In 2018, I took a sabbatical to write a book (about Christianity after Freud) that I had been carrying around in my head since the 1990s when, about to graduate from high-school, I could not figure out if I wanted to study theology for ordination, or psychology to pursue psychoanalytic training. In the end I pursued both.
I did not end up writing that book for two reasons: first, the Catholic sex abuse crisis was again raging, and I had published a number of essays about it, including some here at CWR. Perhaps now I should write a full book on that?
My ambivalence was swept away when the Spanish Jesuit Carlos Dominguez-Morano’s book Belief After Freud came into English translation on the first week of my sabbatical. I read it and at once saw that he wrote so powerfully, and on topics and with insights I would have taken a thousand years to treat as compellingly as he did, that I abandoned my proposal and instead wrote Everything Hidden Shall Be Revealed: Ridding the Church of Abuses of Sex and Power (Angelico, 2019).
There I drew extensively on Belief After Freud, and I would go on to draw grateful attention to his work, and that of other contemporary Jesuit psychoanalysts, elsewhere. Having found his book so powerful, I was of course immediately going to read anything else he wrote that came into English (many of his books in Spanish remain untranslated), and this year we have been graced with Sigmund Freud and Oskar Pfister on Religion: The Beginning of an Endless Dialogue.
There are two principal substantive virtues to this book and a third methodological one: the first is that it provides an up-to-date survey of the status quaestionis of psychoanalysis and Christianity. We have wanted such a book since Paul Roazen—the greatest historiographer of psychoanalysis until his death in 2005—first challenged intellectual historians to produce one a quarter-century ago.
The second is like unto it: the book includes a 75-page bibliography with almost 2000 items listed in a variety of languages (English, German, and all the Romance languages). In my earlier life working academically in theology, I developed an enormous respect, almost an awe, for Jesuit scholarship: books by Robert Taft, John O’Malley, Klaus Schatz, Michael Fahey and others (including the four discussed in the America article linked above) were marked not just by an eminent fair-mindedness, but above all by an astonishing comprehensiveness that—I used to joke—only a celibate would have time to produce! Those of us trying simultaneously to corral children and footnotes know how much gets missed in the process. (I must qualify my praise here by noting that the book clearly lacked comprehensive editing: there are innumerable misspellings as well as missing words, wonky formatting, and other solecisms throughout.)
The third virtue here has to do with Dominguez-Morano’s method: he is against what he calls the “concordist temptation.” In this I found myself mildly, but rightly, rebuked. My own approach to the question of how psychoanalytic and Christian thought intersect has been defensive and apologetic, and as a result my method for the book I have not (yet?) written was always going to be concordist: actually, these two, when properly understood, get along splendidly! All you Christians hating on Freud, and all you clinicians disdaining religion, really don’t know what you’re talking about!
And yet that is simply not true. Dominguez-Morano rightly reminds us that there is enough disdain, latent and manifest, in the clinical world for religious faith that one cannot simply magic it away. And there is enough suspicion in the religious world of psychotherapy that I regularly have to reassure Catholics that good good psychotherapy is not dangerous to their faith.
One can track both—suspicion and support—by the simple expedient of reading papal statements from Pius XI to Francis: under Pius XI, XII, and John XXIII there is reluctance to engage psychoanalytic therapy and palpably anxious suspicion of it; this shifts to cautious consideration of its possible uses under Paul VI; and then to an open embrace under John Paul II (who invited the psychoanalyst Erich Fromm to the Vatican in 1979); and finally to an even more open—almost startling—admission by Francis that he was himself in therapy with a Jewish psychoanalyst in Argentina.
This interconnected theme of suspicion-and-support is best captured in the deep, warm, frank friendship between Freud and Oskar Pfister, given fresh attention (after a 60-year gap in the literature) in Morano’s book, which undertakes a close reading of the relationship and its very considerable literature. Additionally it has a chapter on post-Freudian treatments, including those undertaken by the Catholic psychiatrist Ana-Maria Rizzuto of Boston, whose landmark books The Birth of the Living God and Why Did Freud Reject God? are unjustly neglected minor classics.
Freud (living in the very Catholic but also very anti-Semitic Habsburg Empire) described himself as a “godless Jew” while Pfister was a Christian pastor in Switzerland. Both became fast friends and remained extremely close for three decades with Pfister, also very beloved by Freud’s six children and wife Martha. In 1927, when Freud published his screed on religion Future of an Illusion, Pfister followed up almost immediately by publishing a blunt rejoinder titled The Illusion of a Future. Dominguez-Morano examines both books carefully and draws out overlooked parts of each, paying special attention to the many occasions when Pfister took Freud to task while also calling him the best friend religion ever had, suggesting Freud’s aims were the same as his fellow Jew Jesus of Nazareth: “the truth shall set you free.”
