscious existence, and the persons or events dreamed about. (Herbert a reality accessible through dreams. Read et al., eds., Structure and Dynamics of the Another part of the videotaped discussion Psyche, Collected Works, 2nd ed., Volume 8, reveals bin Laden’s fears about precognitive 1981, p. 262) dreams and visions. If such imagery and ideas are While precognitive and telepathic dreams out there in the “spiritual network,” accessible are difficult to comprehend from our current scien- through dreams and visions, his secret plan could tific perspectives on time and space, we still have be in jeopardy. A man off camera says that Abd to acknowledge that such dream experiences have Al Rahman Al-(Ghamri), who also knew nothing been reported throughout history and in contempo- of the operation, says he saw a vision, before the rary society. Clearly we are more likely to notice attack, of a plane crashing into a tall building. The precognitive dreams if we attend to our dream life shaykh adds that prior to the event more than one and record dreams regularly. Psychotherapy or person saw a plane crashing into the building. He dream groups are the usual arenas for focusing on tells of a person who told him a year before the dreams in the modern Western world. My own attack of seeing people leaving for jihad and find- experience of working with dreams over the last 30 ing themselves in Washington and New York, and years in the context of psychotherapy and the psy- a plane hitting a building. He tells of another reli- chology of religion leads me to believe that dream gious man who swore by Allah that his wife had precognition is difficult to deny even if we pres- seen a plane crashing into a building a week before ently lack an adequate theoretical framework to it happened. understand such phenomena. The dreams sur- In response to these remarkable stories rounding the events of September 11 remind us someone asks bin Laden to tell the shaykh about that a traditional religious worldview is the original Abu-Da’ud’s dream. Bin Laden explains to him context for appreciating the precognitive powers of that at a camp in Kandahar, Abu-Da’ud told him a the dream. dream in which he sees a tall building in America James Gollnick, PhD, is Director of juxtaposed with a Muslim teaching how to do ka- Studies in Personality and Religion and is Dean of rate. “At that point I was worried that maybe the St. Paul’s College at the University of Waterloo, secret would be revealed if everyone starts seeing Ontario, Canada. He has written Dreams in the it in their dream,” says bin Laden, and he tells Psychology of Religion (1987), Love and the Soul: Abu-Da’ud not to mention it to anybody if he has Psychological Interpretations of the Eros and any more such dreams. This discussion of precog- Psyche Myth (1992), and The Religious September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 99

