RELIGIOUS AND MORAL ISSUES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY AND COUNSELING

To anyone who is perusing carefully Reverend Oates’ report, it appears evident that the commission has studied the various implications of psychotherapy and counseling in regard to pastoral work in a rather exhaustive manner. Thus, instead of merely attempting to suggest some unmentioned aspects of the problem, one sees the way open for a discussion leading to deeper insights along the proposed lines of investigation. Therefore, within the space allotted to me, I should like to concentrate on issues that seem of major importance for one who is tackling the problem from the specific viewpoint of the clergyman. In this particular field, indeed, the minister of religion cannot be satisfied with borrowing the knowledge and experience accumulated by members of other professions to develop the skill required for the proper accomplishment of his own work. He must also offer an indispensable contribution in building up the new synthesis that, as this interdisciplinary meeting is suggesting, finally seems to be in the process of being elaborated. Undoubtedly, defining such contributions will increase at once the significance of a11 the five points considered in the report. We are certainly justified in requiring that members of other professions pay “serious attention to the religious aspects of the needs of their patients or clients.” We must not forget, however, that it is our ta& to provide them with adequate information about the psychological implications of sound religious practice and of well-balanced virtuous living. It is also vitally important to undertake a thorough empirical study of the developmental, integrative, and dynamic aspects of religious and moral attitudes. But, just as the accumulation of empirical data through systematic observation and even through rigorous experimentation should be one of our primary aims, the correct interpretation of such data in the light of theological knowledge should be a matter of immediate concerri to us. Only when such material has become part of our scientific interpretation of human personality will a fully comprehensive basis for psychotherapy and counseling be provided. We cannot limit ourselves, however, to the study of the normal psychological conditions and manifestations of religious and moral life. Every day, we are confronted in our pastoral work with a whole variety of more or less serious deviations in the functioning of religious and moral conscience. This means, of course, that a whole chapter of psychopathology has yet to be written, perhaps not the least important one. It is our obligation to define the essential requirements for the exercise of human freedom as well as its occasional limitations; to identify and describe man’s frequent escapes from responsibility when confronted with values; to investigate the roots of superstitious religiosity and