These details of their friendship are not insignificant when one considers how often Freud has been accused of an adamantine dogmatism of his own, and an intolerance for dissent that leads him to “excommunicate” followers. In all the correspondence I’ve read (Freud-Jones, Freud-Ferenczi, Freud-Jung, Freud-Pfister, and many others) nobody is allowed to be simultaneously as close to and as sharply, almost sarcastically, challenging of Freud as Pfister, and Morano brings out those details almost with glee.
For Freud, being set free meant rejecting not the truth-claims of religion (he ignored those in Future of an Illusion) but its role as a provider of infantilizing comfort in a capricious and often cruel world. Pfister thought this a minor danger for some, but that most outgrow such behaviors by discovering that there is a way of being both spiritually dependent on God and autonomous (what the Canadian psychiatrist Emmanuel Ghent would more recently describe as the difference between submission and surrender: the former is immature and masochistic and reduces one’s freedom, while the latter is an act of mature and increasing freedom).
Indeed, having trained in it himself, Pfister stoutly insisted—sometimes to Freud’s amazement at his friend’s great zeal—that psychoanalysis was to be welcomed precisely as a tool to help believers be more mature, more self-regulated in their emotional lives, and more able to free themselves from the various idols and illusions we all construct.
In the end, more than 80 years after Freud’s death and more than 60 after Pfister’s, Morano says the dialogue must continue because the search for truth and freedom is an endless quest, and at their best both psychoanalysis and theology teach us abstinence from some final formulation that then becomes ideology bled of all mystery (cf. Fides et Ratio, nos. 13-14). As both seek to understand the mystery of the human psyche (that is—as the Greek makes clear—soul, a word Freud used all the time but his English translators tendentiously replaced with mind, a terrible mistake Bruno Bettelheim documented in his invaluable book Freud and Man’s Soul) they are at one with each other.
But then what? After mutual understanding comes a divergence. Morano, faithful son of St. Ignatius of Loyola, recognizes that Christian faith, unlike psychoanalysis, is supererogatory, insisting we travel the “royal road” to service of others ad maiorem Dei gloriam. In the end, faith alone enables us to be, as Charles Wesley wrote, “lost in wonder, love, and praise”.
Sigmund Freud and Oskar Pfister on Religion: the Beginning of an Endless Dialogue
By Carlos Dominguez-Morano; translated by Francisco Javier Montero
Routledge, 2023
Hardover/softcover, x+234 pages
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Good psychology, founded on truth, would naturally be in accord with Catholic doctrine. Truth supports truth.
To all appearances, most psychological organizations support sex changes. Which is well into the extreme side of telling falsehoods.
“Good psychology exists” is not nearly so hard an argument as “You’ll easily find a good therapist.”
Intriguing, and the especially the 2 remarkable insights and observations, both of which I find compelling because they are testaments about human dignity: the first, Freud’s reference to a person as a soul (not the mechanical, rationalistic, scientistic English translation that erases the meaning with the impoverished word “mind,”), and second, from Pfister, as distilled by Ghent, about the moral distinction between the indignity of submission, versus the human dignity of surrender. In both cases, the wholesomeness the respect for people as souls, and the duty of souls to never submit to what is false.
First let it be said that a priest, in the confessional, is a confessor not a psychiatrist. He must judge what is manifest and desist from psychoanalysis. Although in the course of countless counseling sessions and hearing confessions he naturally acquires knowledge consistent with analysis of the mind’s operation. Deception, fearful withholding and so forth. The ability to discern what validity there may be regarding mitigation [mitigation a subject not always readily measurable]. Agreed with what Adam de Ville has to say in particular Jesuit Fr Dominguez-Morano on the supererogatory of our faith.
Sigmund Freud, prior to psychoanalysis began his studies in neurology. Later when analyzing patients as a psychiatrist he came to an extremely valuable conviction, despite his self description as “a godless Jew”, that “for the psychical field, the biological field does in fact play the part of the underlying bedrock” (Freud in Analysis Terminable and Interminable Vol 23 1937). The reader should recognize the value of such a finding from Freud, which means that our sexual instincts or appetites are biologically based. He found verification in his analysis of behaviors, the many patterns attached. Attempts are generally made by many contemporaries to discredit, misinterpret what Freud said because it’s antithetical to transgender theory.
The Servant OF God Father John A Hardon SJ told us he had read and studied Psychology Extensively over his lifetime was not a fan of it (Modern Psychology) He believed A Thomistic Psychology was The Only Fully Catholic Approach This is a Priest Who was noted for doing his due diligence On any thing he put his Genius To He has also been Called The Holiest Priest I know By Saint Teresa Of Calcutta
Father Brian Malady OP also has written a new Book On How Thomistic Psychology can rescue Modern Psychology There are many evils which have Come in to the World From Freud He is not safe for The Layman And much Pop Psychology is still influenced by him
For Academics This is not A Problem to take lightly of course why would anyone who is sincerely seeking To Be Catholic
I have a dim view of the field since college, where the majority of those majoring in psychology were the most screwed up people ever seen, where it seemed far easier for them to try to “fix” other people than for them to straighten out own lives, a charge which can be fairly levied against many entering “helpful” fields, including, unfortunately the priesthood.
