Psychiatry & Faith

"I thank Thee, O Lord, that my Freudian adviser has told me there is no such thing as guilt, that sin is a myth, and that Thou, O Father, art only a projection of my father complex ... Oh, I thank Thee that I am not like the rest of men, those nasty people, such as the Christian there in the back of the temple, who thinks that he is a sinner, that his soul stands in need of grace ... I may have an Oedipus complex, but I have no sin."

Thus Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen paraphrases the parable of the Pharisee (Luke 18; 10-14), to dramatize the main point of his new book, published last week--Peace of Soul (Whittlesey House; $3).

Persuasive Fulton Sheen would like to introduce modern man to God by way of St. Thomas Aquinas' famed five proofs from reason of God's existence, but he feels that many a harassed, scatterbrained modern man may be "too confused to grasp them." So Author Sheen begins his book where the readers of self-improvement volumes seem to feel most at home: the realm of psychology. "If the modern soul," he writes, "wants to begin its quest for peace with its psychology instead of with our own metaphysics, we will begin with psychology ... If the modern man wants to go to God from the Devil, why, then, we will even start with the Devil."

Couch or Box? Author Sheen does not denounce all psychiatry, or even all Freudian techniques. He concedes that medical science, in dealing with mental problems that have no ethical or moral causes, "has a vast area in which it can legitimately operate." He objects to Freudian doctrines chiefly when they enter the realm of philosophy with such assertions as "man is an animal and has no free will, or that 'religious doctrines are illusions.' "

But the major point at issue between Monsignor Sheen and much of modern psychiatry is the subject of guilt. The denial of personal sin, he holds, has done more to keep man from God, and to disintegrate society, than any other single factor. Psychiatrists are enemies of man, Sheen says, whenever they view the sense of guilt as an undesirable symptom and try to get rid of it by convincing the patient either 1) that he was not responsible for his sinful actions, or 2) that such actions are really healthy and normal.

By man's sense of guilt, Sheen says, the Roman Catholic Church can lead him to God--through confession, absolution and penance. "There are many souls stretched out on psychoanalytic couches today who would be far better off if they brought their consciences to a confessional box . . . The very passivity ... is symbolic of the patient's irresponsibility, which the whole theory of Freud assumes. It is in striking contrast to the man who says, not 'Oh what a fool I have been,' but 'God, be merciful to me a sinner.' "

Dominion of Satan. Much of psychiatry, Sheen argues, only gives man a false sense that all is well with him, when in reality things could not be worse. The psychiatrist's patient may indeed gain peace of mind, but the Christian gets something far better--peace of soul. "There is a world of difference between [them]. Peace of mind is the result of bringing some ordering principle to bear on discordant human experiences; this may be achieved by tolerance, or by a gritting of one's teeth in the face of pain; by killing conscience, or denying guilt, or by finding new loves to assuage old griefs. Each of these is an integration, but on a very low level. This kind of peace our Lord calls false, and he likens it to living under the dominion of Satan . . ."

But peace of soul is "born of the tranquillity of order, wherein the senses are subject to the reason, the reason to faith, and the whole personality to the Will of God. The true peace ... is deepened, not disturbed, by the crosses, checks and disquietudes of the world, for they are welcomed as coming from the hands of the Loving Father. This true peace can never come from adjustment to the world, for if the world is wicked, adjustments to wickedness make us worse. It comes only from identification of one's own will with the Will of God."

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