Dreamworld of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses (1999). for their need for slave labor, the climate and soil Dr. Gollnick may be contacted at of the region were particularly uncomfortable for .  European settlers. The Coramantee slaves brought from West Africa were famous for their fierce pride and resistance to enslavement. From the ear- When Millennialism Fails: liest days of European settlement and slavery, there Cruelty to Slaves at were runaways who set up rebellious villages in the jungle and raided plantations to free their fel- Providence Plantation low slaves, especially women, and to capture Norman Simms goods they could not produce or manufacture for Waikato University, New Zealand themselves. The Africans became an externalized projection of the Labadists' rage against former co- Below I discuss a failed millennial group religionists who had departed from the order when whose members turned in frustration on their it was forced out of Holland and later out of Ger- slaves whom they treated with unusual harshness. many. The tension between a precarious, unstable, At the close of the 17th century in the colony of and frightened European slave-owning caste on Surinam (Dutch Guiana) in northern South Amer- one side and a strong, intelligent, and violent black ica, the Labadist settlers of Providence Plantation society on the other was an important cause for the had a reputation worse than that of other plantation merciless treatment in Surinam. These conditions owners in the same area for extreme cruelty and explain the general harshness of slavery in the col- harshness towards their slaves. Jean de Labadie ony but do not fully clarify the particular cruelty of (1610-1674), a French Protestant mystic and re- the Labadists. former, had founded a Pietist sect called the The conscious and unconscious factors in- Labadists. These primitive Christians sought volved in the specific cruelty ascribed to the through contemplation, self-abnegation, and strict Labadist plantation were both the result of local self-discipline, to hasten the “Second Coming” and conditions and brought with the members of the the “End of Days.” Most Labadists, when Jean de sect from Europe. Their disappointments in the Labadie was forced to leave Amsterdam, relocated closing years of the 17th century were of a piece in Germany and gradually faded from the pages of with those of other frustrated millennialists: the history by the 1720s. Only a few went to Surinam Jews who saw their hopes for a messiah dashed in with renewed hopes in the imminence of Christ’s the false pretences of Shabbatai Tzvi, the English return to earth if the proper conditions could be Puritans in the Restoration of Charles II and the pushed into place by pious works and prayers. end of the Commonwealth, and other religious en- There are specific reasons for the contem- thusiasts watching the increasing dominance of porary blacks to single out the Providence Planta- rational philosophy and science in the Enlighten- tion Labadists as particularly merciless to their an- ment. The peculiar motivations for the establish- cestors. Providence Plantation owners were known ment of Providence Plantation and the specific in the late 17th and early 18th centuries as crueler qualities of the sectarians who ran it may have pre- in their treatment of their black slaves than the disposed them to take a very harsh view of their other New World colonists. Sailors, soldiers, visit- slaves, partly as pagan savages in need of strict ing plantation owners from other nearby colonies, control and instruction, as well as rigorous punish- as well as travelers from Europe, noted the pitiless ment regimes to ensure the discipline of the enter- violence inflicted on Surinam slaves. This percep- prise. When faced both by the recalcitrance of the tion from advocates of slavery who were not ad- Coramantee slaves to European supervision and by verse to strict regimes of control and punishment, the dangerous and bothersome raids by the run- therefore indicates something distinct about the aways, the Labadists reacted with more exaspera- colony that was not normal elsewhere. The trauma tion and self-righteous anger than most other colo- at the very foundation of the colony would have a nists. Because they were harsh on themselves, grave impact and shape the attitudes of continuing they were even more cut off to the feelings of their generations of Africans and Europeans. Let us look slaves and therefore blind to most of the emotional at the early situation in South America. and physical consequences of their actions. Their sights were set, not on the day-to-day affairs of the Though the weather was good for the colony, which served only to annoy and frustrate growing of sugar and vanilla, two crops notorious them further, but on the spiritual future, the Page 100 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 longed-for Second Coming. As the Labadist move- Discipline served in Fox’s mind as a barrier of ment faded and suffered persecution in Europe af- preservation against outside world temptations and ter the death of the founder, and hence was unable dangers. Over time, the Discipline also became a to provide moral or other support for the planta- way for members to measure who was and who tion, the representatives in Surinam perceived in was not a Quaker, and how well a member upheld the behavior of their slaves manifestations of the the Discipline. Drawing its authority from biblical Antichrist and the Devil. The punishment inflicted precedent, the Discipline helped Friends exercise on the blacks would register in their minds as a control over any Friend who might stray from the battle against Satan and paganism, the role of the flock in all aspects of their lives. For example, the devil and his evil helpers acting as focal points for Discipline expected Quakers to marry only other the deep hurts and frustrations active inside the Quakers. psyches of the Labadists. Thousands of Friends found it possible to These religious idealists, suffering disap- live their daily life within the bounds of the Disci- pointment in their millenarian hopes and frustra- pline and to submit themselves to the control of the tion with local conditions and the recalcitrance of meeting. Growing up under the Discipline, they their black/African slaves, which seemed a direct were conditioned to know what was acceptable insult to them and their messianic ideals, and their Quaker behavior. Members with strong faith be- isolation caused by the decline of their sect in lieved that by living their lives according to the Europe, projected their bad feelings, hurts, and Discipline they were nurturing “the light,” which pains on to the slaves working for them. meant opening themselves to being closer to God. Norman Simms, PhD, teaches literature at They believed in the benefits of a faithful life, not the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New only being better prepared for the afterlife but also Zealand. Professor Simms is the coordinating accepting material advantages from the community editor of Mentalities/Mentalités and Director of the for the here and now, for example, financial assis- local branch of the International Psychohistorical tance, a ready-made market for goods, and help Association. He may be reached at during harvest. .  Still, the records reveal that each month a handful of Friends for a variety of reasons bristled at living under such strict guidelines and wandered Gender Differences in from the Discipline. Neither faith alone nor the Negotiating the Discipline of benefits of Quaker membership offered enough reason for some to refrain from committing infrac- the Quakers tions such as drinking too much at a party, attend- Neva Jean Specht ing another denomination’s meeting, falling in love Appalachian State University with a non-Quaker, or starting a pre-wedding preg- nancy. I have worked with 18th- and 19th-century When a member violated any aspect of the monthly meeting records of the Society of Friends Discipline, they received a visit -- oftentimes, mul- (Quakers) for a number of years. Those records tiple visits -- by two or three members of the meet- reveal the inner workings of the Society. Quakers ing, known as "weighty Friends," to be counseled came together to discuss marriages, recognize visi- on their infractions. The goal of the visits (again tors, and, most often, hear complaints about mem- based on biblical precedent) was to lead the bers who had committed infractions against the "sinner" to publicly admit his or her wrongdoing, Society. While the records can be frustratingly apologize, and ask to be taken back into the fold of pithy, they offer a glimpse of the psyches of the meeting. The initial encounters brought a good Friends who remained in the Society as well as of deal of stress to any wayward Quaker as the whole those who left the Society, either voluntarily or community was aware of the infraction and not. through the weighty Friends pressured the errant When George Fox founded the Society of Quaker to repent. Violators of the Discipline were Friends in the 1640s, he wrote a series of over 500 still expected to go to a meeting, stand before the letters instructing his followers on spiritual mat- membership, read a paper condemning their ac- ters. Those early letters became the core of a code tions, and ask for forgiveness. If an apology was of behavior, the Discipline, of the Society. The made, the repentant person most often was wel- September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 101 comed back into the meeting. If an offender re- nized that even if they committed violations, their fused to take part in this public condemnation, then ties in the community would not be severed com- they faced disownment by the Society. pletely. In addition, as the Quaker community dis- Those who had committed a one-time sin, persed through migration and as land in the west such as drinking excessively, dancing, or fighting, became more readily available, the need of young had little trouble going to the meeting and admit- Quaker men and women to stay bound to their par- ting that they were wrong and would not do it ents became less important. A young man no again. Only in the rarest instances did the meeting longer needed to please his parents to ensure a move to disown someone for such infractions and share of the family, and a young woman could then usually because other violations had been marry a non-Quaker and know that her husband committed as well. On the other hand, condemn- might find affordable property in the newly opened ing one's actions became very difficult for men backcountry. and, especially, women who had to admit they By the early 19th century, more Friends were wrong to have married a non-Quaker or to had begun to see the need for increased flexibility have given birth to a baby outside of marriage. in the Discipline. With continued losses of young While it was possible to discontinue committing a men and women from the Society, as well as more lesser offense, it was quite obviously much harder cases of Friends refusing to condemn their actions, to “stop being married” or impossible to not have many meetings began to look the other way on had a child. It forced women and men to choose matters that only a few years earlier would have between their religious beliefs and their husbands been brought before the meeting. By loosening the or wives, or their child. Discipline, the Friends provided more breathing Quaker men had an easier time condemn- space for young men and women to find a contin- ing their actions than women did. The public venue ued role in the Society. to stand up and admit their sins was easier for men, Neva Jean Specht, PhD, is Assistant who had far more practice at public speaking. Professor in the Department of History at Many men rationalized their behavior by saying Appalachian State University. She is currently such things as “I needed to protect myself, so I hit finishing a book-length manuscript on the the guy" or "It was a special occasion, so I had too migration of the Society of Friends, titled Mixed- much to drink.” It was even easier for husbands to Blessing: The Society of Friends and the Trans- ask forgiveness for marriages to non-Quaker Appalachian Frontier, 1780-1813. Dr. Specht may women, who were more likely to agree to join the be reached at . Society than were non-Quaker husbands. For men [Editor’s Note: It is worth commenting on to go before the men’s meeting, knowing that they the special role of members of the Society of at another time might be in a position to make de- Friends in improving the condition of humankind. cisions about other men, and the other men's know- With their emphasis on conscience rather than pa- ing that they might face the accused down the road triarchy, they allowed women to play a prominent for their own infraction, eased the process of apol- role in the conduct of meetings. Quakers were pio- ogy. neers in renouncing the following: killing, war, the Further, while the Society professed equal- manufacture of instruments of warfare, the slave ity for both sexes in the eyes of God, reality trade, and slavery itself. Toleration of native showed that the men’s meeting still had the last Americans, African-Americans, and unpopular re- word on punishments. Women not only had to face ligions were other achievements of this tiny, the women’s meeting's sanction, they then had to though influential, group.]  go before the men’s meeting to apologize and ask forgiveness again. Thus, women often found them- selves subjected to multiple humiliations: by the male members of their family, by their female Celibacy Symposium peers, and, ultimately, by the men of the commu- The Psychological Damage of nity. Consequently, reinstatements of men were greater than of women. Forced Celibacy As the 18th century ended, the number of (Continued from front page) complaints and disownments continued to rise. and spiritually fulfilling lives without being mar- This happened partly because some Friends recog- Page 102 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 ried or being disposed to marry. Celibates are dif- discernment as to what path of life will best fulfill ferent from single people. Both are required to live and integrate them in their relationships with them- chaste lives but singles are disposed to marriage. selves, others, and God. My own experience and The celibate life is marked by two features: it is a that of my colleagues shows that while most cleri- freely chosen life of community and service with- cal priests are doing a “good job” of ministering to out marriage, and it results in a well-integrated ego their people, those who do not have a celibate per- that is capable of universal love for self, others, sonality suffer from various forms of ego disinte- nature, and God. gration. Celibacy is an exception to the ordinary In 1139, mostly for reasons of money and way to individual and social fulfillment that God property, Church leaders of the Latin Rite imposed built into our very creation: "For this reason a man celibacy on all priests whether they had the gift of will leave his father and mother and be united to celibacy or not. Priests’ marriages were broken up his wife, and they will become one flesh." (Genesis and their wives and children put out into the street. 2:24, NIV) Forced celibates are therefore isolated Far from the truth of celibacy, this legal policy is from their true path to fulfillment and are thus iso- marked by: an obsessive mindset of power and lated both from themselves and from society. Un- control over the lives, welfare, and careers of cler- able to develop as their own person, they suffer ics; a pagan, dualistic view that sees sex as evil; from severe loneliness, depression, alcoholism, and a denigration of women and marriage that goes materialism, or personality disorders. Regarding back to the story that blames Eve for the fall of the materialism, while religious priests, for example, human community. In this mindset, St. Augustine Jesuits and Franciscans, take a vow of poverty, di- had taught that marital intercourse is a sin, caused ocesan priests do not, yet often their level of living by the woman. is a scandal to ordinary Catholics. Many priests will justify their materialism as “compensation” for As a resigned and married Catholic priest, I their celibacy. The disorders also include adjust- know firsthand the psychological and spiritual ment problems, immaturity, narcissism, and ar- damage done by a church that has forced celibacy rested sexual development. Any expectation that upon priests who were called by God to be mar- such men could sublimate their sexual drive is a ried. In fact, this damage has been hidden for cen- cruel distortion of psychological and spiritual un- turies. Unhappily, there is much to cover up. derstanding. This misrepresentation shows up in A.W. Richard Sipe, a resigned priest and a psy- many ways. chologist who has treated thousand of priests with sexual problems, reports that celibacy in the priest- Typically, such priests’ sermons are replete hood has been a large failure. (Sex, Priests and with boyish references to their mothers. Their rela- Power, 1995) He estimates that two percent of tionships with women tend to be shallow and im- priests (including bishops) have the gift of celibacy mature, and those who are sexually active tend to while eight percent have willed themselves into relate to their partners at the level of adolescent having the character traits that permit them to live experimentation. Living in denial, these priests a celibate life. Forty percent are trying to practice persist in believing they are celibate and that their celibacy but fail from time to time, and fifty per- lapses are simply signs of human weakness, rather cent are living active sexual lives, either hetero- than of the absence of celibacy and the concomi- sexually or homosexually. Some of these are in- tant absence of development and ego integration. volved in secret civil marriages and some have The clerical culture in which they live routinely children. Church officials question Sipe’s esti- forgives them and then rewards them for staying mates on the grounds that his experience is limited loyal to the “club,” while paying little or no atten- to troubled priests. However accurate his estimates tion to their disintegration or to the damage done to may be, he is pointing to widespread psychological the women involved -- and to themselves. Such damage, beginning with the lie that so many priests priests can get trapped in the clergy the way ad- are living and extending to the deep denial prac- dicts get trapped in their addiction: they are ticed by Church leaders who insist on proclaiming trapped in a state of life for which they are not psy- that celibacy is working well. chologically or spiritually fit and which is therefore causing them to suffer psychological and spiritual In the Catholic Church, the gift or the deterioration. “call” or vocation to celibacy (or marriage) is de- termined by a person’s personality, talents, and The dysfunction of non-celibate priests and desires, and more deeply, by their own developing of those who cover up their suffering can explode September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 103 into vile reactions. For example, as an officially forgetting of one’s desire to be happy and living in resigned priest who is validly married in the Catho- such a way as to foster the happiness of others.” lic Church, I have at times provided baptisms and This skewed view of therapy and of psychological marriages for people who felt unable to approach and spiritual fulfillment does not know that true clerical priests. (Church law can be interpreted to celibacy, like marriage, is designed to bring about permit such ministry, though Church authorities self-fulfillment. Forced celibacy, like forced mar- deny it is possible.) While child-abusing priests riage, calls for a self-emptying that is self- have been permitted to continue ministering, cleri- destructive, not self-fulfilling. Self-destructive self- cal reaction against me has been swift and some- emptying contradicts psychological and spiritual times vicious, going beyond excoriating me per- understanding. (Recently, Cozzens, speaking about sonally to the point of strongly implying that my the pedophilia scandal, showed a change of mind wife is a whore. Other married priests have had and openly called for a serious and honest review the same experience. of the Church’s teaching on celibacy for priests.) Since true celibates are too few to fill the One obvious solution to the psychopa- ranks of the priesthood, forced celibacy continues thology that exists within the priesthood is to make to dominate the mindset of seminary training. celibacy optional -- to remove it from its legal These days, psychologists test candidates for sex- binds and set it psychologically and spiritually ual conflicts, yet the seminary program itself is free. True celibacy and the integration and matur- designed to interfere with the candidates’ discern- ity that follow from it will then shine forth from ment of their true life path. Starting from day one, the few priests who have the gift, while the major- it molds them in the way of celibacy, for example, ity will live fulfilling lives of joyful service in the by isolating them from women and the everyday married state. world, and by freeing them from the decisions and Anthony Massimini, PhD, has a doctorate challenges of finding and holding a job, establish- in Spirituality (Religion and Psychology) from the ing a career, getting married, raising children, and Gregorian University in Rome and a Certificate in paying a mortgage and taxes. Thus, the danger of Psychiatry from Hahnemann Medical College in producing mediocre, immature, narcissistic, and Philadelphia. He is the author of The New Dance sexually arrested priests is built into the system. A of Christ: Discovering Our Spiritual Self in a New, married priest recently said on a television talk Evolving World (2000). He may be contacted at show, “When I entered the seminary I was 18; .  when I was ordained 10 years later, I was still 18.” Yet, in denial, the clerical culture can and does blame society for its faults and inadequacies. Father Joseph Bosetti: Church leaders have blamed American culture for Pioneer Priest in the Rockies priests’ problems with celibacy -- and for the resig- nations of over 20,000 priests in America alone. Dan Dervin They point to such things as “the sexual revolu- Mary Washington College tion,” the rise of women’s consciousness of their rightful place in society, and to confusion over the Upon retiring from teaching in 1997, I de- freedom of spirit expressed in the Second Vatican cided to begin the biography of a man who had Council (1962-1965). Recently a priest publicly influenced my life in a much earlier decade. Fa- blamed Catholic parents for practicing birth control ther Joseph Julius ("Peppino") Bosetti (1886-1954) and having abortions, thus providing a smaller pool was a once prominent figure, who is veering to- of young Catholic men and forcing bishops to se- ward historical oblivion unless my modest efforts lect marginal candidates for the priesthood. should change this situation. Another argument comes from Father Don- Fr. Bosetti was raised in a prosperous Mi- ald B. Cozzens. In his book, The Changing Face lan, Italy, family before setting out in his 11th year of the Priesthood (2000), he attacks society’s to prepare for the priesthood in an obscure Swiss “therapeutic mindset” for the problems with celi- seminary. After receiving degrees in canon law bacy. “The shadow side of therapy’s triumph,” he and philosophy in Rome by age 17, he heard tales states, “not surprisingly overlooks the emptying of of missionaries in the American West converting self that is essential for authentic, graced human the "red man" and arrived in 1911 in Denver at the intimacy.” He then says, “Happiness follows the moment its Cathedral was being dedicated. He Page 104 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 took over the musical program, composed music recorded his remarkable life, I set to work before for the ceremonies, organized a vested choir and his world completely vanished. He was rather short from it founded the Denver Grand Opera Com- and stocky with straight black hair. Rimless specta- pany, the first of its kind in the West. He debuted cles added a scholarly aspect to his kindly, obser- it in 1915 with Mascagni's Cavalieria Rusticana. vant features. Dressed in plaids and cords in the An avid alpinist, he had earlier defrayed his semi- mountains, he could be mistaken for a lumberjack. nary expenses by guiding climbers up the Matter- Though I am no longer actively religious, I cherish horn. Now, on an outing in the Rockies, his party my contact with him as a source of seasoned hu- spotted a meteorite descending beyond their camp- manism, culture, humor, and love of nature. Most site. Though their search was unavailing, he likely, I absorbed his qualities as an ego ideal be- mounted a large ship rock around dawn and vowed fore I left the West and settled in New York and to build a chapel on the rock next to the boys camp Virginia. he was founding for his choirboys. As I undertook his biography, I unequivo- The sources of inspiration, creativity, tal- cally wanted to celebrate his life, to "do right by ents, and energy of Fr. Bosetti are as striking as are him," and perhaps showcase him as an exemplar of his contradictions. His seminary was run by the a more abiding and tolerant faith. He was cheerful, Bethlehem Brothers and he composed outgoing, and tolerant, especially in contrast to Fa- "Bethlehem," an operetta for Cathedral students. ther Mac, the Cathedral rector he served many He seems to have been led by a miraculous light years with and often outwitted. Fr. Mac was a fire- beckoning from the sky. He organized over 40 brand Irishman who lashed out from the pulpit at grand operas, drawing on the talents of his friends feminists, secularists, and Communists. Whereas from the Metropolitan Opera as well as his own Fr. Mac inveighed against boys' smoking, swear- protégés. He founded Camp St. Malo for boys and ing, and drinking, Fr. Bosetti invited these immi- built the renowned Chapel-on-the-Rock. In the grant sons, mostly Irish and German, up to his 1920s he taught Colorado University courses that cabin or camp and allowed that as drinking is a included Darwin and Freud. As Vicar General and young man's vice, better it be done under the Chancellor, he wielded power in the archdiocese proper auspices. So while Fr. Mac, with his siege second only to the Archbishop. Withal a Renais- mentality and realistically-grounded fears of at- sance man, he expounded Leonardo da Vinci's ver- tacks from the Ku Klux Klan, preached hellfire- satility from behind the wheel of his car on moun- and-brimstone and supported the various temper- tain roads between jests of his two-sided nature: ance societies, Fr. Bosetti with an old-world insou- Joseph (good) and Julius (not so good). His spiri- ciance lectured even-handedly on Freud and mod- tual charisma was filtered through his foreign man- ern psychology or taught high school French with ners: he was humorous, unpredictable, aloof, his constant companion dog Shep curled asleep by charming, and mischievous. Fr. Bosetti was one of his desk. a kind in intriguing and complicated ways. He Putting together a life is like doing a pic- milked Denver cash cows relentlessly for his pro- ture puzzle with some pieces missing, which jects and ran his camp literally from a wad of bills means that one must observe silence, extrapolate, he kept in his hip pocket. When his benefactors or probe more intently the available pieces. Doing complained of the roughneck, untidy ambience of some of all three, I was fortunate in being able to the camp, he resigned, only to be lured back on his retrieve an extensive written record from the chan- own terms. cery archives. This included letters, lecture notes, I knew Fr. Bosetti towards the end of his theatre programs, and clippings of reviews, all life and the beginning of mine. As a restless teen- pasted in albums by devoted nuns. ager fleeing Omaha, Nebraska, I had spent a few Upon returning from his frequent trips summers at his camp. Even after he stepped aside abroad, Fr. Bosetti would be debriefed by the Den- due to a series of strokes until his death in 1954, I ver Catholic Register as a sort of celebrity priest. continued to summer there and, at least partly un- It is here, along with some of his radio addresses der his spell, I spent a year or so in the Denver on composers, that aspects of his personality seminary that drew most of his camp counselors. emerged that I initially resisted. He had spoken A key mission of the camp was to promote voca- favorably about Italian Fascism in its early days tions. (even though the Pope, who had warmly received When I noted in 1997 that no one had yet him, warned about loss of press freedom) as a po- September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 105 litical bulwark against Communism. At best, he ate solution to this dilemma was to drink. He was advocated support of what he termed "conservative a darkly handsome Irishman, charming, brilliant, democracies." During World War II, he was dis- and now out of control. The Bishop wanted him mayed to learn that his former choirboys were out, period. Fr. Bosetti intervened and a compro- bombing or invading Italy. Even more unsettling mise was struck. Fr. Tom would be put out of was the establishment of an Italian prisoner of war sight, banished to a country parish in Platteville, camp outside of Denver. These prisoners, rather about 40 miles northwest of Denver. Fr. Tom com- than the elusive red man who had first lured him to plied but he took with him his mistress, a very at- America, became his unsought mission. Along tractive young widow who had been a food caterer with his failing health, the defeat of Fascism and at the Cathedral. There he lived more or less the Cold War impasse with Soviet Communism openly with his "housekeeper" -- all of this mostly darkened the Bethlehem innocence he had felt in hushed up by those I spoke with who were around coming to America and diminished the pre-war in those days and vehemently denied by his rela- optimism he had felt over a resurgent Europe. In tives. this context, one of his final acts was to raise the Fr. Bosetti was troubled by these events. glaring white monument of a triumphant Christ- He had suffered a stroke two-and-a-half years be- the-King on a boulder outcropping at his camp. fore and been forced to cancel his opera seasons as Today, this gesture of religious dominance looks well as relinquish the running of the camp. As was desperately futile. their custom, Fr. Tom would help Fr. Bosetti cele- The summer following Fr. Bosetti's death, brate his birthday on January 1 and combine it with several of us were cleaning out his cabin, when New Year's Eve. Thus it was that during these fes- suddenly a young priest from an earlier decade ap- tivities in Platteville that Fr. Bosetti suffered his peared in the doorway, sized up the situation, final stroke. Along with fellow priests, Fr. Tom strode to the mantel over the fireplace, raised a kept an around-the-clock vigil at the unconscious large painting of the Matterhorn, and, after gazing priest's bedside until he died several weeks later around at us, defiantly strode out with it. That was without regaining consciousness. Father Tom, Fr. Bosetti's earlier and most troubling Fr. Tom thus had reasons for bursting in protégé whose life serves as a counternarrative to and retrieving the Matterhorn painting that puz- the central story. zling day a few months later. He was, in fact, Fr. Tom's interruption was one of those about to depart for California, where he would be odd pieces that did not fit into the puzzle, at least released from his priestly vows, marry his mistress, initially. His family had been one of the first in the have a son, and pursue an academic career in for- parish that Fr. Bosetti had visited and struck up a eign languages. His key line was, "I left the priest- lasting connection with. He would call Tom's hood but I never left the Church." Fr. Bosetti's key grandmother "Mother" and pick up chili con carne line was, "I can see his leaving the priesthood but for his mountain weekend, at a time when Tom not over a woman." So, the piece of the puzzle was just starting school. Tom had a beautiful sing- still missing relates to sexual orientation. ing voice and sang in "Bethlehem," the first of Though they are to neither marry nor beget many roles in the priest's productions. From early children, Catholic priests are addressed as "Father" on, Tom was set apart, did not date in high school, by reason of their pastoral and sacramental duties. and in 1927 accompanied the priest on a climb up Dressing in a cassock as well as trousers, they are the Matterhorn, followed by a visit with the Pope. expected to exercise compassion as well as author- Soon Tom was following in the priest's footsteps in ity. That Fr. Bosetti performed such maternal/ other ways as well. He studied in Rome and upon paternal roles in orthodox as well as less orthodox his ordination was assigned Cathedral parish as Fr. ways is evident in collective recollections of his Bosetti's assistant to help out with the operas and nighttime checking his boys in the camp dormito- the camp. ries to see they were tucked in. He was perceived Everything seemed to be proceeding ac- by Fr. Tom's family as exercising a paternal role on cording to an ideal, if not quite divine, plan except the boy he seems to have adopted and who adopted for one tiny knot of a problem: devoted as he was him as his role model. Women, on the other hand, to his mentor, Fr. Tom was not cut out for clerical were not especially welcome at his camp where he cloth. He did not want to be a priest. Above all, wanted the boys to connect with nature and the he did not want to live a celibate life. His immedi- spiritual life, free from worldly distractions. Many Page 106 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 did go on to become priests. Yet Fr. Bosetti asso- cultural and spiritual outlets. In referring to nature, ciated with far more women than most priests. music, and religion, he often invoked the word Those who knew him, for example, the nuns who "sublime." So it is not a great leap to term his were given off-season holidays at his camp and many endeavors "sublimations." Were his most invited to dress rehearsals as well as the many personal affections also successful sublimations? women who sang in his shows, were all totally de- It seems likely. But whatever its elusive roots, voted to him. Nor was he oblivious to feminine sublimation -- when successful -- is a process ulti- charms. "Show that girl how to walk," he once told mately known by its products. Maria, one of his seasoned singers, on the occasion Dan Dervin, PhD, Professor Emeritus of of a stiff new actress on his stage. Maria strutted Literature at Mary Washington College, is a her stuff. prolific psychohistorian whose recent books But was Fr. Bosetti tempted? And by what include Enactments: American Modes and or whom? Can sexual orientation be inferred if one Psychohistorical Models (1996) and Matricentric does not act on his sexual desires? Some light is Narratives (1997) on questions of gender and cast on these quandaries by an extraordinary epi- agency in women's writing. Professor Dervin may sode from the priest's seminary period. This was be contacted at .  during his "Peppino" days when he was 16. Be- cause he was studying in Rome when he learned of the scandalous behavior of a priestly faculty mem- Something Beautiful for God ber who had been seen fondling a youth back in the infirmary in Switzerland, he responded in writing: Daniel C. O’Connell Loyola University of Chicago Reverend Father Superior, These lines will cause you pain, I'm sure. You know the I have been requested to submit a comment affection I have for you and that I would not on the article by Massimini. I do so with a certain write without high motives and a sense of amount of reluctance: Nothing I can say will duty along with the love I have for my change the existential hurt reported by the author. brothers and my sincere love of our work. Nonetheless, the reader has a right to a more bal- In closing, he offered to abandon his studies and anced view of celibacy than he presents. return to assist in resolving the problem if that The most evident characteristic of the arti- would help. It was apparently unnecessary because cle is that, beneath the linguistic surface structure, the derelict priest was dismissed. it is autobiographical. The article tells us a great While this episode refutes the excuse that deal more about how one can be expected to write pedophilia as a form of abuse by priests was not about experiences that have somehow been the recognized until fairly recent times, there are more source of great hurt in one’s life than about any- pertinent details. The person being addressed was thing else. Father Barral, founder of the Bethlehem Brothers Massimini's concepts of "forced" celibacy and rector of the new seminary. Being French, he and the "gift" of celibacy both warrant criticism was a foreigner as well as a pioneer, a builder, and and commentary. I have never in 57 years as a a proficient fund-raiser whose reckless practices member of the Jesuit order or in 44 years as an or- drew sarcastic media attention. Eased out a few dained priest met a celibate who fits his description years later for "cooking" the books, he was also of the celibate as not “being disposed to marry.” accused of "immorality," the coded euphemism for Further, there is a simple difficulty with the logic. sexual “hanky-panky.” One wonders how much "Forced celibacy" is a contradiction in terms. Celi- Peppino knew of this man's dark side -- very little bacy is by definition an interior attitude, a virtuous it seems. In America, Fr. Bosetti also proved him- stance of deliberate abstinence from sexual activity self an adept fundraiser and builder, so in certain (and from a state of life that entails sexual activity, respects Fr. Barral was a positive role model, but i.e., marriage). It is true that in the Roman Rite of his protégé, who also cultivated protégés, knew the Catholic Church, one has to "buy the package," better where to draw the line. so to speak. But one is motivated to do it out of Biographers should also know where to dedication to Christ even in that setting. Celibacy draw the line. Certainly, Fr. Bosetti was possessed out of motivation to keep the rule, or because one of great energies as evident from their manifold hates women or is inhibited sexually, is not a virtue at all and defies the very concept of celibacy. September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 107