It also is among the most changeable of fields, chasing after the lastest fashions, one has only to look at its 180 on homosexuality of late (along with all the other fields showing most practitioners only REALLY chasing money).
In the earlier years, psychology listed only a handful of mental illnesses, and now they list hundreds…there was a recent push to classify that of being a rapist as purely a mental illness deserving only treatment and not incarceration for the protection of society, but I believe public outrage quashed that effort, at least, its open and official stance.
I see most ills as truly spiritual ills best dealt with on a spiritual level, but good luck finding those qualified today to deal with such things without also running into quackery. And then there are those truly broken for whom we actually can do nothing, despite our aspirations to self-made godhood.
No insult intended or desired to the author of this article, but only my opinion of the field as a whole.
You will probably be excoriated by your first paragraph, but your experience
with “shrinks” has been pretty close to ours. You can’t blame the profession
from common perceptions but….sheer observation….and may God bless ’em when
their motives are truly the well being of patients. And, sorry to say, their
offspring are often victims (fortunately no room for examples.)
Interesting that the article happens on the ‘eve ‘ of Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes –
The Immaculate Conception , even as Freud himself was born , on the eve of the miracles of Lourdes …Luisa of Divine Will would be born few years later who too like Bernadette , rather ‘earthy’ and not of much formal education , whose writings
too ,destined as the sector of the earth to help swallow up the flood waters ..
Lord sending His Mother , to help The Church, from the carnal flood waters that were coming, that have not yet abated ..The search for Truth seems to have helped Freud to an extent – that he had good things to say about Lourdes , yet lacking in trust ..
Holy Father, in his experience with the fielf of psychoanalysis (as even Providential preparation for his present role ) likely sensed the lack of trust in The Mother ,to also disdain The Word – his won deep devotion to The Mother , with compassion for her sorrows of rejection from her own, to lead to great love and devotion for her .
The Truth of Immaculate Conception, of the two ‘earthy ‘ parents of The Mother , chosen from lines with all sorts of carnal failures, to bring forth The Woman, set free from generationa spirits , in the glorious Pre Fall mode that Adam and Eve had lost ..graces of which to be for all His children, to trust that with The Mother that we too can plead for those graces, to love God and others , with His own Love in The Spirit .. that we are not meant to be the slaves of the false gods of carnality ..
Luisa of Divine Will had the mysterious aspect of going into a ‘sleep like’ state during the night , yet in the spirit , making ‘ Rounds in the Divine Will ‘ of thanking and praising God …we can imagine what such a gift and its blessing would be in lives to counter the flood waters of of our times ..
The Church in the midst of celebrating and praying for Consecrated life – who powerfully embrace the gifts and charisms meant to also make reparations for lives and generations that chose to be ‘consecrated ‘ to powers of evil through – to thank God for the reparative role to also mercifully be reminded how even their falls can lead them to deep repentance and ardent zeal to bring back many more to The Lord –
https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_25031996_vita-consecrata.html
The Truth of the Godly wisdom given in more abundance for our times including in the related field exorcism – may it all add up to give more trust unto all who have fallen unto the flood waters too for The Spirit and The Mother to be of speedy and powerful help for perseverance too , even for those who are in denial and doubt, to thus cherish with delight the rays of truth they too are blessed with !
Blessings !
Why do you repeatedly post these irrelevant screeds here that have absolutely nothing to do with the content of the article? What do you think you are accomplishing here?
https://www.catholicexorcism.org/post/exorcist-diary-274-slaves-of-hell
Good exorcism site above to deal with rage , such as mentioned in the verse that follows the one about the dragon spewing forth the torrents – ‘ the dragon was enraged… and went to make war on the rest of her children ..’ .
Apologies for the spelling and syntax errors in the previous post and thank you to CWR , to those who try to correct in charity ,the little efforts of all who try to help bring more light into the various relevant issues of our times .
God bless !
And, in the end, to be found whole and made new in wonder, love, and praise of God, with the discovery and acceptance of God our Father’s Loving us in and through His Son’s salvation for us and by the Holy Spirit’s leading and guiding us who are willing to be in full obedience and agreement with His will for us.
God bless, C-Marie
Freud and psychoanalysis have been dead both theoretically and practically for at least 65 years. I must confess that, because of that fact, I didn’t both reading the article.
Thank you, Dr. DeVille. Always appreciate your articles and impressive scholarship.
I dabbled in the study of psychiatry and psychotherapy in the past. Couldn’t understand whether the Freud or Jung school made the most sense (or any sense at all). Then I read about Viktor Frankl’s theory of logotherapy, which did seem to offer something useful and compatible with Catholic Doctrine. Wondering about Dr. DeVille views on that.
We believe we are saved from sin, Satan, death, darkness and dead works by the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. If sound, nonpolitical psychotherapy helps people understand that, I’m OK with it.
Frederick Crews gives a sobering view of Freud and his various illusions.