Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Psychoanalysis and Catholicism: Long-Lost Brothers? or Political Enemies?

My good friend recently sent me information regarding a study which took place from 1954 through 1964. In this study 51 monks agreed to undergo a psychoanalysis. The result - 2/3rd's left the monastery!

How did the pope respond to this study? Of course - He banned psychoanalysis! This banning of psychoanalysis is an institutional limit to human freedom; it's an oppressive act which is in the service of power, rather than in the service of truth. Galileo suffered such a fate at the hands of the Catholic church, and it took the church nearly 400 years to admit that they were wrong (ahh...the infallible pope was wrong!).

What do I mean by "truth" here? Well, ask yourself a question: what "truth" is there in the act of a monk leaving the "monkhood" as a result of psychoanalysis? Psychoanalysis, in this case, reveals a truth which otherwise would not have been revealed: psychoanalysis revealed that the monks wanted to live another sort of life. The truth was revealed to the monks; not on behalf of religious faith; not on behalf of "unwavering faith" (unwavering faith is simply clinging to a proposition that one refuses to question - why should this be valued at all?); but on behalf of an agreement to simply speak THE TRUTH - the truth of the psyche without any restrictions of freedom...the question being: What comes to mind?

Why was the pope wrong (ahh, the infallible pope was wrong again!) in banning psychoanalysis? Psychoanalysis (what the hell - any form of dynamic psychotherapy) could've been used as a method for determining whether one truly wanted to live a life in the monastery; there could've been huge potential here! Who knows...maybe psychoanalytical/psychological mindedness (which could've grown at the institutional level over time) could've prevented much harm which the church dished out in their later years; of course, I'm speaking of the rampant child abuse as well as the attempted cover-ups which the Church dwelt with for quite a while (mid 90's through the early 2000's).

What would Freud have called the Church's decision to ban psychoanalysis? Simple - repression. But as we know, every repression has its inverse: the return of the repressed. How has this repression, this banning of psychoanalysis, returned?

http://unreasonablefaith.com:80/2009/05/06/why-psychoanalysis-and-priests-dont-mix/