Christ was celibate according to all the traditions pathways can be perceived as competitors in the of Christendom. It's simply in imitation of Him transcendence marketplace and therefore as threats and out of undivided dedication to Him that one to religion. can voluntarily dedicate his (or her) life in a celi- In Massimini’s religious framework, for bate state. example, celibacy is juxtaposed against sex, mar- Malcom Muggeridge’s description of riage, and family in an “all or nothing” sort of Mother Theresa’s life as “Something Beautiful for package. In contrast, in a secular framework, celi- God” (also the title of his 1971 book about her) bacy simply means “no sex.” Marriage and family expresses quite clearly the very foundation of the are afterthoughts -- although, curiously, one or dedicated celibate life. One gives up something of both often get linked back to sex. Consider a cou- great worth and beauty: husband or wife, children, ple in a committed, sexually expressive relation- grandchildren, in short, a hearth and home. This ship, who choose neither marriage nor children. has been my life-long experience of very normal, To many North American religious believers, this loving, celibate women and men, and it is surely unmarried couple is “living in sin.” To pro-family what the members of the mental health profession individuals, religious or secular, this childfree cou- -- who have been screening candidates for the ple is branded either as an object of pity or as priesthood and religious orders for many decades “selfish,” no better than garden-variety fornicators. now -- look for in young people who apply. Both views tacitly acknowledge sex’s power as a Yes, the glass is half empty: Every one of transformative agent. us fulfills all his or her obligations in life, includ- Not all who abstain from sexual activity do ing the ones we have voluntarily taken upon our- so for explicitly religious reasons, however. The selves, imperfectly. But far more importantly, the image -- magnified by the recent scandals -- of glass is also half full: Hundreds of thousands of priests bursting at the libidinal seams from years of men and women throughout the world are living repressed sexual urges is a grossly selective one, at dedicated celibate lives, happily and normally, and best. The urge to express oneself sexually, priest most certainly not because they are not “disposed or not, falls under the same statistical bell curve as to marry,” but simply because they have freely other psychological variables. Most of us are aver- given something very beautiful back to their God age, so individuals at both extremes catch our at- out of unabashed love of God and His people. tention. Thus, “recovering sex addicts” are talk See profile of author on page 89.  show guests, and the DSM-IV -- the bible of psy- chiatric diagnosis -- labels those who are either chronically uninterested in, or downright disgusted 1,001 Celibate Nights by, sex as “disordered.” Celibacy, whether institu- tionalized or not, is likely perceived as a sanctuary Christopher T. Burris by such persons. St. Jerome’s University, Canada I am reminded of a boy who once confided As a psychologist of religion who is pro- to me that he kept track of the number of days he fessedly committed to scientific objectivity, I can- went without masturbating as a gauge of personal not speak to claims regarding celibacy’s divine piety. He could correctly label the sexual anatomy origins. Perhaps it is, indeed, “a gift” to some, as but would become nauseous and faint when sex Massimini suggests. education was presented in health class. Born into Catholicism, he never considered priesthood but In the popular mind, celibacy is a Roman rarely dated and remained a virgin well into his Catholic issue but nearly all faith traditions regu- 20s. late sexual expression -- sometimes vigorously. Why? Sex can serve as a pathway to transcen- There are, I would suggest, a “thousand dence. Survey respondents list sex -- along with little celibacies” in addition to the one reserved for mind-altering substances, rhythms and dance, and Roman Catholic priests. Unless victims of psycho- nature -- as potent sources of blissful, even mysti- logical or physical coercion, all must choose cal, experience. Thus, we should not be surprised whether and how to express themselves sexually. that zealous religious proponents sometimes label Celibacy can be embraced as a joyful calling, be- sex and drugs, rock ‘n’ roll, and pantheism as grudgingly accepted as a job requirement, touted as “evil” or “false gods.” In effect, these alternate holy glamour, or sought out as an ideological storm shelter. Page 108 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

Thus, instead of joining in the debate as to ter with the sacred -- for example, when God had whether Fr. Bosetti’s priestly achievements were the Israelite men abstain from sex for three days the beneficent result of sexual sublimation, I will before giving the Law at Mt. Sinai. (Exodus 19:15) put forth an idea that is true to the spirit (if not the In other cases, celibates remove themselves from letter) of Freud: Anything can be a threat; anything the normal order and temptations of everyday life, can be a defense. Only when threats are defused staying in a monastery, a convent, or the wilder- and defenses dropped, when the mortal struggle to ness. Other traditions limit such asceticism to the maintain the self-as-separate is no longer felt, do end of one’s life, as with the Hindu sannyasin, who men and women -- celibate or not -- have hope of has already fulfilled his duty to raise a family. Or, Massimini’s “well-integrated ego that is capable of most remarkably, one may find religious ideals universal love for self, others, nature, and God.” absolutely embodied in some saints, gurus, and Christopher T. Burris, PhD, is Assistant adepts of all traditions, such as the Dalai Lama or Professor of Psychology at St. Jerome’s University Mother Theresa. These exemplars seem able to in the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. master any challenge, sacrifice all selfish desires, His areas of research include religious motivation in exchange for their and the world’s ongoing and self-identity. He may be contacted at spiritual improvement. They are as unique in their .  capacity for ascetic denial as they are rare. Sadly, it seems that with Catholic priests, celibacy is too often a forced repression of sexual- Infinite Denial: ity disguised by the veneer of sublimation. I have Religious Celibacy and more than once heard Church officials argue that priests need to forgo the distractions of physical Priestly Repression relationships, especially family demands, or their Dereck Daschke parish, their family in Christ, will suffer from ne- Truman State University glect. Worse, there are no limits set on this sacri- fice -- it is a lifelong commitment, essentially from Celibacy is hardly a religious pursuit adolescence to death. There is no cloister. The unique to the Catholic priesthood. It is an ascetic priest is in the world, mediating between the de- sacrifice akin to fasting, hair shirts, and other self- mands of the sacred and the profane for his congre- disciplinary techniques meant to rein in the worldly gation. There is, of course, a superb legacy of ex- comforts and desires of the flesh and to open the traordinary, even saintly, priests in the life of the individual up to greater pleasures, higher knowl- Church. So, too, are there likely always moments, edge, or even a direct experience of the divine. even prolonged periods, of true sublimation, where While the slightest psychoanalytic glance reveals the yearnings of a priest’s sexual being are chan- the severe instinctual renunciation inherent in these neled into astonishing insight, imparting peace and actions, it also recognizes that such renunciation wisdom not just to himself but to those around can take two forms: repression, which, over an ex- him. tended period of time, will erupt in socially disrup- Inevitably, these men and these moments tive forms ranging from slips of the tongue to neu- are rare. The rest of the priesthood, the rest of the roses, and sublimation, where the instinctual grati- time, must grapple with desires they literally are fication is displaced into socially acceptable, even not allowed to express, let alone satisfy. Any beneficial, activities. Celibacy as a religious virtue doubts or failure, the Church governing body says, or duty clearly is meant to be an act of sublimation requires only more fervent prayer and, where nec- (hence its role in achieving the “sublime”), a sacri- essary, confession -- that is to say, more sublima- fice of the satisfaction of bodily pleasure in ex- tion, transforming real needs and true conflicts into change for peace of mind, clarity of purpose, and non-threatening, theologically approved solutions. purity of spirit. The grace of God will in due course comfort the Religious ideals such as these, however, supplicant and grant him the peace that celibacy must be experienced within certain psychosocial promised in the first place. Yet, many find, the frameworks. Self-denial requires boundaries to be peace never comes, the priest feels the shame of personally beneficial: celibacy, like fasting, must failure again, and the avenues of communication have some restrictions on it. Sometimes it is con- between priest and God, and priest and priest, be- fined to a certain length of time before an encoun- come closed off as well. The repression of the September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 109 body and mind is now doubly reinforced, contrib- In his article entitled “Father Joseph uting to, if not directly creating, the whole range of Bosetti: Pioneer Priest in the Rockies,” Dan Dervin pathologies that have plagued the modern priest- highlights the hidden and putatively unknowable hood, from depression to alcoholism to -- as we aspects of a successful sublimation. He rightly know all too well -- pedophilia. Astonishingly, it contrasts the mystery of Fr. Bosetti’s character seems that Church leaders have been just as igno- with the transparency of that of Fr. Tom, a protégé rant about the potential for spiritual damage from of Fr. Bosetti. Whereas Fr. Tom’s attempt at celi- this perversion of celibacy’s spiritual potential as bacy suffered from defenses against and temporiz- they have been about its continued psychological ing of his sexuality, Fr. Bosetti’s celibacy was damage, both on its most vulnerable priests and marked not only by the complexity of his person their young victims. but by a seemingly genuine and expansive delight Dereck Daschke, PhD, is Assistant in and generosity toward innumerable people. It is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Truman altogether easier to understand why Fr. Tom chose State University in Kirksville, Missouri. He has to leave the priesthood and marry than to under- written on Christian mysticism and Jungian stand how Fr. Bosetti came to be and remain the psychology in the Journal of Psychology and celibate that he was. Christianity and the role of melancholia in Old This is true to my experience as a priest Testament Exilic prophecy in American Imago. He and a psychologist. Having assessed applicants to has also taught courses on religion and healing, the seminary and religious life, and having pro- psychology and religion, apocalypticism, and the vided psychotherapy to a fair number of priests and search for spirituality. He may be contacted at seminarians, I think that a successful sublimation .  as a celibate is rather more over-determined than is a failed attempt at celibacy. To be sure, both suc- cessful and failed attempts at celibacy may be de- Psyche’s Mystery: fensive in part and have elements of narcissism, A Reply to Dervin and obsessiveness, and the precipitates of trauma. Yet it remains harder to explain why this works for Massimini on Celibacy some than why it does not for many. This may be Joseph J. Guido because so few successful celibates have been the Providence College subject of psychoanalytic study, a study that the late Stephen A. Mitchell described as attending to The Roman Catholic discipline of clerical the “fine grained texture of individual human lives, celibacy has long invited both admiration and ab- in all their complexity and intensity.” (Can Love horrence. In the wake of recent disclosures about Last? The Fate of Romance Over Time, 2002, p. the sexual abuse of minors by priests it is under- 29) I expect that such a study would find that the standable that its supporters and detractors alike path a man takes to celibacy is determined by the have been vocal. Some conservatives argue that resources available to him -- temperamental, inter- the problem lies not in celibacy but in its breach, personal, historical, and religious -- and the unique and are quick to blame liberals, homosexual configurations and identifications of himself and priests, and a too ready and facile accommodation others, including God, that he is able to confect of the Church to secular culture in the years after because of them. Indeed, if there is a missing the Second Vatican Council. Liberals view obliga- piece in the puzzle of Fr. Bosetti’s success, it is his tory celibacy as pathogenic and as one aspect of a relationship with God, a relationship which might broader abuse of clerical power and a distorted un- help explain and certainly would reflect his par- derstanding of human sexuality. Although research ticular complexity. [Editor’s Note: See the reply by suggests that there is no credible evidence that sex- Dervin at the conclusion of this article.] ual abuse of minors by priests has increased in re- A different kind of mystery is addressed in cent years, that homosexuals abuse minors more the article by Anthony T. Massimini. Although I often than do heterosexuals, or that there is a corre- think he oversimplifies a history of celibacy that lation between celibacy and the abuse of minors, Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women legitimate questions remain about the nature and and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity, exercise of priestly celibacy. I submit that answers 1988, and Elizabeth Abbott, A History of Celibacy, to these questions will require an appreciation for 2000, find complex and varied, I think he makes an mystery in its truest sense. Page 110 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 important distinction between grace, or gift, and sexuality as an element of an individual’s psychic obligation in the practice of celibacy. Theologi- economy. When it stumbles and apparently fails it cally, he means that God freely bestows on some suggests that even in unwelcome circumstances men the capacity to be celibate, something that there may be yet a grace, heretofore unsuspected, from a psychoanalytic frame of reference we might to impel us to the growth and maturity that will be render in terms of the congruence between the ego required in any circumstance. ideal and, depending on theoretical orientation, Fr. Joseph J. Guido, OP, EdD, is a Roman available ego resources, internalizations, or transi- Catholic priest (Dominican), and Assistant Profes- tional phenomena. In this sense grace may be a sor of Psychology and a clinical psychologist with mystery but a necessary condition if the celibate the personal counseling center at Providence Col- life is to be lived well. Accordingly, it is not sur- lege. He is interested in the psychology of religion, prising that a man who did not think he had the gift trauma and its relationship to psychopathology, of celibacy would suffer from the obligation to be and psychotherapy process and outcome, and is celibate and that many would fulfill such an obli- the author most recently of “The Importance of gation only imperfectly. Yet it is interesting that Perspective: Understanding the Sexual Abuse of many who to outward appearances have failed at Children by Priests,” America, 186(11), 2002. He celibacy remain priests, and that among those who can be contacted at . have left the active priesthood and married, some have brought to their marriages and parenting the Dan Dervin replies: About the deeply per- narcissism and immaturity that formerly marred sonal dimension of Fr. Bosetti's personal relation- their ministry. ship to God, one can only draw inferences from the evidence. For several of his fellow priests, for ex- In my experience, the reasons why a man ample, he once made up a small photo album on first becomes celibate are rarely those which can whose cover he inscribed “A Sacred Tryst.” It re- sustain him as such and the celibate life, like the corded an ascent of Mt. Holy Cross in the remote married life, entails a progressive invitation to di- Colorado wilderness on the occasion of his Silver vest oneself of narcissism and to acquire the capac- Jubilee in the priesthood. Similar to practices he ity for true love of others. This is not easy or auto- conducted at his Camp, the goal was to mount the matic for either celibates or married people, and peak in the dark and offer sunrise Mass on the few achieve it perfectly in either state of life. But summit, although this climb took up most of the it is possible, and its possibility invites us to con- morning. Normally, however, the purpose was to sider whether the grace that is necessary is a grace extend the consecrated Host at the moment of the that is given if not in the beginning then in the sun's emergence, thereby restoring all things to course of the life chosen. One might well choose Christ, as fellow alpinist Pope Pius X had advo- the celibate life poorly, defensively, and with little cated. The party of 25, including fellow priests and recognition of its implications beyond the prag- seminarians, plus friends of both sexes, garnered matic, and certainly one can suffer as a result of full media coverage. Emanating from a Renais- such a choice, but this does not mean that the celi- sance culture that excelled in dramatic representa- bate life cannot serve as the crucible of reality that tions of a symbolic nature as well as from the city Freud found necessary for the transition from nar- where Leonardo's Last Supper was painted, Fr. cissism to object love. Here as elsewhere, one must Bosetti made the Eucharistic banquet rather than be wary of falling prey to the fallacy of origins, Good Friday the core of his ministry: Holy Com- that is, to assuming that the discovery of the defen- munion was distributed atop Mt. Holy Cross. His sive origins of behavior implicates the integrity of Jubilee ascent also combined an active masculine the behavior itself, the truth that it portends, or the position with a maternal nurturing one -- both of possibility of its development. these in symbolic and sublimated forms. The word- In his First Letter to the Corinthians choice of "Sacred Tryst" meanwhile hints at deeper (15:51), the Apostle Paul uses the Greek word mys- -- but nonspecific -- emotional currents.  terion in the sense both of something hidden as if buried in the ground and as something to be re- vealed. From a psychoanalytic point of view, cleri- Celibacy and the Child cal celibacy can be understood from both perspec- Sexual Abuse Crisis tives. When it succeeds it invites consideration of how complex and particular is the course of human Thomas G. Plante September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 111

