Did Sigmund Freud Despair of Psychoanalysis?

 

 

 

Richard E. Simmons III, founder and Executive Director of The Center for Executive Leadership, reasoned that he had. Freud had believed that physical pleasure would create the happiness that he had sought:

·     Freud believed that people are not happy because they are not free to pursue outwardly what they desire to do inwardly. He also contended these moral social conventions caused people to feel guilty when they are violated, which leads to further unhappiness.

According to Simmons, it seems that psychoanalysis and its attempt to relieve the sufferers from the pangs of their conscience had failed:

·       Over time, Freud recognized that physical pleasure was temporary and fleeting, and therefore unhappiness was unavoidable. His view of life was dark, ominous and full of despair. In a letter to his fiancé he admitted over a fourteen month period that he had experienced only three or four days of happiness. Nicholi says that Freud constantly experienced “feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, a negative interpretation of life with frequent thoughts of death, and a pessimistic view of the future.” The only thing he found that consistently lifted his spirits was a new drug called cocaine. At the end of his life he asked this question; “What good to us is a long life if it is difficult and barren of joys, and if it is so full of misery that we can only welcome death as a deliverer?” https://richardesimmons3.com/sigmund-freud-c-s-lewis-and-the-pursuit-of-happiness/

Others have also noted that Freud had become disenchanted with psychoanalysis:

·       Dr. O. Hobart Mowrer, a former president of the American Psychological Association, concludes, “I have become progressively disenchanted with results of psychotherapy and with the underlying theory itself…I am convinced that, in general, psychotherapy doesn’t do patients very much good. Before he died, Freud himself admitted that the therapeutic effectiveness of psychotherapy is poor, and that it was mainly a research tool. (Martin L. Gross, The Psychological Society; 32)

Have modern psychotherapies improved upon Freud’s theory or methods? Perhaps in a minor way. They have tried to bridge the gap between the therapist and the patient. Instead of sitting behind the supine couched client, the therapist now faces them, giving a nod to the fact that a caring relationship is essential.

Simmons contrasts Freud’s antagonism towards religion with that of a fellow atheist:

·       For the first thirty-one years of his life, C.S. Lewis was also an atheist, and Nicholi says that during those years, Lewis shared Freud’s despair. After becoming a Christian, he openly shared that his pessimism and gloom were clearly a result of his godless worldview. He had concluded that the universe was a “menacing and unfriendly place.” He saw no hope in the future.

·       However, everything changed when he became a Christian. His somber view of life was transformed into joy and a real sense of freedom. He said that once he had become a Christian he “began to know what life really is and what would have been lost by missing it.”

The Costly Bias Against Christianity

 

 

In Modern Man in Search of a Soul, Carl Jung had written:

·       I have treated hundreds of patients, the larger number being Protestant, a smaller number Jews, and more than five or six believing Catholics…over 35 years of age. There has not been one whose problems, in the last resort, was not that of  finding a religious outlook on life.

His findings agree with thousands of others. In, “Spirituality & Health Research: Methods, Measurement, Statistics, and Resources,” Harold G. Koenig MD, has done more to survey the available research regarding the question of what is associated with positive mental and physical outcomes than perhaps anyone else. He has identified religion/spirituality (R/S) as the key element. For example:

SUICIDE: “We identified 141 studies that had examined relationships between R/ S and some aspect of suicide (completed suicide, attempted suicide, or attitudes toward suicide), and 106 (75 percent) reported significant inverse relationships [the less religion, the higher suicide risk]; 80 percent of the best designed studies reported this finding.”

Koenig also concluded that, “Those who are R/S live a healthier lifestyle that lowers their risk of physical illness.”

HYPERTENSION: “At least 63 studies have examined relationships between R/S and blood pressure (BP) or hypertension, and 36 (57 percent) of those reported lower BP or less hypertension in those who were more R/S or received R/S interventions. Of the 39 best studies, 24 (62 percent) reported this finding. In contrast, 7 of 63 studies (11 percent) reported higher BP or more hypertension in the more R/ S.”

CEREBROVASCULAR DISEASE: “We identified 9 studies that focused on relationships between R/S and stroke, transient ischemic attack (TIA), or carotid artery thickness, or examined the effects of an R/S “intervention on these outcomes. Four (44 percent) of those studies reported that R/S was related to significantly less disease, 4 found no association, and 1 found greater carotid artery thickness in those who were more R/S.”

DEMENTIA: “We located 21 studies that examined relationships between R/S and dementia or cognitive impairment. Of those, 10 (48 percent) reported significant inverse relationships, 3 (14 percent) found significant positive relationships, 2 reported mixed findings, and 6 (29 percent) found no association. Of the 14 most rigorously designed studies, 8 (57 percent) reported inverse relationships with R/ S, whereas 3 reported significant positive relationships. Of the 7 prospective cohort studies, 5 (71 percent) found that R/S involvement at baseline predicted significantly less cognitive decline over time.”

MORTALITY: “At least 121 studies have now examined that relationship, with 82 (68 percent) finding that greater R/S involvement predicted greater longevity, and 7 studies (6 percent) reported shorter longevity. Among studies with the most rigorous methodology, 13 of 17 (76 percent) found that R/S predicted greater longevity.”

From the above small sample of Koenig’s work, it is imperative that concerned mental health and medical professionals must not ignore R/S. This is particularly critical concerning our veterans. “Military Times” (2018/09/26) reported:

• About 20 veterans a day across the country take their own lives, and veterans accounted for 14 percent of all adult suicide deaths in the U.S. in 2016.

It should be noted that this is occurring at a time when secular mental health interventions have increased, while the military chaplaincy has become more restricted. This is tragic because our military personnel need the reassurance of the love, forgiveness, acceptance, and hope that is to be found in Jesus Christ, whatever their sins, traumas, or infirmities - the very needs that secularism is unable to fulfill.