08-Pastoral Psychiatry
VIII. Pastoral Psychiatry THAT THERE is A QUICKENED INTEREST IF THE RELATIONSHIP of the mental sciences to religion is evidenced by the many recent books published on this subject. Books on psychology and psychiatry are on every religious book list. The terms psychology and psychiatry are often used interchangeably though they are not the same. Psychiatry is psychology with an M.D. degree.
It is worthy of note that there is a change in the relation of these mental sciences to religion. A generation ago psychology was advanced largely as a substitute for religion. Today, together with psychiatry, it analyzes our religious behavior and helps us to understand the way in which religion operates within the individual. The minister has been variously affected by the emphases of these mental sciences. Some have bowed down before them. A Christian Century editorial says: “Many have relied for the authentication of their message, not on a prophetic, ’Thus saith the Lord/ but on the word which has proceeded out of Vienna, ’Thus saith Freud and 1 This chapter appeared in The Begister, Louisville Theological Seminary, and is reprinted by permission.
Adler.’ “ Some ministers have found a new gospel in psychology. And some ministers, with scant knowledge of psychiatry, have rushed to establish religious clinics, and have set themselves up as counselors for all manner of mental and spiritual ailments.
There is, however, a very definite and helpful use of the new facts of psychology and psychiatry on the part of the pastor. A study of these subjects will help any man to preach Jesus Christ more intelligently and efficiently. It will further help him, in the pastoral relation, to minister better to men in the application of religion to life. And, still more, it will enable a minister, if personally applied, to be himself a better personality through which the Spirit can work.
Much might be said as to an improvement in our preaching from a knowledge of psychology and psychiatry, but primarily we need their help in our pastoral work. If they are applied there, our preaching as well is sure to be favorably affected.
Both psychology and psychiatry are studies in personality. And let it be remembered that in our ministry we are dealing with personality. The gospel truth is not an abstract truth. Jesus himself was constantly dealing with persons. In his teaching, for instance, about “the water of life” it was the woman at the well in Samaria who gave the truth its meaning.
Now if we are to deal with the personalities of men and women in the name of our Lord, we need first an awareness of what is going on in the lives of people. And it is this with which psychology and psychiatry are concerned. We must understand better than some of us do the anxieties of.our people, their torture of spirit, their fears fears of poverty, ill-health, death, unpopularity their moods. of despondency, worry, their sense of defeat. There is the despair of many in the realization at last that the hopes and dreams of their life are never to be realized. There is the conflict between religion and sex. There is the clash of personalities in the marriage relation.
There are mental disturbances both real and imaginary, resulting in sick souls and sick bodies.
Much of this, of course, is covered by the old and familiar word “sin.” But “sin” is often too much of a generic term. We need to break it down into its many manifestations if we are to deal helpfully with man as a sinner and with the destroying effect of his sin in his life.
And, if we need an awareness of the conflicts in personality, we need also to know something of what people do about such conflicts. The most characteristic reaction to the problems of personality is the turning to some sort of escape mechanism. We know that the crank, the legalist, and the Pharisee are in every company of religious folk. They are usually evading some major ethical requirement and compensating therefor by excessive concern about some small matter.
We cannot thus classify every meticulous churchman, but the persons of whom we are speaking are by no means rare. Pride, boastfulness, and cultural superiority are often complexes which result from avoiding a coming to terms with one’s own inferiorities. We need to know that destructive habits, as for instance drunkenness, are often secondary manifestations of a primary unhappiness and defeat. It is the easiest “out” for many a person. An enmity against another is often used as an evasion of the hatreds in one’s own heart. When we wrong someone we frequently keep our fault out of our consciousness by assuming a critical attitude toward his slightest weakness.
Sometimes men “draw the sword in the name of the Lord.” They believe themselves standing as the last defense of the Lord in the field of religious controversy. Too often it is the escape mechanism again. It is then a personal running away from facing one’s own inner battle to conquer bitterness, and pride, and enmity in one’s own heart.
Most reactions of all of us to personality difficulty, which is another term for human sin, are in the direction of covering up, and refusing to face the stern realities of self. And these all are evidences of a sense of inner failure that, either consciously or unconsciously, we seek to ignore or justify. To learn more about these reactions from a study of psychology and psychiatry will help us to know how to preach about sin. Some of the above reactions mean quite the same as the old term “under conviction of sin.” And if we study psychology it is not that we may preach it, but that we may learn how more effectively to reach the sinner with the message of the gospel.
If our preaching in the pulpit is effectively done, it will often be followed by personal interviews with our hearers. The average minister today has more people come to him with their perplexities than did the average minister a generation ago. Now, we are busy with many things, with administration and with the preparation of sermons, and the coming of people to us for personal help is always an interruption. But we ought to encourage people to come to us, and we ought to give liberally of our time to personal contacts. And if they do not come, we should be greatly concerned about our ministry. If none come to us it must be because we are dogmatic, severe, unsympathetic. Men came easily to our Master. If we are truly ministering in his name, they will come to us. Let us encourage them to come, and let us seek all the help we can get toward turning them to him when they come. It must never be for us only an interruption. It is a glorious privilege.