Santa Clara University and someone at higher risk to sexually abuse children. Stanford University School of Medicine The best available data suggests that approximately only two to five percent of male clergy, regardless Celibacy has received a great deal of media of religious tradition, can be expected to sexually attention recently due to the well-publicized sexual engage with minors below the age of 18 while ap- abuse crisis in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church. proximately eight percent of adult men in general The Boston Globe reported in January 2002 that a have had a sexual experience with a minor. (This Roman Catholic priest had sexually abused 138 data comes from numerous sources including pub- children over 30 years as a parish priest and that lished research, police records, and data collected religious superiors including Cardinal Bernard Law from treatment facilities that specialize in this knew about the sexual abuse allegations and did area.) If someone cannot have sex for reasons such nothing to stop them. After national and interna- as an inability to secure a suitable sexual partner, a tional media began to investigate these and other marital or other relational conflict, or religious rea- allegations of child sexual abuse committed by sons, young children do not become the object of priests, within just a few months approximately their sexual desire. Further, no research exists to 255 American priests including several bishops support the notion that applicants to the priesthood were accused of child sexual abuse and volun- are more sexually disturbed than others. teered, or were forced, to resign. The Church has There may be a variety of reasons to criti- paid almost a billion dollars in legal settlements cize the celibacy requirement for Catholic priests regarding child abuse allegations during the past 20 and nuns. These are well articulated in the article years. by Massimini. However, sexual abuse of children In trying to understand the child sexual is not one of them. abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church, many If not celibacy, then what might contribute people, both within and outside of the church, have to sexual crimes against minors committed by wondered if the celibacy vow required of priests priests? Two-thirds of sex-offending priests were might contribute to or even cause the sexual vic- sexually abused as children. Most experience other timization of children, might force these men to severe psychiatric problems such as alcoholism, develop sexual perversions and disorders such as mood disorders, personality disorders, and even pedophilia. brain damage. Most are unable to maintain satisfy- It is difficult for most people to understand ing adult relationships. Most of these men entered celibacy. Engaging in sexual activity with others seminary as teenagers 30 or more years ago. Few seems to be a basic and universal human need such if any psychological evaluations were conducted as the need for eating and drinking. Sexual free- for clergy applicants and little if any training was doms are highly valued in the United States and offered for managing sexual impulses and needs. Western culture as well. The average American If sexual abuse of minors by priests is less finds it “weird” to voluntarily give up their rights common than abuse by men in general and on par to be sexually active. Furthermore, many believe with abuse by male clergy from other religious tra- that anyone who does voluntarily give up their ditions, then why does the Catholic Church get so rights to be sexually active must be “weird” or psy- much media attention about this topic? Mostly this chologically “sick” to begin with. is due to ineffective leadership that has allowed a I have evaluated or treated in psychother- small number of priests to continue abusing chil- apy approximately 150 Roman Catholic priests, dren over many years. While most religious tradi- nuns, and applicants to Catholic religious life dur- tions have checks and balances through lay boards ing the past 14 years. I edited a book on sex- of directors who hire, fire, and evaluate their offending priests, Bless Me Father For I Have clergy, the hierarchical and patriarchal Catholic Sinned: Perspectives on Sexual Abuse Committed Church does not. While the celibacy vow may not by Roman Catholic Priests (1999), and collabo- put a priest at higher risk for sexual crimes against rated with colleagues from across North America children, it does lend itself to more media interest on this topic. Finally, I have evaluated or treated when the vow is violated. about 40 priests accused of sexual involvement The Catholic Church is the largest continu- with minors as well as about a dozen victims of ously operating organization in the world, repre- priestly sexual abuse. senting 20 percent of the planet's six billion people. Celibacy does not, in and of itself, put It has tried to be the moral authority for 2000 Page 112 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 years. The Church’s often unpopular position and grant parents in a noisy but loving Irish Catholic standards on sexual behavior associated with con- family where knowledge, truth, service, friendship, traception use, unmarried people, homosexuality, and laughter were valued. My five siblings and I and divorce make sex crimes committed by priests went to Catholic schools and were taught to respect even more scandalous. When they err, or sin and our elders but none of us were taught to blindly fall from grace, it is a bigger drop than for minis- hand over our will to any authority figure, includ- ters from other religious traditions who are more ing priests and nuns. Our will was to be consistent like us, who are married with children and mort- with the will of God for us, as discerned in the gages. Many of the 25 percent of Americans who events and challenges that life offered. identify themselves as Catholic have mixed feel- Soon after my 19th birthday in August ings about the Church. Millions who experienced 1966, I became a Missionary Sister of the Holy Catholic education have stories about priests and Rosary and remained with this community for nine nuns who were demanding; many felt they couldn’t years. Along with six other candidates, I had un- measure up to the impossibly high standards. The dergone a battery of psychological testing before current media attention is a way to get back at the acceptance into the community. Three years of for- church organization and clergy that contributed to mation or training included theological course the public's feeling sinful or inadequate. Perhaps work and the study of the spiritual life that bor- the gospel verse attributed to Jesus, “He who is rowed much from psychology. Holiness was con- without sin may cast the first stone,” is a poignant sidered to be a balanced life that integrates thought, perspective of the media and public’s view on word, and actions. Nuns and priests who were psy- clergy sexual abuse. chiatrists, clinical psychologists, or counselors Thomas G. Plante, PhD, ABPP, is were available as consultants. Professor and Chair of Psychology at Santa Clara During my years as a vowed religious University and a Clinical Associate Professor of (nun), I developed my own definition of what it Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford meant to become a woman: to be strong, independ- University School of Medicine. He is editor of ent, interdependent, smart, resourceful, and gener- Bless Me Father For I Have Sinned (1999) and ous. Poverty led to a simpler life not only materi- may be reached at .  ally but also spiritually. Beauty was found in the creation that surrounded me: the polka-dotted lady- bug, the masculine oak, and the fickle sky. Obedi- Celibacy, Marriage, and ence was not simple submission but response- Generativity ability, which meant owning my actions and the consequences. An example of the difference is my Kathy Overturf choice of a major in college. My preference was Villanova University English, the community’s was social work. There was a lengthy and respectful discussion between My clearest memory of wanting to be a nun myself and the Mother General of the community is from when I was four years old. My five-year- about the need in the missions for social workers older sister Mary and I were in our parents' bed- rather than English teachers. We agreed that my room. On the right of mother’s vanity, wedged outgoing personality and practicality supported between mirror and frame, was a holy card of St. such a choice. My response-ability to study and do Therese Martin of Lisieux. Mary took the card social work was consistent with my desire to do down and began to teach me about this French Car- God’s will as discerned by the representative of the melite who at the age of 15 entered a cloistered community and myself in concert with the needs of convent and made her goal in life to pray for mis- the missions. It was not mere submission; it was a sionaries and priests. The saint would have liked to well thought out, give-and-take, back-and-forth have been both priest and missionary but felt the contemplative life, a life devoted to prayer for the “Yes." whole world, was the most inclusive path to love Through vowed celibacy I came to under- God and serve others. Thus, I learned the best way stand that sexuality is more than who is lover and to be close to God was to be a nun. I believed who is mother. I intended my sexuality to give there was no more compelling or radical path. birth to something greater than myself, to leave a Thus was the beginning of my idealized self. legacy that was woven by Gospel values and the traditions of my community. Women who inspired My spiritual life was nurtured by immi- September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 113 such surrounded me. My psychosocial develop- found the dream itself disintegrating. My spirit ment and worldview were enhanced by living in a drooped as I went from thatched hut to thatched community of women scholars, doctors, nurses, hut facing hunger or death at the door, feeling and educators of various ages, cultures, and experi- powerless to teach others how to help themselves ences who had worked with the “poorest of the and at the same time being respectful of their cul- poor.” Conversation was lively, worldly in the ture and tradition. I found myself caught in the sense that discussion often centered on political need to be empowered as I failed to empower oth- policies that might enhance or deprive the most ers. marginalized in our world. It was the revolution- Leaving Zambia helped clarify my own ary 1960s. Changes in the Church brought about identity. Before, I had thought that to be me, to be by Vatican II and changes in society inaugurated Kathy, was to be a nun. Slowly, through self- by the feminist movement permeated our convent reflection and in conversation with trusted friends, walls and only strengthened my resolve to make a I came to realize that to be me was to be a spiritual difference in the world. person, a good friend, a lover of God, and a woman I graduated from Temple University in of faith who found meaning in service. This was 1973 with a bachelor's degree in social work. my essence. Being a nun was a map for such ex- Once in my Marriage and the Family class, the pression, a map that for me had reached a dead professor had announced that if we were 19 and end. Others in my community could live creative still a virgin, it was okay and we need not feel un- and fruitful lives, I no longer could. I thought comfortable. I was amused because at age 23 I was there must be another way to express my essence. planning to be a lifelong virgin. I saw my counter- I left my community on a crisp and clear sunny cultural stance of vowed celibacy and countercul- October day in 1975. A rainy foggy night might tural dress of veil and habit as consistent with a have suited me better since I felt sad, alone, and feminism that espoused that a woman had many without direction -- I loved those women. options by which to make her way in the world. Less than a year later I met Michael, my To be celibate was not to be barren. To be life partner. Fortunately, he had similar values and a nun was not to be above the fray but to dive right helped me dream a new dream. Consciously, I had in and sort things out. My affective self was dif- not left the convent to get married. However, my fused in the world for the sake of the world and my marriage to Michael empowers me daily through time was God’s alone who returned it to me to give word and touch, and I think that was what was to others. Sexual expression was limited to a twin- missing for me as a nun. The person I am with kle in the eye and warmth in manner and speech. helps clarify the person I wish to be. My ideal self Many times I was attracted to men and men were is reflected back to me through Michael's eyes. attracted to me. When the feelings were too strong, I no longer have the benefits of vowed celi- I remembered my priorities before nature took its bacy, the freedom to put my life at risk as I did course. I would avoid encounters with men who when as a young nun who worked in gang conflict made my heart race and fortitude fizzle. Sexual resolution in Philadelphia and preached in prisons energy was channeled toward the productive enter- in Zambia, nor am I free to serve as members of prises of church work. Prayer grounded my need my former community now do in war torn coun- for sexual intimacy and led to the development of tries in Africa. Michael knows too well the ramifi- an interior life that has served me well as a spouse, cations of such work and my four daughters would mother, grandmother, and campus minister. There not “allow” such a challenge, and I do not wish to came a knowing in prayer: God is deeply in love miss the excitement of watching my grandson with me and will never abandon me. grow up. The call to leave religious life was as com- Vowed celibacy taught me to focus on the pelling as was the call to enter. Perhaps the call Other, to be generous, to empathize, and to provide was less “to leave” and more “not to stay.” The emotional support. Celibacy in and of itself is not life that had provided solitude and spiritual suste- virtuous, but vowed celibacy lived in concert with nance as well as a support system and structure in others who share and shape a common vision pro- my journey towards God, also demanded more in- vides the interior space to live out that vision. dependence and more ego strength than I could Celibacy kept that space silent for me and guarded muster. This became obvious to me in my work in against interruptions. That sacred space is now Zambia. All of what I had dreamt to do I did but crowded by my family whose interruptions are Page 114 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 signposts in my journey towards God. ate student at Columbia she taught microscopic Kathy Overturf, MS (Human Organi- anatomy to medical students for one year and then zation Science), MA (Theology and Religious stopped professional work altogether. Though she Studies), is Associate Director, Campus Ministry, never attained her PhD, my mother maintained an Villanova University. Through Villanova’s campus intense intellectual life. She enjoyed conversing ministry, she will accompany students to South about biology and the history of science with sci- Africa this December under the sponsorship of entists, academics, and physicians, who visited our Habitat for Humanity and generous donors. She home. In talks with her friends, my mother dem- may be contacted at onstrated the pleasures of the life of the mind, .  which has made a lasting impression on me. In fact, when I speak of the type of intellectual life she created in our home, several colleagues refer to it as a “salon.” I think they are right. Through her A Biographer and His Subject: I acquired an intellectual treasure early in my life. Ralph Colp and Charles Darwin There was a splendor about my father in his achieving prominence in surgery and setting an (Continued from front page) example of excellence. Growing up, after my par- chotherapy of junior clinicians, continuing this ents divorced when I was four years old, I had a after his formal retirement from Columbia. He difficult time with my father whose house I would continues in the private practice of psychiatry in go to once a week. I did enjoy the marvelous din- Manhattan, with many of his patients coming for ners, although not the conversation there which sex therapy -- in the 1970s, he became a senior paled in comparison to that my mother created in associate, Program of Human Sexuality and Sex the milieu of our home. I was in awe of my father Therapy at the New York University Medical and afraid to be alone with him. I repeatedly turned Center. Having made his scholarly reputation as down opportunities to travel alone with him in an expert on Darwin’s health and psychology, the Europe, which I now regret, though I did go for a interviewee is best known for To Be an Invalid: week’s walking tour with him when I was 18 years The Illness of Charles Darwin (1977), which is old. Although I was separated and estranged from being revised substantially and expanded to him, after his death I felt I had incorporated some include Darwin’s “Diary of Health.” Dr. Colp of his better attributes. serves on the Editorial Board of Clio's Psyche The first loss I suffered in life followed and has written over 100 articles and book reviews from my parents' divorcing. This domestic strug- on Darwin, William Halsted, medical history, gle influenced my early interest in civil war, intro- Russian revolutionaries, and many other subjects, ducing the American (1861-1865) and Spanish including the "History of Psychiatry" section for (1936-1939) conflicts. The deaths of my parents Sadock and Sadock, Comprehensive Textbook of were important to me. My mother died in 1967 Psychiatry, since 1986. He became an early when I was 43. I had a feeling of loss after her member of the Psychohistory Forum and has been death as well as a loss of stimulus in work. Then I a devoted member of the Forum’s Communism: introjected her values and felt as if she was always The God That Failed Research Group and its an audience for me: as I wrote, I thought of how successor group on psychobiography. The inter- she would respond to my ideas. After my father's view was conducted in Dr. Colp’s Manhattan death when I was 50, I felt liberated from some of office on East 79th Street on September 13, 2001. his criticisms of me and freer to identify with some (A chapter closely related to this interview is of his best values. I felt freer to work on Darwin “Living With Charles Darwin,” Paul H. Elovitz, and added a great deal to what I wrote about Dar- ed., Historical and Psychological Inquiry, 1990, win based on my father's outlook. I do feel the loss pp. 219-235.) of my parents freed me to work more and from be- Paul H. Elovitz (PHE): Please tell us ing preoccupied with their lives and caring for about your family background and childhood. them. Ralph Colp (RC): My parents were mid- I was an only child, although when my dle-class, of which my mother often spoke with mother remarried when I was five, I then had a pride. She, Miriam Mirsky, was a homemaker with three-year-older stepsister whose own mother had a strong intellectual interest in biology. As a gradu- died in childbirth. We did not share activities and September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 115 she did not exert an influence on me. Later, I be- ness, I traveled around Arab countries where I felt came an early critic of her pro-Communist position the people to be most friendly and hospitable. Yet, and tried without success to get her to read Trot- when I walked from Jordan into Israel, I suddenly sky’s critique of Stalin. In retrospect, my mother felt I was at home and I remain profoundly pro- strongly favored me, and my stepfather Mitchell Israel today. So I had a Jewish identification of (Itelson) favored his daughter, which was part of which I was not aware. When my wife Charlotte, the reason for the mild estrangement between my who specializes in pulmonary medicine, and I were stepsister and me. My mother’s second husband married, it was by a rabbi, in his office. was in commercial real estate and lacked the social PHE: What psychoanalytic and psycho- prestige and money of my father, as well as my therapeutic training did you have? mother's cultural interests. All of our many social friends were acquired and cultivated by my RC: I had considerable psychoanalytic su- mother. Mitchell was kind and sweet but detached pervision of psychotherapy cases: As a medical from me, my friends, and my interests. He and I resident, I had two years at the Massachusetts never did any activities together and he was not an Mental Health Center (Boston Psychopathic Hos- influence in my life. He outlived my mother by pital) and then one year at St. Luke’s Hospital seven years. (Department of Psychiatry) here in New York City, and subsequently four years at Hillside Hospital on PHE: How did you feel about being a Jew? Long Island. Since then I’ve carried out the super- RC: I am a non-observant Jew who has vision, from a psychoanalytic perspective, of resi- never been in a synagogue nor had any training or dents at the Mental Health Division, Columbia interest in the Jewish religion. I attended, as did University Health Services. my children, and my parents as children, Ethical PHE: Aside from personal psychoanalysis, Culture schools. Now I consider them to have been I think supervision is where you learn the most secular Jewish schools since the movement was about psychodynamics. I had close to 10 years of started by a former rabbi (Felix Adler) and 80-90 psychoanalytic supervision, though we called it percent of my classmates also came from Jewish “control analysis.” homes. I was educated in Ethical Culture schools from elementary school through graduation from RC: Supervised casework is great. It Fieldston High in 1942. makes you into a psychotherapist. It takes about five years to learn the craft of psychotherapy and I felt ambivalent about my Jewishness. It supervision is a vital part of it. was a really complex issue. My ideal was the so- cialist rejection of nationalism and religion, and I should include my psychoanalysis with belief in meritocracy. I was aware and afraid of Max Schur, who was Freud’s last physician. That anti-Semitism. (Indeed, my father always felt that went on from November 1, 1959, which coincided he would have been the top surgeon in the country with the birth of my daughter, until October 12, were it not for his Jewish origins and he was 1969, just coincidentally my birthday. That day probably right.) Identification as a Jew felt con- Schur died rather suddenly after 10 years of my stricting, so I did not acknowledge it. When al- psychoanalysis, which was never less than four most all of the other Ethical Culture students were times a week. The analysis went deeply into all absent on Jewish holidays, I would be in school. areas of my life. There were many important areas We always had a Christmas tree and neither of my that I really had been unaware of, including the parents liked being a Jew, though most of their real nature of both of my parents. friends and associates were Jewish. The anti- PHE: You have had some wonderful train- Semitism in medical school was considerable. Be- ing for the brilliant work you have done on Charles cause of the prominence of my father I was identi- Darwin (1809-1882). Your ability to see him from fied as being a Jew by my fellow medical students, your perspective as a medical doctor, psychoana- about one-third of whom were Jewish themselves. lytic psychiatrist, and psychohistorian allows for a Unlike most other colleges at the time, Columbia depth of insight that those non-psychoanalytically did not have a formal enrollment restriction on trained just don’t have available to them. Jews. Of course, I was always fervently anti-Nazi RC: Before I went into psychiatry, under and in favor of the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil the influence of my father I performed surgery for War. In 1955, after I finished my military service three years at Mt. Sinai Hospital and then for two in Europe and without acknowledging my Jewish- years in the Air Force. I think that gave me a feel- Page 116 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 ing for physically suffering people -- many of them and mine. Darwin managed his father much more had abdominal pains and complaints, which Dar- successfully than I did my own. While the tension win had, and so I had that perspective on him. As persisted, he got income from his father, which I a psychotherapist, one thing I have learned is that never received from my father, and he got his fa- the symptoms a patient suffers from, especially ther to take care of him when he was sick, which with severe depression and anxiety, are determined was very important. I could not adapt my father to by several factors that overwhelm the ego for a my purposes until after his death. time. That is what happened to Darwin but only for PHE: Could that have been an issue of the a time because he recovered from his illness and fathers far more than of the sons? Darwin’s father continued to go on with his work. With Darwin, I was psychologically aware and empathetic with have been able to identify the psychological factors people, and yours was not. Dr. Robert Darwin that caused his major illness (with Chagas’ disease practiced a type of psychological medicine partly of the stomach making him more sensitive). At because he hated the sight of blood, as did his son. times the great naturalist feared he would die early. Thus, he could help his patients with their symp- In 1848-1849 he thought he was dying. Five peo- toms at a time when bloodletting was the prime ple he felt close to died of stomach problems so he form of treatment -- and if you operated, the pa- was especially concerned about this. I wonder tient was inclined to die of either shock or infec- what Darwin was clinically like but no doctor who tion. It was very good to have a father-doctor who saw him has left a medical report. was psychologically attuned to others, including PHE: So you had a full realization of just his own son Charles and his needs. So even though how much people could suffer, whether from the the son was in awe of the father, the father helped mind or the body, or both. You got to see both the son to find his own way. Your surgeon father, sources of pain, as