THE GOAL OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

 

 

After Adam and Eve rebelled against the directions of God to not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, everything changed for them. They foolishly hid from God and, aware of their guilt and shame, they vainly covered themselves with fig leaves. We have been doing likewise. However, we no longer cover ourselves with fig leaves but with social approval, accomplishments, popularity, power, and wealth – whatever it takes to feel that we are okay and entitled.

 

Psychotherapy addresses consumer demand for more of the same – positive affirmations, self-esteem, self-confidence, and various strategies to address our discomforts. This institution has also provided alternative ways to hide from God and from his moral requirements. Psychiatrist G. Brock Chisholm, a former president of the World Federation for Mental Health, stated in 1945:

 

·       “The re-interpretation and eventual eradication of the concept of right and wrong which has been the basis of child training, the substitution of intelligent and rational thinking with faith in the certainties of the old people, these are the belated objectives of practically all effective psychotherapy.

 

·       The fact is that most psychiatrists and psychologists and other respectable people have escaped from these moral chains and are able to observe and think freely.

 

·       If the race is to be free from the crippling burden of good and evil, it must be psychiatrists who take the original responsibility.”

 

Was Chisholm speaking only for himself? Probably not! “In a 1976 survey of members of the APA, 95% reportedly admitted to being atheists or agnostics.”

 

How might this impact the Christian who sees a psychotherapist? There is evidence that, to be helped by psychotherapy, the client must be ready to absorb the perspective of the helper:

 

·       “The ideal patient must be suggestible. He should be able to easily absorb dogma and ideas of the most abstract, even outlandish dimension. He should be philosophically adaptable and able to ape the therapist’s value system and biases. The more he agrees with the therapist, the better his chances of being helped. This conditioning process is at the core of all faith healing, magic and religion. Psychologist David Rosenberg checked out the connection between improvement and value-conditioning in psychotherapy. He found that those rated as ‘improved’ had changed their moral values in sex, aggression and authority in the direction of the therapist’s own prejudices. Those who had been rated ‘unimproved’ had tended to hold out.” (The Psychological Society, Martin L. Gross, 48)

 

Perhaps even more concerning, according to Al Parides, Prof. of Psychiatry, UCLA:

 

·       “If you look at the personal lives of all Freud’s followers—his initial disciples—these people certainly have an unbelievable amount of particular problems in the sexual area…The amount of deviancy as far as their sexual behavior and so forth is enormous. If you are saying that psychiatry promotes a certain form of morality that is a deviant morality in regard to many areas including sexual behavior—yes, I would agree.” (Psychiatry: The Ultimate Betrayal, Bruce Wiseman, 12-14)

 

It is inevitable that lifestyle effects attitudes, and attitudes impact relationships, even psychotherapeutic ones.  Nevertheless, many Christians speak well of their psychotherapists and claim to have been helped by them. I cannot deny their experience, but perhaps they were merely “helped” through a caring relationship. Perhaps they have grown in self-confidence. However, while this might feel like an improvement, it works against God-confidence:

 

·       For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. (2 Corinthians 1:8–10)

 

Or perhaps they remain unaware of the impact of the process upon their beliefs and attitudes. However, the Scriptures assure us that God, working through His Word, gives us everything that we need. Just consider a few verses:

 

·       To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32)

 

·       All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16–17)

 

·       But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9–10)

 

To be confident in our Lord is to be strong. Eventually, self-confidence, the goal of psychotherapy, will bring us down (Jeremiah 17:5-7).