It is not, of course, necessary to set up a clinic or in any formal way to establish a counseling period. Our personal contacts may be casual.
They may be in the home, in our study, or on the street. There are many instances in every pastor’s experience when the casual contacts have been more fruitful than those of a studied approach.
People will come to us for the more definite interview and conference if they have learned from our method of preaching, and from our personality, that we are sympathetic and spiritually discerning.
“Without setting up a formal counseling service we can, however, and must, as occasion arises, give counsel of soul. Very often troubled souls are helped immeasurably by someone to whom they can unburden themselves. “We can first of all be good listeners. Dr. William S. Sadler says that the problems of life are personality problems every one; that “home” is a symbol only, for it is actually a personal relationship. The difficulties there are first personal and secondarily home difficulties. He adds: “The more you love a person, the more you can hate him if you go into reverse. ’ ’ “Whatever technical or scientific terms we use about them, the difficulties themselves are all personal. Furthermore, Dr. Sadler says that, as ministers, we must remember that all cases of personality difficulty are a result of a frustration in reaching some goal. This is true of every nervous disorder whatsover. Therefore the minister in conference must not pay attention to the thing complained of. He must get behind it. He must ignore the defense mechanism. It is a smoke screen to keep up self-respect. “We can help people to save their self-respect by getting back to what it is all about. The pastor cannot be content any more than can the physician merely to treat symptoms.
We must remember that the person is in need of God, and that the individual himself is always a part of the situation at issue. The person complained of is never alone responsible. We must seek to bring home to the one in difficulty that inevitably there is something that he can do about it, that there is something in him that needs (rod’s help to solve his problem whatever it is.
We can teach men to pray. We can help them to make for reality in their religious life. Dr. John Eathbone Oliver, in his book Fear, said that there is one group of persons who are never found in his clinic at Johns Hopkins, and they are the true Christians. Not the mere church attendant, not the person who has a correct theology, but the one who has trust and faith and dependence on God, who has in daily life made earnest with the fact that he is God’s child. The difficulty, whatever it may be, is basically spiritual.
It is necessary to know when medical help is needed. A true knowledge of psychiatry will enable us to minister to souls in distress, but one of its most helpful services to us should be to show us that we are not trained psychiatrists and should not seek to serve as such. On the other hand, there is no magic in a pious prayer or a passage of scripture, nor can the personality difficulty be necessarily solved by a single dose of spiritual medicine. It may take a long time and repeated effort. It certainly will take consecration, sympathy, understanding, devotion, and prayer. We must give of ourselves to the utmost when we have the privilege of personal interviews with a troubled soul. And we need to take counsel with those who can give us of their technical knowledge, not forgetting him who is Lord of the soul. But finally an acquaintance with the truths of psychology and psychiatry is necessary for the sake of our own personality as ministers of God.
We need much for our task besides a technical theological education, important as that is. A missionary in India asked a Christian native boy to repair the wire of her electric lamp. The lad, after fumbling at the task for a time and getting nowhere, taxed the patience of the missionary, and she finally said to him in irritation: “Haven’t you any common sense at allf” To which the native lad replied: “Madam, common sense is a gift of God. I have only a technical education.” As pastors we often have little more than a technical education. The gift of God to see ourselves as he sees us is the kind of common sense without which we invalidate our ministry almost completely. It is urgent that we learn the truths of the mental sciences, not just for effective service to others, but to apply them to ourselves. We should often check ourselves for compensations, for the presence of excuses and evasions. Ministers are ruined by little things. A text upon which as ministers we would do well to preach to ourselves is that of Ecclesiastes 10:1. “Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.”
None of us can be perfect, but our eye must be upon ourselves, as well as upon others. It is imperative that we face the fact that we are especially subject to the personality defects of cant, of self-pity, pride, envy, of the critical spirit, of facing human sin before our people in terms of “you” and not “we.” “We must identify ourselves with our people for our own sakes and for theirs.
They need to know our sympathy and understanding. They will not turn to us if we are harsh in our judgments of them and easy upon ourselves, (rod cannot use a stuffed shirt, or any man who makes an exception of himself. In dealing with others a pastor often avoids trouble by recognizing it. Let him do so in regard to himself. We must admit that the sins of personality are our own, too. They must be taken to the same Lord whom we preach to others. What kind of a man we are is a determining factor in our ministry. In the end it determines everything. Above all, it is we ourselves who need a sane and balanced personality. We are our own best subjects.
If we are to know about counseling others, let us be sure to counsel with ourselves, and with God.