opposed to those who want to by comparison, saw the issues in physical, medical, put the etiology of suffering all in the body or all surgical terms. To him, things were much more a in the mind. I was a pre-medical student until I matter of right or wrong and black or white. Be- rebelled against my father’s career plan for me, cause of the residue of your parents’ divorce, he fearing I might inadvertently hurt or even kill pa- was also a more distant force in your life than was tients. I’m curious as to what surgery didn’t pro- Dr. Robert Darwin in the life of Charles, whose vide for you or if you had fears regarding it, such mother died when he was eight years old. as the ones that influenced my decision. RC: Yes, that is true. RC: I could do the operations but I had too PHE: Thus, Dr. Robert Darwin could be much psychic conflict about not being as good as more empathetic than was your father. What was my father -- I didn’t have his innate talent and his name? Oh! Of course. Ralph Colp, Senior! flare. Besides, I wasn’t really that interested in My embarrassing momentary denial of reality -- I operating -- I was interested in talking to the pa- know your name so well -- is based upon my never tients and finding out their life stories. My mother seeing you as "Junior." Yet you have always seen believed in the life of the mind but my father put it yourself as a junior. You always insisted on that down. He said, “Look, if you can’t answer why for so many years in our conversations. Yet I al- Hamlet delayed, so what! But if you can’t answer ways see you as a senior: you are such an accom- what is wrong with a patient, it can be his life.” He plished intellectual, psychiatrist, psychohistorian, felt that surgery was superior to intellectual stud- and psychotherapist. ies. [long pause] RC: Yes, that’s valid. PHE: He felt that surgery was a matter of life or death, and that intellectual activities were PHE: Your strength as a Darwin scholar is just talk. rooted in your incredible empathy for him. When did your lifelong interest in Darwin take on the RC: Yes! form of scholarship? PHE: Both your father and Darwin’s father RC: It really began in 1959 with the sense were prominent doctors who overpowered sons of my beginning to become my own person -- leav- whose interests were less immediately practical ing surgery, marrying, beginning and finishing my than their own. psychiatric residency, and having my first child. RC: There was always a tension between Also, November 1959 was also the centenary of Darwin and his father, as there was between me The Origin of Species and Darwin was much talked September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 117 about. It was in that year also that I read Erikson’s love for William Welch, and how it influenced his Young Man Luther, which I think has influenced surgical career; Trotsky’s failure to become Lenin's me perhaps more than any other book in psycho- successor, explained by his fear of surpassing his history, despite my having serious reservations father; and Stalin’s sadism -- we need more expla- about it as a contribution to Luther studies. nation of his envy. Young Man Luther was invaluable to me as PHE: What brought you to psychohistory? a way of doing psychobiography and of under- RC: I had three paths: my childhood his- standing the concept and imagery of identity and torical interests, development of greater psycho- identity crisis. It was in the course of working with logical insight into my biographical interests, and psychiatric patients that I first began, in the words work with the Psychohistory Forum. First, when I of Erikson, to "detect some meaningful resem- was growing up, I had a passionate interest in a blance between what” I had come to see in myself number of topics and the lives of individuals, in- and what I judged my patients, colleagues, and su- cluding biographies of scientists and doctors. Two pervisors expected me to be. (Young Man Luther, important early intellectual influences were my p. 14) I was developing a sense of listening to pa- maternal uncle Alfred Mirsky, an eminent research tients, and by listening, making a difference to scientist at the Rockefeller Institute, who talked them, and learning the difference between being an with me about Darwin's life and work, and my ma- investigator and being a therapist. In subsequently ternal aunt Jeannette Mirsky, author of books on reading Erikson’s biography (Lawrence J. Fried- exploration and a biography of Eli Whitney, who man, Identity’s Architect, 1999), I came to realize talked to me about her research in writing biogra- how he formed his own identity out of his past and phies. dreams. As fellow psychohistorian Dan Dervin has commented, it was Erikson’s genius to push aside I had a tremendous interest in revolutions, many aspects of his real life to invent his own specifically the French and the Russian Revolu- identity. His psychotherapist daughter’s article on tions, as well as in ancient history, particularly that him in the Atlantic Monthly points out how lacking of Greece and Rome, including the decline and fall he was in a sense of reality. [Sue Erikson Bloland, of the Roman Empire. My curiosity was whetted “Fame: The Power and Cast of a Fantasy,” Novem- by the times in which I grew up, the 1930s and ber 1999] 1940s: the histories of Europe, the United States, and the Second World War. Some books that par- PHE: The spelling out of the method of ticularly influenced me include Thucydides’ His- inquiry, rather than the conclusion, is often what’s tory of the Peloponnesian Wars and Trotsky’s His- really important. While I've disagreed with some tory of the Russian Revolution. Among the influ- conclusions of my fellow psychohistorians, I’ve ential scientists and physicians were Pasteur, Dar- been extremely impressed by the method they had win, Harvey, Osler, and Halsted, and among the been using. I remember reading Young Man Lu- military and political leaders were T.E. Lawrence, ther and being thrilled and inspired by it but un- Lincoln, and Lenin. I had an unquenchable curios- convinced it was correct. Many of the right ques- ity to know more about them and their times. tions were being asked. However, I prefer Norman O. Brown’s interpretation in Life Against Death: My second path to psychohistory began The Psychoanalytic Meaning of History (1959). when I was in psychiatric training in 1956. I had a desire to further develop and elaborate on these RC: The excremental vision. biographical interests by adding psychological in- PHE: Yes. Brown’s scatological interpre- sights to them. (My desire to further understand tation dealt more with the real situation. But it is was and still is very strong.) This led to my writ- so often the case that we find something enlighten- ing articles on English physiologist Ernest Starling, ing even when we disagree. Returning to our inter- 1951; Vanzetti, 1959; and Halsted, 1959 and 1984 view questions, how do you define psychohistory? (which I dedicated to my father). “Trotsky’s RC: For me it is psychobiography. It in- Dream of Lenin” (Clio's Psyche, September volves a detection and delineation of emotions that 1998, pp. 50-54) touches on why Trotsky didn’t individuals tend to deny or minimize. I have writ- succeed Lenin. My views on Stalin’s sadism are ten on: Vanzetti’s depression following the death treated in “Why Stalin Couldn’t Stop Laugh- of his mother and his life as a hobo in America; ing” (Clio's Psyche, September 1996, pp. 37-39) Halsted’s intimate friendship with and perhaps and on his envy as one of his strong motivating forces, in book reviews of new biographies of Sta- Page 118 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 lin in The Psychohistory Review (Winter 1990 and PHE: What other books were important to Winter 1993) and in “Stalin’s Victims and Their your development? Predator” (Clio's Psyche, December 1998, pp. RC: There are so many. If I focus on psy- 111-112). chological books I would have to include: Erik The third path has been my work in the Erikson, Childhood and Society; Levinson, The Psychohistory Forum, which is quite important to Seasons of a Man's Life; Peter Loewenberg, De- me. I have attended most of the Forum meetings, coding the Past: The Psychohistorical Approach listened to the work presented, and formed intellec- (1983); Allen Wheelis, The Quest for Identity tual friendships with the colleagues I have met. In (1966); and Eugene Victor Wolfenstein, The Vic- becoming a scholar I was self-taught, without any tims of Democracy: Malcolm X and the Black psychohistorical mentors, but in a sense, the Psy- Revolution (1981). chohistory Forum has helped mentor me. At the PHE: What is the influence of your psy- Forum’s Communism: The Dream that Failed Re- choanalytic experience on you as a psychohis- search Group meetings, this work on ideas of mu- torian? tual interest continues even as the group has switched its focus to biography. Included in the RC: I am still in psychotherapy practice, intellectual friendships are those with Mary Lam- and I frequently apply what I know about patients bert, Jay Gonen, and Mary Coleman. Mary Cole- to my work as a biographer. It has involved sepa- man really took an interest in my recent illness but, rating psychological insights I have formed on cur- aside from that, she has a range of interest in an- rent political leaders from their political ideas and cient history. There are the friendships with David their impact on politics. Felix, Connie and Lee Shneidman, Ben Brody, and PHE: Please list the five people who you you, though we really haven’t had as much of a think have made the greatest contribution to psy- one-to-one relationship as I would like. chohistory in order of their contribution. PHE: If you came out to New Jersey we RC: I answer this not as a historian or psy- could have that. chohistorian but simply citing four books and an RC: [laughter] Sure! Sure! You notice I article I have especially enjoyed: Erikson, Young haven’t really been that motivated to attend the Man Luther; Peter Gay, The Bourgeois Experi- yearly International Psychohistorical Association ence: Victoria to Freud (1984), and Wolfenstein, (IPA) meetings. I keep up with my membership The Victims of Democracy, are great books and I but I prefer the Forum. wrote this in my review of them in “Views of Psy- chohistory,” (Free Associations, 14, 1989); I PHE: There’s something about the smaller would now add George Victor, Hitler: The Pathol- group format that I think fits nicely with being able ogy of Evil (1998), and Lee Shneidman, to work in depth and to form the closer connections "Alienation in Marx" (Clio's Psyche, June 1994, that I think work especially well for your personal- pp. 4&5), to this list. ity. PHE: How do you see psychohistory de- RC: Yes, and I enjoy the lunches we have veloping in the next decade or two? afterwards with the continued conversation there. RC: Psychohistory will survive because PHE: I certainly enjoy those as well. What psychoanalysis will survive. In my “History of training was most helpful in your doing psychohis- Psychiatry” section in the Comprehensive Textbook torical work? of Psychiatry, I point out that while the influence RC: A good beginning was Henry of psychoanalysis on American psychiatry has de- Lawton’s The Psychohistorian’s Handbook (1988), clined because it is no longer used in formulating which conveys the range of psychohistory and diagnoses and while there is intense controversy gives the sense of its being an intellectual adven- about its value and validity, Freud’s place as one of ture (which Henry strongly feels and conveys in the supreme makers of the 20th century alongside conversation). Reading reviews of psychohistori- Darwin, Marx, and Einstein remains secure. Be- cal and related books in the Journal of Psychohis- cause of this continuing status, psychoanalysis will tory and Clio's Psyche was a good way of getting remain a source and inspiration for psychohistory. into the literature. Lee Shneidman’s are unfail- PHE: What do we as psychohistorians ingly good. need to do to strengthen our work and have more September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 119 influence? 32) is about Darwin’s guilt over his having un- RC: Many things. One is to write books popular ideas. It showed how he persevered and that are both scholarly and talked about, and that began to form an identity of the “Devil’s Chap- become popular -- such as Erikson's Childhood lain.” I am reminded of his 1856 remark in a letter, and Society. In the reviews and letters to the editor “What a book a Devil’s Chaplain might write on in the Times Literary Supplement and the Sunday the clumsy, wasteful, blundering, low & horribly edition of The New York Times, there is a striking cruel works of nature.” Darwin’s clerical training absence of references to psychohistory books. De- at Cambridge had a profound impact on him, and spite being published by a well-known press -- he rightfully feared the clergy’s reaction to his New York University -- Mel Kalfus’ biography, theories. Then there’s the history of the contacts Frederick Law Olmsted: The Passion of a Public between Darwin and Marx. This is interesting for Artist (1991), was not reviewed in the Times, as demonstrating what the actual contacts were, how were earlier Olmsted lives. To the best of my letters can be misleading, and what really took knowledge, Jay Gonen's brilliant book on Nazi place in the discovery of the real nature of the con- psychology, Roots of Nazi Psychology (2000), has tacts because one participant had written an ac- received little discussion outside of Clio's Psy- count of the history, which omitted several of the participants for several reasons. (“The Myth of the che. But how many psychohistorians have Darwin-Marx Letter,” History of Political Econ- achieved the fame of Erikson? Conversely, their omy, 14:4, 1982, pp. 461-482) work may be strengthened by accepting that they are fated to write for only a small audience. The PHE: For those of our readers who are not limited readership for two superb books, Gonen's familiar with To Be an Invalid, what are its main and Victor’s Hitler, are examples. points? Perhaps most important is the encourage- RC: When I first began to think about writ- ment of small groups -- such as the Psychohistory ing on Darwin in 1959, I noticed that the many bi- Forum and its research groups -- where work is ographies of him had little to say about the causes discussed and individual intellectual friendships and nature of the illness that dominated his life. are formed and continued outside of the group. There was, for instance, no delineation of what his clinical symptoms were. After I decided to write PHE: What is your primary affiliation? on his illness, I spent many years researching un- RC: I have two identities: one as a psycho- published Darwin documents. (It took me several analytically oriented psychotherapist and another years to learn to decipher his handwriting.) In To as a Darwin scholar. This shows in my office Be an Invalid I published the first comprehensive where every day I see patients and do work on account of his illness. I showed that as a youth he Darwin. On one side of this room there are books suffered brief psychosomatic symptoms from tran- on Darwin and Victorian times and on the other sient mental stresses, and as an adult he suffered side there are books on Freud and psychiatry. protracted psychosomatic illness mainly from PHE: Of which of your works are you working on his controversial theory of evolution. most proud? When his theory was accepted and he stopped working on it, his illness became better. While his RC: To Be an Invalid: The Illness of physical symptoms were mainly flatulence, vomit- Charles Darwin and "Charles Darwin’s ing, and eczema, he also had a variety of other psy- ‘Insufferable Grief’" (Free Associations, 9, 1987, chiatric symptoms -- obsessions, anxieties, and de- pp. 7-44). Both delineated important but neglected pressions -- and psychosomatic symptoms -- head- areas in Darwin’s biography. “Darwin’s ‘Insuf- aches, cardiac palpitations, trembling, and altered ferable Grief’” recounted Darwin’s grief over the sensations. I also stressed that with the absence of death of his daughter Annie -- the most emotional current methods of diagnosis, much about the na- event in his life. It was a pioneering work and has ture of his illness remains uncertain. My book led to the recent, much more extended study of filled a gap, and was very well received by other Darwin and his daughter, Annie’s Box (Darwin, His Daughter and Human Evolution is the title of Darwin scholars. the American edition) by Randal Keynes. Now I am working on a second edition of the book. It is really a new book that incorporates There are two other articles I’d like to men- the great amount of new primary source informa- tion. “‘Confessing a Murder’: Darwin’s First Reve- tion on Darwin -- published and unpublished -- that lations about Transmutation” (Isis, 77, 1986, pp. 9- Page 120 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 has become available since 1977. In it I will de- biography of Darwin I have some disagreements lineate more fully the clinical nature of Darwin’s with.) Two scholars were very interested in dis- symptoms and their causation. I will also raise the cussing Darwin’s illness with me -- both obtained possibility of arrested Chagas’ disease of the stom- copies of my book on the illness but were not inter- ach, which can lead to all sorts of stomach disor- ested in psychobiography. Several scholars are ders, making Darwin more sensitive to psychologi- adverse to any psychological explanation and want cal stress. The result will be a more precise picture to remember Darwin for his ideas, not personality. of Darwin’s illness and a more intimate portrait of All of these scholars have greatly aided me in dif- Darwin the man. ferent ways. As an appendix to it, I am including Dar- All this work makes me more aware of win’s “Diary of Health” which was a unique daily Darwin as a personality in this room [motioning to diary that he kept from 1849-1855, in which he put his Darwin books]. I like to know his manner, his down his symptoms, and for several years his main attentiveness in talking to another person, the nice- treatment of hydropathy (treating illness by exter- ness and sweetness of his disposition, and the ani- nal douching with cold water) and how it affected mated way he could sometimes talk about topics him. The “Diary of Health” is a unique medical when his whole face would light up. In various and psychological document that has never been ways I have found that my own behaviors carry transcribed. [A photocopy of the original manu- some touches of Darwin. You tell me how my face script is shown.] often lights up in individual conversation. I write Together with the Darwin biographer Jim on the backs of old manuscripts the way he did and Moore, I hope to someday do an annotated edition I annotate books in his manner, listing the annota- of Darwin’s autobiography. It would be along the tions on the book’s front page. lines of the annotated autobiography of Benjamin PHE: [returning the photocopy of the Franklin. “Diary”] That “Diary of Health” manuscript is Now that I am in my 70s, I am interested in something! There are all these abbreviations, so what it was like for Darwin in his latter years. I you really have to be a Darwin scholar to know might want to publish something on them, based this. upon the approach of Daniel Levinson’s Seasons of RC: The main thing is the "FLT." It stands a Man’s Life (1978). Levinson stopped at age 65 for flatulence, that’s his main symptom. and his approach needs to be taken to the latter PHE: How did he feel about flatulence? years. Did it trouble him greatly? I sense now that Darwin studies are bur- RC: Enormously. It bothered him in a geoning more than ever. His complete correspon- number of ways. Sometimes the pain was so se- dence is being published and the second part of a vere that it interrupted his work. He said that when two-volume biography is coming out soon. An he was writing The Origin of Species, because of important biography of Darwin the botanist is in the pressures of writing, he was never free from the making -- it includes insight into some of the flatulence; he had it all the time. It was embarrass- areas of his greatest creativity. When I correspond ing because it would frequently lead to eructations, with other Darwin scholars and they ask me some- or belching, and that would be embarrassing if he thing, I really extend myself and do work for them was with somebody. It was very exhausting and he (which is one reason why I have not written more had this symptom for all of his life. for Clio). Of course, the idea of mutual work al- lows me to ask the same from them. With the special training in surgery and psychiatry that I had, in understanding Darwin’s PHE: How do people in Darwin studies symptoms I always have to bring myself back to respond to psychohistory? Victorian times and understand that they were RC: Scholars in the "Darwin industry” I really so ignorant of disease. They didn’t know have known or corresponded with, fall into three about bacteria; it was just during Darwin’s lifetime groups regarding the use of psychological insights. that chloroform anesthesia was invented; and the Four scholars have used psychological insights in medical exam was next to nothing. A doctor lis- their work, endorse the concept of psychohistory, tened to the patient, took a history, checked his and have strongly supported my work. (I never pulse, maybe listened to his lungs -- and that was had any contact with John Bowlby whose psycho- it. One major factor in Victorian times that we September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 121 don’t have now was the depressive weight of relig- say.” (Autobiography, p. 22) I think this early ex- ion. That caused Darwin to suffer feelings of guilt ample of his being “dogged” and opposing a per- and he adapted to it in many ways. This point is son’s command to him is important. not original with me -- the Darwin scholar Jim PHE: I think you are right to emphasis this Moore has shown it. In his life at Down, in many point. I think it was crucial to his being able to ways he took on the identity of a “squarson” -- a stay with his mission. Dogged, to me, implies not squire and a country parson. He took on the duties an open defiance but crouching down like a dog, a of a clergyman because he understood them well, passive-aggressive type of defiance which seems to having trained to be a clergyman. fit his character because he so wanted to please. PHE: Can you give some examples of RC: His early disobedience partly accounts what duties he would exercise at Down? How for his adult trait of defiance in support of unpopu- many years was he there? lar ideas. RC: He was at Down for his last 40 years, PHE: In teaching Darwin, I have always 1842-1882, most of his adult life. (He died at the told my students that one of the keys to his drive to age of 72.) He became friends with one of the success, as well as to his conflict over success as a clergymen there, who would ask his advice on naturalist, was Charles’ disproving his father’s various problems in the village. He contributed to statement and prophecy: “’You care for nothing the Down school, served as a magistrate viewing but shooting, dogs, and rat-catching, and you will legal cases, and formed various clubs, such as the be a disgrace to yourself and all your fam- Down Friendly Club in which he advised people ily.’” (Autobiography, p. 28) on how to look for medical treatment and how to save their money to assure themselves a decent RC: I think that is very important. That burial. He contributed to any local charity. As he was a momentary outburst of his father but the made more money from his books and his invest- general attitude that the father and sisters had to- ments, he became a philanthropist like his father. ward him was that he was “a very ordinary boy.” One of Darwin’s strongest characteristics was his There were many philanthropies that Dar- perseverance. Behind that perseverance must have win supported. They are very interesting in what been a mixture of anger and defiance: the feeling they show about Darwin the de facto clergyman. that “I am not an ordinary boy.” But behind that He gave to Christian missionary societies in Africa defiance was the feeling that deep down he was and Tierra del Fuego steadily, throughout his life. ordinary, that he was ugly, that he had bunions, Darwin was a great believer in the civilizing ef- and that he was looked on as stupid. “I will show fects of Christianity and the work of Christian mis- them!” And he did in his own quiet way. sionaries. Also, he would always give sums of money to people he knew who were in financial PHE: In listening to your descriptions of difficulties when they wrote to them. He gave par- Darwin in relationship to his father, I keep coming ticularly to needy scientists. When a German sci- back to the many similarities you have with him. entist in Brazil suffered losses from a flood, Dar- For example, you also deviated from the career win gave him a large sum of money. plans of your father, as Darwin did when he failed to be either a doctor or clergyman, when you left PHE: What is the importance of childhood surgery for psychiatry and scholarship. Like Dar- to psychohistory? win you are a non-believer who is quite tolerant of RC: It is important but it is not always the belief or non-belief of others. Like him, you easy to locate the child in the adult. Darwin is an prefer one to one conversations and relationships to example. John Bowlby argued that Darwin’s fail- group relations and discussions. ure to mourn the death of his mother when he was RC: Yes, you are right on all three counts. eight influenced his later illness. I think this is You know quite a bit about me through our friend- questionable. After eight, Darwin was cared for by ship and the Psychohistory Forum sessions on the his loving sisters who were mother surrogates. I motivations and fathers of psychohistorians at think a more evident impact on the adult is his which we both presented in the 1980s and 1990s. early defiance. He wrote that before he entered a room with his sister Caroline, he said to himself, PHE: Some Forum researchers have been “‘What will she blame me for now?’ and I made struggling with the issue of identification with a myself dogged so as not to care what she might particular parent and achievement. Page 122 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

Back Issues Wanted new anti-psychotic drugs to successfully treat psy- chotics (some with hallucinations); 4) successfully The Makers of Psychohistory Research and treating cases of panic-disorder with new Prozac- Publication Project of the Psychohistory Forum type medicines; 5) learning to treat borderline pa- is searching for copies of the Newsletter of the tients with different modalities of psychotherapy Group for the Use of Psychology in History and medications, and, when necessary, hospitaliz- (GUPH) and some early issues of The Psycho- history Review. Please contact Paul H. Elovitz ing them for brief periods to prevent self- at (201) 891-7486 or . mutilation and suicide; and 6) treating foreign stu- dents which involved learning something of their culture. RC: I got different things from each par- My work at Columbia with graduate stu- ent. While identifying with my mother’s intellec- dents leads me to want to publish on these marvel- tualism, in deciding to rewrite To Be an Invalid I ous, bright, aspiring, grad students at their stage of was influenced by my father’s interest in physical life. The main difficulty in continuing therapy symptoms and the very tough standards he set for with them is that they are impecunious. his operations, which I believe I carry over to my standards in scholarly writing. For a man, the fa- PHE: You are such a reserved, private, ther is the main source of manly achievement. scholarly man, who was raised in a generation when sex was not that talked about in “polite” soci- PHE: In your experience, are high achiev- ety, that I am somewhat puzzled by your being a ers more identified with their fathers? sex therapist. RC: The dozen or so graduate students I RC: Training in sex therapy and helping have known who have achieved excellence in their others with their sexual issues allowed me to ex- careers all had high-achieving fathers. Many stu- plore an area that I was not that comfortable with dents with high-achieving fathers were inhibited by in my earlier life, mostly because I did not have a the scale of their father’s success or, more fre- lot of close contact with teenage boys and young quently, had too many conflicts about their suc- men who spoke freely about sexuality. My own cess. Students from economically poor and disad- analysis had freed me from many preconceptions vantaged homes suffered from absence of fathers and inhibitions. or from fathers who lacked achievements. Fathers who were unsuccessful but had fantasies of success PHE: What are your observations on were sometimes inspirations to their sons to suc- women's sexuality issues over three decades? ceed, especially in cases of a loving father. RC: A convenient starting point for the PHE: What are some trends in graduate many dramatic changes that have occurred are the students' psychodynamics you have observed over two books of Masters and Johnson -- Human Sex- the four decades of your career working with ual Response (1966) and Human Sexual Dysfunc- them? tion (1971) -- which showed the great orgasmic potential of women (and discredited Freud's theory RC: A watershed in my work with Colum- of clitoral and vaginal orgasms). It brought psy- bia University graduate students was the student chology into sexual dysfunctions (Masters and radicalism of the 1960s, which prompted students Johnson’s “conjoint therapy” with both a female to lead a more autonomous campus life. Some stu- and a male therapist) showing that orgasmic dys- dents then sought to define themselves better by functions can be treated. The advent of the birth entering psychotherapy; other students turned away control pill and the vibrator encouraged women to from therapy by entering groups of women, blacks, enjoy their sexuality. I was often impressed when or gays; and some combined therapy with being in women, who had never had an orgasm, had their a group. In this trend of increased freedom, there first orgasm with a vibrator, and how this first or- were many psychological issues and different gasm increased in a lasting way their feelings of kinds of psychotherapy, including: l) issues of self-esteem. Some women, who cannot have or- identity involving problems of intimacy with an- gasms, have still learned to enjoy having sex be- other person and of career that often led to years of cause of the feelings of intimacy with their partner long-term psychotherapy (Erik Erikson was the that it gives them. Knowledge of sex has led to one psychotherapist who was something of a hero some women doing graduate work in aspects of to graduate students); 2) new techniques of short- sex in history. With all this advancement in sexu- term psychotherapy for some students; 3) using September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 123 ality it is still necessary, when doing psychother- dislocated by Israel. Not one of them can accept apy with women, to search out underlying, some- Israel. You cannot give them the Western answer: times unconscious, reservations about sex, often that it is a tragedy like the struggles in Troy be- from parental attitudes or religious precepts. tween Achilles and Hector. They will not accept PHE: How do you explain the growth and that. It is a wrong. To them the creation of Israel psychology of fundamentalism? is a wrong that they must right. They cannot ac- cept it. The absence of Arab leaders willing to at- RC: Fundamentalism is an attempt to deny tempt compromise is distressing. It looks like un- anxieties and uncertainties by reaching for reli- ending war and terror for the near future. gious certainty. I saw several fundamentalists in my work at Columbia. They were suffering from PHE: I want to conclude with the com- some of the somatic manifestations of depression ment that I think your selection of Charles Darwin such as insomnia, anorexia, and constipation, and as the subject for your medical and psycho- had difficulty in breathing. They refused any sort biographical research was a wonderful choice for of personality examinations and only wanted medi- both you and for Darwin scholarship. cation. Most did well on the newer antidepressants. RC: Here I am in my old age and Darwin I also saw some ex-fundamentalists who had lost keeps me young. their faith and suffered from severe anxiety. They Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, the Editor of this were helped by insight therapy -- uncovering child- publication, has worked closely with Dr. Colp hood parental influences. since this Darwin scholar became one of the early PHE: What are your thoughts on the psy- members of the Psychohistory Forum nearly two chology and psychodynamics of violence in our decades ago.  world? RC: Of the many different areas where Bulletin Board violence is present I have been especially inter- The next Psychohistory Forum WORK- ested in the Balkans -- the breakup of the former IN-PROGRESS SATURDAY SEMINAR will be Yugoslavia -- and the chronic, endemic nature of on September 21, 2002, when Paul H. Elovitz the violence. More psychological studies on na- (Ramapo College), will present “Psychoanalytic tionalism are needed. In Trotsky’s In Defense of Approaches to the American Presidency.” On Terrorism, he argues that the ruling class does not November 9, 2002, Mary Coleman (Emeritus, want to leave so you have to force it to leave. Georgetown University School of Medicine) will PHE: As we meet here in New York City present, “Some Thoughts on Violence and War,” two days after the terrible destruction of the World a chapter from her forthcoming book on the origins Trade Center, how do you understand the psychol- of war. Forum members are reminded that our pro- ogy of terrorism in our world? gram consists of five or six seminars normally held in mid-September, early November, late January, RC: There are different forms of terrorism. early March, and once or twice in April. Specific Marxist ideologies of class war explain the Lenin- Trotsky “Red Terror” of 1918-1921 and the terror Announcement & Call for Volunteers of Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. There is the present- Robert Quackenbush, PhD, counselor, teacher, day Arab-Israeli terror with its complex causes in- and author/illustrator of numerous books for chil- cluding the expulsion of Arabs by Israelis and the dren, has accepted the invitation of the Branton- occupation of their lands. (There is the tendency Peale Institute and Counseling Center, in Manhat- for Israel to become apartheid state.) There is the tan, to direct the Liberty Avenue Program. The Muslim ideology of terror, America as the “Great program’s purpose is to help young people to dis- Satan,” which was just manifested in the terror we cover ways of coping and resolving emotional con- saw here earlier this week. As we learn about these flicts with the events of 9/11 through art, writing, music, and dance. Every Saturday, professionals in suicide bombers, I see the suicide as secondary to the arts will teach and help; also at hand will be a the belief in the ideology. They are like soldiers psychiatrist as well as therapists. In addition, train- who accept death as part of the job. ing programs for adults who work with young peo- Behind Arab feelings towards the West and ple will be offered. Professionals in the arts and Israel is the deep wound of displacement. I have clinicians are invited to participate. Contact Robert had many contacts with Arab graduate students and Quackenbush, PhD, P.O. Box 20651, New York, Western-educated Arabs who feel they have been NY 10021-0072, . Page 124 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 dates, presenters, papers, and locations are an- and to Tim Hamilton for transcribing the Colp in- nounced by mail, e-mail, and sometimes this Bulle- terview.  Call for Papers tin Board. CONFERENCES: The deadline for the submission of paper proposals has been ex- Psychology of the Arab-Israeli Con- tended to September 15 for the October 25-27, flict & Terrorism in the Middle East 2002, Association for the Psychoanalysis of Cul- Special Theme Issue ture and Society (APCS) conference on emotions December 2002 at the University of Pennsylvania. Contact Prof. Charles Shepherdson at . Some possible approaches include: The Erikson Institute of the Austin Riggs Center  The Nature and Causes of Terrorism: presents “Dancing With Death” on psychodynamic Comparative Middle Eastern Examples work with self-destructive and suicidal patients on  Applying Psychodynamic Concepts to the October 5-6, 2002. Montague Ullman will be of- Israeli-Palestinian Struggle fering a Leadership Training Workshop in group  Factual, Historical Survey of Israeli- dream work on October 4-6, 2002, in Ardsley, Palestinian Relations New York. For information call (914) 693-0156.  Finding Chosen Traumas and Chosen Glo- Herbert Barry, Paul Elovitz, Avner Falk, Au- brey Immelman, and Nancy Kobrin were among ries in Israeli and Palestinian Histories the presenters at the International Society for Po-  Identification and Ethnic Rituals in Large litical Psychology (ISPP) Berlin July 16-19, Groups 2002, conference. Presenters at the International  Comparative Suffering and Victimization: Psychohistorical Association (IPA) June 5-7, Violence in the Name of Suffering 2002, conference at New York University in-  Getting Beneath & Beyond Recrimination cluded: Sander Breiner, Lloyd deMause, Daniel  The Relationship Between Childrearing Dervin, Paul Elovitz, Irene Javors, Anie Kalay- Practices and Political Behavior jian, Nancy Kobrin, Henry Lawton, David  Women in Palestinian Society and the Inti- Lotto, Denis O’Keefe, Robert Rousselle, How- fada ard Stein, Charles Strozier, and Jacques Szaluta. NEWS OF MEMBERS: Best wishes to  Unconscious Sadomasochistic Elements Vivian Rosenberg on her retirement from Drexel  Mutual Self-destructive Behavior of Is- University, and to David Beisel and Sheila Jar- raelis and Palestinians dine on their new home. OUR THANKS: To our  Psychobiographical Studies of Arafat, Ba- members and subscribers for the support that rak, Sharon, and Other Leaders makes Clio’s Psyche possible. To Benefactors  The Changing Identity of Arab Israelis Herbert Barry, Andrew Brink, Ralph Colp, and  Leader-Follower Dynamics Mary Lambert; Patrons Mary Coleman, Jay Gonen,  Fundamentalist Jews and Muslims Peter Petschauer, H. John Rogers, and Jacques  Internecine Clashes -- Violence Against Szaluta; Supporting Members Fred Alford, Ru- One's Own dolph Binion, Peter Loewenberg, David Lotto, and Jacqueline Paulson; and Members Sue Adrion,  Cycles of Violence and Exhaustion, War Mike Britton, Peggy McLaughlin, Ruth Meyer, and Peace, Conflict and Resolution Vivian Rosenberg, Connalee and Lee Shneidman,  Journeys to Peace: Crossing the Psycho- Richard Weiss, and Isaac Zieman. Our thanks for logical Borders to Conflict Resolutions thought-provoking materials to Fred Alford, Jorge  Implications of the Israeli-Palestinian Amaro, James Anderson, Robert Anderson, Joe Dispute for the U.S. War on Terrorism Barnhart, Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, Christopher  Changing Views of Israel and the Pales- Burris, Ralph Colp, Dereck Daschke, Dan Dervin, tinians in Europe and America Matthew Evans, Kevin Gillespie, James Gollnick, Joanne Greer, Joseph Guido, Geoffrey Hutchinson,  Anti-Zionism as Anti-Semitism? Case Carol Jeunnette, Nancy Kobrin, Anthony Mas- Studies simini, Calvin Mercer, Michael Nielsen, Daniel  Book Reviews, for example, of Sharon’s O’Connell, Kathy Overturf, Thomas Plante, Ken Warrior Rasmussen, Norman Simms, and Neva Specht. 500-1500 words, due October 1 Our appreciation to Monika Giacoppe, Michael Contact Paul Elovitz, Editor Nielsen, and Peter Petschauer for editorial advice and assistance, to Vikki Walsh for proofreading, September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 125

Page 126 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 127 Page 128 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 129 Page 130 Clio’s Psyche September 2002 September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 131

In Memoriam: Melvin Kalfus (1931-2002) Paul H. Elovitz Ramapo College and the Psychohistory Forum Mel Kalfus, psychobiographer, psy- chohistorian, professor of history, institution builder, business executive, and Jewish intel- lectual, died on February 24, 2002, a week short of his 71st birthday, of congestive heart failure after a lifetime of struggling to main- tain his health. He left behind a legacy of scholarship (published and unpublished) and courage. Courage in the face of illness and death was a most outstanding characteristic of this talented scholar. Shortly after his birth in a Manhattan hospital he contracted whooping (Continued on page 49)

Letter to the Editor

Praise for Clio's Psyche “I like to think the [Psychohistory] Review has been rein- carnated in Clio’s Psyche!” Charles Strozier as quoted in “A Conversation with Charles B. Strozier on Heinz Kohut,” (Clio’s Psyche, Vol. 8 No. 2, September 2001, p. 90). “Paul -- It's up to you now -- good luck with Clio. Larry” was a hand written note on the May 1, 1999, letter from Larry Shiner, Editor of The Psychohistory Review, advis- ing that the Review was ceasing publication. (Published with permission)

November 8, 2002, Psychohistory Forum Meeting on "Violence and War" Page 132 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

Comments on the March Special Issue Call for Papers on Terrorism and "Home" Psychoanalysis and

[Editor’s Note: We do not normally keep Religious Experience track of comments on Clio’s Psyche by Special Theme Issue readers. However, after the first half dozen September 2002 e-mail or in-person remarks on our March Some possible approaches include: issue, we kept a record of the next 10 which  Personal Accounts on How Your Perspec- are listed below.] tives on Religion Have Been Changed by Psychoanalysis  Reconsidering Classic Thinkers Such as  “The recent issue of Clio’s Psyche was indeed great, especially [the article on] Freud and Weston LeBarre mourning … superb.” -A distinguished  Religious Development in Childhood eastern professor  Religious Dreams and the Use of Dreams by Religious Leaders  Terror in the Name of God (e.g., anti- abortionism, jihad)  Sexual Abuse of Children by Priests  Psychobiographic Sketches of Modern Preachers, Prophets, Messiahs (e.g., Robertson, Farrakhan, Koresh) 500-1500 words, due June 15 Contact Bob Lentz, Associate Editor

Call for Papers Professor Charles Strozier recently established Psychoanalysis and a new Center on Terrorism and Public Safety Religious Experience at John Jay College, CUNY. The purpose of the Special Theme Issue, September 2002 Center is to study terrorism in ways that are fa- Some possible approaches include: miliar and appropriate for a university but also to  Personal Accounts on How Your Perspec- search for concrete applications of that research tives on Religion Have Been Changed by to make the world a safer place. Professor Psychoanalysis Strozier's own particular area of research is a  Religious Dreams and the Use of Dreams psychological study of the World Trade Center by Religious Leaders Disaster through interviews with witnesses and  Terror in the Name of God (e.g., anti- survivors; his special concern is with the apoca- abortionism, jihad) lyptic meanings of the disaster. The Center on  Sexual Abuse of Children by Priests Terrorism, in other words, seeks to blend schol-  Psychobiographic Sketches of Modern arship and commitment in the context of trau- Preachers, Prophets, Messiahs matic historical memory. Professor Strozier may 500-1500 words, due June 15 be contacted at . Contact Bob Lentz, September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 133

Call for Papers September 11 and the Psychology of Terrorism Special Theme Issue March, 2002 Some possible approaches include:  Initial Emotions: Shock, Disbelief, Sad- ness, Anger, Hate, Humiliation, Victimiza- tion, and Frustration: Case Studies  Fears, Fantasies, and Realities of Anthrax, Book Review Bio-Terrorism, and Nuclear Terrorism  Group Feelings of Victimization and Enti- tlement in the Face of Trauma  The Power of Symbols: Blood (Shed and There are no negatives in the unconscious. Donated) and Flags in the Face of Trauma  The Power of Altruism in the Face of Dan- ger: The Psychology of Fireman and Other Relief Workers Melvin Kalfus (1931-Feb. 24, 2002)  The Psychological Defense Mechanisms of Israelis and Others in Facing Terrorism Mel Kalfus died of heart failure after a long struggle to maintain his health. There will be an  Bush’s Personalizing the Hydra-Headed extensive obituary in the next issue of Clio's Monster of Terrorism Psyche. We urge friends and colleagues to send  The Psychobiography of Osama bin Laden us their memories of this valued colleague, and Various Terrorists friend, and member of the Psychohistory Fo-  Islamic Fundamentalism: America as the rum's Advisory Council. We wish to express our Great Satan condolences to his wife Alma and their children.  Why Many People Hate the U.S.  Presidents Bush as War Leaders  Psychohistorical Perspectives on Terror- "Home" Symposium ism: Case Studies  The Sense of Obligation to Avenge the Dead: Turning Anger into Vengeance  Cycles of Terrorism, Retaliation, and Vio- lence CFP: Psychoanalysis and Religious Experi-  Denial and Disbelief in Facing Terrorism: ence - Sept. 2002 - See page 225 Fortress America and "It Can't Happen Here"  Why Intelligence and Security Were Neg- Call for Nominations: Halpern Award ligent or Ignored for the  Security, the Cloak of Secrecy, and the Best Psychohistorical Idea Open Society in a  Effects on America's Children Book, Article, or Internet Site  Nightmares, Dreams, and Daydreams of Contact Paul H. Elovitz, . the Attack  Mourning and Closure  Survivorship and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Call for Papers: Children and Childhood - 500-1500 words, due January 15 June 2002 - See page 224 Contact Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, Editor Page 134 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

Forthcoming Call for Papers Book Review in Clio's Children and Childhood Psyche Special Theme Issue June 2002  Among the al- Some possible approaches include: ready submitted  Changing Childhood articles on "The Psychology of  What Is It Like to Grow Up in the Modern Terrorism, World? Tragedy,  Growing Up With a Single Parent, With an Group Immigrant Parent, As a Refugee Mourning, Bio-  The Effects of Television or Video Games Terrorism, and on Children the War on  Why American Students See High School Terrorism" are: as a Type of Prison  "Apocalypse  Sonograms as a Prelude to Female Fetus- Now" cide (China, India, America, etc.)  "A Nation  The Effects of Custody Disputes Mourns"  Children of Divorce  "Terror Vic-  Children in the Courts tims"  Children and Childhood Through the Ages  "Enemy Im- Inform colleagues of our March, ages After 9-  Are Children Better or Worse Off in the 11" Modern World? 2002, Psychology of Terror Special  "Pearl Har-  Cross-Cultural Childhood Comparisons Issue. bor & World 500-1500 words, due April 15 Contact Paul Elovitz, PhD, Editor

Call for Papers Wanted: In-depth Insight during Wartime Children and Childhood in The See call for papers on page 162. 21st Century June, 2002 500-1500 words, due April 15 Contact Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, Editor Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting Saturday, January 26, 2002

CFP: Psychoanalysis and Religious Experi- Eli Sagan ence - Sept. 2002 - See page 225 "The Great Promise and Anxiety of Modernity" There are no negatives in the unconscious.

Nominate a graduate student or psychoanalytic Proposals for Psychohistory Forum Work-in- candidate for a Young Scholar Award Mem- Progress Seminars are welcomed. Contact Paul bership & Subscription. Contact Paul H. H. Elovitz, PhD, Editor, at Elovitz, PhD, Editor, at . September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 135

Call for Papers Call for Papers Psychobiography Psychobiography Special Theme Issue Special Theme Issue December, 2001 December, 2001 Some possible approaches include: Some possible approaches in- clude:  Original psychobiographical vignettes  Original psychobiographical  Psychobiography-focused mini- vignettes interview with distinguished psycho-  Symposium of the pros and biographers such as George, Mack, cons of Erikson's Young Man McAdams, Solomon, Strouse, and Luther Tucker  Your experience with psycho-  Symposium on Erikson's Young Man Luther biography  Recent developments in the  Your experience in researching, writing, field and publishing psychobiography  Issues in doing psychobiogra-  Developments in psychobiography in the phy: last 15 years  pathology and creativity  Issues in doing psychobiography:  the use of empathy  pathology and creativity  evidence and interpretation,  the use of em- reconstruction, and reduction- pathy ism Call for Papers  evidence and  countertransference interpretation, Children and Childhood in  assessing childhood's influence reconstruction,  interpreting dreams The 21st Century and reductionism  assessing living individuals Special Theme Issue  countertrans- March, 2002 ference  alternative approaches 500-1500 words, due January 15  assessing child-  Reviews / review essays Contact Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, Editor hood's influence  interpreting dreams  assessing living individuals  alternative approaches  Reviews / review essays of psycho- biographies by others  Woman's (or Feminist) psychobiogra- phy The Best of  Your choice(s) for exemplary psycho- Clio's Psyche - biography(ies) 1994-2001  Oral history as psychobiography  Film and docudrama psychobiographies New for 2001. This 132-page Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting collection of many of the best and most popular articles from 1994 to the Saturday, September 29, 2001 September, 2001, issue is now available for only $25 a copy. Britton, Felder, and Freund It will be distributed free to Members "Freud, Architecture, and renewing at the Supporting level and above Urban Planning" Page 136 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

Call for Papers Invitation to Join Join the Psychohistory Forum as a Research PsychoGeography Associate to be on the cutting edge of the Special Theme Issue development of new psychosocial knowledge. For information, e-mail Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, Director, at March, 2001 or call him at (201) 891-7486. "PsychoGeography is the study of human pro- jections upon geographic space and the psychic interaction between people and geogra- phy" (Elovitz). It investigates "how issues, ex- periences, and processes that result from grow- Saturday, November ing up in a male or female body become sym- bolized and played out in the wider social and Call for Papers Psychohistory Foru

natural worlds" (Stein and Niederland). Psychologi- Some possible approaches: Psychoanalysts Co cal Uses of  The gender of geography (e.g., Creative Pro "motherlands" and "fatherlands") Law  Psychogeography of rivers, islands, moun- Special Theme Issue tains, etc. June, 2001  Borders and borderland symbolism Possible approaches:  Cities, states, and countries as symbols of  The diffusion of law into every aspect of life (i.e., "the legalization of life") Call for Nominations  Emotional uses of law (e.g., legal expres- Halpern Award for the sion of anger, law as intimidation) Best Psychohistorical Idea in a Group Psychohistory Book, Article, or Internet Site Contact Paul H. Elovitz, . Symposium

 Jury psychology  Law as a system of gridlock  Insanity and the law Presidential Election 2000

Call for Participants Book Reviews Role ofCall Law for Papers in Society Psychohistory Forum Psycho-Seminar Halpern Award biography There are no negatives in the The Psychohistory ForumSaturday, has granted January a Sidney 27, 2001, NYC unconscious. Halpern Award to BobSeeking Lentz, participantsFounding Asso- with a legal backgroundof ciate Editor of Clio's Psycheand a, forstrong Outstanding psychodynamic Ralph interest. Work in Psychohistorical Editing. ***** Nader Call for Papers Special Crime andTheme Punishment Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting SpecialMarch, Theme 2001 Issue Saturday, January 27, 2001 Possible approaches:September, 2001 Jay Gonen, Mary Coleman, et al  Psychodynamics500-1500 words, and childhooddue July 10 "Role of Law in Society" Contact Nader's Paul appeal Elovitz, to intellectuals and Inde- September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 137

Next Psychohistory Forum Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting Meeting Saturday, March 31, 2001 Saturday, September 15, 2001

David Lotto Britton, Felder, and Freund "Freud's Struggle With Misogyny: An Exploration of Homosexuality and Guilt in "Freud, Architecture, and the Dream of Irma's Injection" Urban Planning" r 10, 2001 Call for Papers Call for Papers m Meeting Psychology and Law Crime, Punishment, and onfront the Special Theme Issue Incarceration ocess June, 2001 Special Theme Issue Possible approaches: September, 2001  The diffusion of law into every aspect of 500-1500 words, due July 10 life (i.e., "the legalization of life") Contact Paul Elovitz,  Emotional uses of law (e.g., legal expres- sion of anger, law as intimidation)  Jury psychology  Law as a system of gridlock Call for Nominations  Insanity and the law  Dysfunctional family courts Halpern Award  Legal rights of children for the  The law and individual freedom Best Psychohistorical Idea in a  Humor in the law and lawyer jokes Book, Article, or 500-1500 words, due April 10 Internet Site Contact Paul Elovitz, Contact Paul Elovitz,

Call for CORST Grant Applications The Committee on Research and Special Training (CORST) of the American Psychoanalytic Association announces an American Psychoanalytic Foundation research training grant of $10,000 for CORST candidates (full-time academic scholar-teachers) who have been accepted or are currently in training in an American Psychoanalytic Association Institute. The purpose of the grant is to help de- fray the costs of psychoanalytic training. Payments will be made over three years of training in install- ments of $3500, $3500, and $3000 directly to the candidate. The application is: a) A brief statement of 1000 words about the research proposed, b) A letter from a scholar in the field (e.g., department chair, colleague, or dissertation advisor) attesting to the validity and significance of the research, c) A letter of endorsement by the Education Director of the institute certifying the candidate is in, or has been accepted for, full clinical psychoanalytic training at an institute of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and d) An up-to-date Curriculum Vitae. Applications are to be submitted in three (3) copies by April 1, 2001, to Professor Paul Schwaber, 258 Bradley Street, New Haven, CT 06511. Page 138 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

The Psychol- Call for Papers ogy of The Psychology of Crime, Punishment, and Incarceration Special Theme Issue September, 2001 Some possible approaches include:  Emotion in the courtroom Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting  Jury psychology  Children and women in prison Saturday, September  Immigrants and the INS 15, 2001  The crime of punishment  Comparative international studies Britton, Felder, and  Case studies  Crime and punishment on TV  How cameras change the courtroom The Best of Clio's dynamics Psyche 500-1500 words, due July 10 Contact Paul Elovitz, Editor This 93-page collection of many of the best and most popular articles from 1994 to the Call for Papers September, 1999, issue is available for $20 a copy. It will be distributed free to Members Our Litigious Society Special Theme Issue March, 2001 Possible approaches:  Psychodynamics

See Calls for Papers on pages 164 & 165: The Makers-of-Psychohistory Research Project PsychoGeography To write the history of psychohistory, the Forum is interviewing the founders of our field to create Psychobiography of Ralph Nader a record of their challenges and accomplishments. It welcomes participants who will help identify, interview, Psychological Uses of Law and publish accounts of the founding of psychohistory. Crime and Punishment Contact Paul H. Elovitz, .

Saturday, November 10, 2001 Psychohistory Forum Meeting The Best of Clio's Psyche This 93-page collection of many of the Psychoanalysts Confront the best and most popular articles from 1994 to the Creative Process September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 139

Clio's Psyche of Volkan Honored the Psychohistory In honor of the retirement of Vamik Forum Volkan and the work of the Center he created, Call for Papers the University of Virginia Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction (CSMHI) con-  Violence in ducted a major conference entitled "Identity, American Life and Mass Mur-Mourning and Psychopolitical Processes" on der as Disguised Sui- cide May 25-26. The featured presentations and  The Future discussions were on the human processes that of Psychoanalysis in the Third lead to ethnic tension, conflict resolution, and Millennium (June, 2000) the healing process. The speakers came from several disciplines -- psychoanalysis, psychia-  Assessing try, psychology, political science, history, and Apocalypticism and Millennial-anthropology -- and hail from the U.S and ism Around the Year 2000 abroad. Peter Loewenberg of UCLA pre-  Psycho- sented "The Psychodynamics of a Creative In- Geography stitution: The Bauhaus, Weimar, Dessau, Ber-  Election lin, 1919-1933" and Howard Stein of the Uni- 2000: Psycho- biographies versity of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, of Bradley, Bush, Gore, "Mourning and Society: A Study in the History McCain, Buchanan, et al and Philosophy of Science."  The Psy-Volkan, who will retire later this year chology of Incarcera- tion and after 38 years on the University of Virginia Crime  Legalizing staff, is currently the director of the CSMHI Life: Our Litigious Society and a former president of the International So- ciety of Political Psychology (ISPP). Volkan  Psychobiog- founded CSMHI in 1987 as an interdisciplinary raphy  Manias and center to specialize in conflict resolution and Depressions in Eco- nomics and peace work, primarily in Eastern Europe and Society subsequently the newly independent countries  The Role of from the former Soviet Union. He has devel- the Participant Ob- server in oped theories for caring for severely trauma- Psychohistory  Psychohis-tized populations in the wake of ethnic tension. torical Perspectives "At the Center, we study preventive medicine for ethnic issues. In that sense, the Center is very unique," Volkan said. "When large groups are in conflict, people die, they be- November, 2001 come refugees, they lose homes and Call for CORST their loved ones, and so they have to Grant Applica- Psychohistory Forum Meeting mourn. Without mourning, they can-

In conjunction with the National Association for not adjust. Ethnic identity is related tions the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP) to mourning. When people do not The Committee on Re- "Psychoanalysts Confront the Nature mourn, their identity is different." search and Special and Process of Creativity" The Center is on the forefront of Training (CORST) of studies in large-group dynamics and the American Psycho- applies a growing theoretical and analytic Association announces an American field-proven base of knowledge of issues such Psychoanalytic Foun- dation research training as ethnic tension, racism, national identity, ter- grant of $10,000 for CORST candidates (full-rorism, societal trauma, leader-follower rela- time academic scholar- teachers) who have been tionships and other aspects of national and in- accepted or are cur- rently in training in an ternational conflict. American Psychoana- lytic Association Insti-For further information on Dr. Volkan tute. The purpose of and the Center for the Study of Mind and Hu- Page 140 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

Clio's Psyche of the Psychohistory Forum Call for Papers

 Violence in American Life and Mass Murder as Disguised Suicide  Assessing Apocalypticism and Millennialism Around the Year 2000  PsychoGeography  Election 2000: Psychobiographies of Bradley, Bush, Gore, McCain, Bu- Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting chanan, et al  The Psychology of Incarceration and Michael Britton Crime "Countertransference:  Legalizing Life: Our Litigious Society Royal Road Into the Psychology  Psychobiography of the Cold War"  Manias and Depressions in Economics Saturday, September 23, 2000 and Society Contact Paul Elovitz, Editor  The Truth and Reconciliation Commis- See page 51 sion as a Model for Healing  The Processes of Peacemaking and Peacekeeping  The Psychology of America as the World’s Policeman  Entertainment News  Television, Radio, and Media as Object Relations in a Lonely Call for Papers The Psychohistory of

Conspiracy Theories Special Theme Issue December, 2000 Possible approaches:  Psychodynamics and childhood The Best of Clio's Psyche roots of conspiracy theories This 93-page collection of many of the best and most popular articles from 1994 to the  Case studies of conspiracy theo- September, 1999, issue is available for $20 a copy. ries in American history It will be distributed free to Members renewing at the Supporting level and above as well Clio's  Survey of the psychohistorical as Subscribers upon their next two-year renewal. and psychological literature on Psyche Contact the Editor (see page three). conspiracy theories Now on  Film and television treatment of conspiracy theories Contact Bob Lentz, Associate Editor

September 2002 Clio’s Psyche Page 141

Letter to the Editor Dreamwork Resources The Historical Dreamwork Method is available to help the biographer better under- stand the dreams of the subject and other as- pects of psychobiography. Clio's Psyche welcomes papers on historical dreamwork for publication and for presentation at Psychohistory Forum meetings. Con- Call for Papers tact Paul H. Elovitz (see page 51).  Group Psychohistory (December, 2000)  Conspiracy Theories (December, 2000) (See page 100)  PsychoGeography (March, 2001)

 Legalizing Life: Our Litigious Society Book Reviews (2001) Howard F.  The Psychology of Incarceration and Stein Crime (2001) (Editor's Note:  Television as Object Relations We welcome Contact Paul Elovitz, Editor scanned pic- See page 51

Life: Our Litigious Society Contact the Editor (see page 3) Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor

Nader, Political Nightmares, and Invitation to Join Leaders' Morality Join the Psychohistory Forum as a Research Associate to be on the cutting edge of the

Editorial Policies development of new psychosocial knowledge. For information, e-mail Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, Director, at or call him at (201) 891-7486. Call for Papers on The Psychology of Incarceration and Crime Contact the Editor (see page 3) The Best of Clio's Psyche This 93-page collection of many of the best and most popular articles from 1994 to the September, 1999, Psychohistorians probe the "Why" of issue is available for $20 a copy. It will be distributed free to Members culture, current events, history, and renewing at the Supporting level and above as well as society. Subscribers upon their next two-year renewal. Page 142 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

 Letters to the Editor The History of Psychohistory Clio's Psyche's interviews of outstanding psychohistorians (see "An American in Amsterdam: Arthur Mitzman," page 146) have grown into a full-fledged study of the pioneers and history of our field. Psychohistory as an organized field is less than 25 years old, so most of the innovators are available to tell their stories and give their insights. Last March, the Forum formally launched the Makers of the Psychohistorical Paradigm Research Project to systematically gather material to write the history of psychohistory. We welcome memoirs, letters, and manuscripts as well as volunteers to help with the interviewing. People interested in participating should write, call, or e-mail Paul H. Elovitz (see page 119).

Awards and Honors CORST Essay Prize • Professor Janice M. Coco, Art Award History, University of California-Davis, winner of the First Annual American Psychoanalytic Association Com- The Psychohistory Forum has mittee on Research and Special Training (CORST) granted a Sidney Halpern Award of $300 $1,000 essay prize, will present her paper, "Exploring the to Bob Lentz, Founding Associate Editor Frontier from the Inside Out in John Sloan's Nude Stud- of Clio's Psyche, for Outstanding Work in ies," at a free public lecture at 12 noon, Saturday, De- Psychohistorical Editing. cember 20, Jade Room, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City. Sidney Halpern Award for the Best Psychohistorical Idea • The Psychohistory Forum is granting an award of $200 to Michael Hirohama of San Francisco for starting and maintaining the Psychohistory electronic mailing list (see page 98).

Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting

Saturday, January 30, 1999 THE MAKERS OF PSYCHOHISTORY

Charles Strozier RESEARCH PROJECT

To write the history of psychohistory, the Forum is interviewing the founders of our field to create a record of their challenges and accomplishments. It welcomes participants who P Call for Papers s Special Theme Issues Call for Nominations y 1999 and 2000 c Halpern Award h  The Relationship of Academia, Psycho- for the o history, and Psychoanalysis (March, Best Psychohistorical Idea 1999) in a  The Psychology of Legalizing Life Book, Article, or Computer Site [What is this???] This Award may be granted at the level of  Psychogeography Distinguished Scholar, Graduate, or Un- dergraduate.  Meeting the Millenium Contact Paul H. Elovitz, Editor -- see p.

Free Subscription THE MAKERS OF PSYCHOHISTORY For every paid library subscription ($40), RESEARCH PROJECT the person donating or arranging it will receive a year’s subscription to Clio’s Psyche free. Help The Psychohistory Forum is pleased to announce Clio’s Psyche September 2002The Young Psychohistorian 1998/99 Membership Awards Page 143 John Fanton recently received his medical degree and is doing his five year residency in Providence, Rhode Island. Currently, he is at the Children's Hospital, Women and Infants Hospital, and the Butler Psychiatric Hospital. His goal is to become a child maltreatment expert working in the area of Preventive Psychiatry. At the IPA in 1997 he won the Lorenz AwardTo Join for histhe paper Psychohistory on improving parenting List in Colorado. send e-mail with any subject and message to will return from Europe for the occasion. Rather than do a biography of SS General Reinhard Heydrich as originally intended, he is writing on the German protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia under Heydrich's dominance. In the last four years this talented young scholar has been awarded nine fellowships, grants, or scholarships.

Dreamwork Resources The Historical Dreamwork Method is available to help the biographer better under- Call for Nominations stand the dreams of the subject and other as- pects of psychobiography. Clio's Psyche wel- Halpern Award comes papers on historical dreamwork for pub- for the lication and for presentation at Psychohistory Best Psychohistorical Idea Forum meetings. Contact Paul H. Elovitz (see in a page 43). Book, Article, or Computer  Site This Award may be granted at the level  of Distinguished Scholar, Graduate, or Undergraduate. There are no negatives in the

Call for Papers The Best of Clio's Psyche Special Theme Issues This 93-page collection of many of the best 1999 and 2000 and most popular articles from 1994 to the  The Relationship of Academia, Psy- September, 1999, issue is available for $20 a chohistory, and Psychoanalysis copy. (March, 1999) It will be distributed free to Members re- newing at the Supporting level and above as  Our Litigious Society well as Subscribers upon their next two-year  PsychoGeography renewal. Contact the Editor (see page 51).  Meeting the Millennium  Manias and Depressions in Econom- ics and Society Letters to the Editor Contact the Editor at

Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting

Saturday, October 2, 1999 Letters to the Editor on Charles Strozier Clinton-Lewinsky-Starr "Putting the Psychoanalyst on the Couch: A Biography of Heinz Kohut" Page 144 Clio’s Psyche September 2002

 Clio's Psyche of the Psychohistory Book Review Essay Forum Call for Papers Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting Future of Psychohistory and Psychoanalysis in Saturday, January 30, 1999 the Light of the Demise of the Psychohistory Charles Strozier Political Personality and "Putting the Psychoanalyst on the Couch: A Biography of Heinz Kohut" CharacterThe Best of Clio's Psyche The Psychohistory Forum is pleased to announce Additionalthe creation of Articles The Best of Clio's Psyche. Are Requested for the Call for Nominations This 94-page collection of many of the best and mostSeptember popular articles Issue from of 1994 to the for the current issue Clio'sis available Psyche: for $20 a copy and to students using it in a course for $12. Best of Clio's Psyche TheIt will bePsychology distributed free to Membersof at By July 1 please list your favorite arti- the OnlineSupporting levelCommunication and above as well as Two- cles, interviews, and Special Issues (no Year Subscribers upon their next renewal. Call for Nominations Clio's Psyche of the Psychohistory Forum Call for Papers Forthcoming in the June Issue  Violence in American Life and Mass Murder as  Interview with a Distinguished Disguised Suicide Featured Psychohistorian  AssessingAdditional Apocalypticism Articlesand Millennialism  "The Insane Author of the Oxford aroundAre the RequestedYear 2000 for the English Dictionary"  PsychoGeography September Issue of  "Jews in Europe After World War II"  Election 2000Clio's Psyche:  PsychobiographyCall for Papers  "A Psychohistorian's Mother and Her  ManiasThe and DepressionsPsychology in Economics ofand Legacy" SocietySpecial Theme Issues OnlineThe Psychology Communication of Incarceration and Crime 1999 and 2000 Hayman Fellowships  Our Litigious Society The University of California Interdisci- Call for Nominations plinary Psychoanalytic Consortium an-  PsychoGeography nounces two $5,000 annual fellowships to for the  Meeting the Millennium aid psychoanalytically informed research on the literary, cultural, and humanistic The  ManiasBest and Depressions of Clio's in Econom-Psyche expressions of genocide, racism, ethnocen- icsBy and July Society 1, please list your favorite arti- trism, nationalism, inter-ethnic violence, and the Holocaust.  Thecles, Psychology interviews, of Americaand Special as the Issues (no World'smore thanPoliceman three in each category) and send the information to the Editor (see  Truthpage and 3) for Reconciliation the August publication. in South The History of Psychohistory Africa Clio's Psyche's interviews of outstanding 600-1500 words psychohistorians (see "An American in Amsterdam:  Legalizing Life: Our Litigious Society Arthur Mitzman," page 146) have grown into a full-fledged  TheContact Truth and Reconciliation Commission as study of the pioneers and history of our field. a ModelPaul for H. Healing Elvoitz, PhD, Editor Psychohistory as an organized field is less than 25 years  The Processes of627 Peacemaking Dakota Trail and Peacekeeping old, so most of the innovators are available to tell their  The PsychologyFranklin of America Lakes, as NJ the 07417 World’s stories and give their insights. Last March, the Forum