by Michael Loftus, First Things
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to be saved; psychological man is born to be pleased.” At some point we crossed a threshold, and the broader values of Western culture became more concerned with self-actualization and freedom from restraint than with salvation from our sin and communion with God. We are now at a point where the language of therapy pervades every level of discourse.
How did we get here? Some blame Sigmund Freud and other early psychologists for building a persuasive intellectual case for doing whatever we want, on the grounds that repressing our desires is harmful and that we must be true to ourselves. In this telling, Christians (mostly liberal ones) took the bait and swapped out Christian doctrines for psychological fads, leaving only a remnant of faithful believers who have done their best to stand their ground against a rising tide of psychobabble.
This is certainly part of the story, and there’s no happy ending for any church that abandons the truths we have cherished for two millennia in the hope of unearthing deeper truths that conveniently align with the modern zeitgeist. Yet this story neglects the fact that we live in the world that Freud helped create, and it is impossible to talk meaningfully about human psychology without drawing on his insights. We take for granted many ideas that came to us through modern psychological theory and research; any critique of therapy culture must take this reality seriously.
What’s more, Christianity’s entanglement with therapy culture can’t be separated from Christian enthusiasm for healing and the Church’s insistence on holistic care for people who are suffering. Jesus himself tells his disciples to heal (therapeuete) the sick, and early Christian writers (including Augustine) used secular healing methods as analogies for the powerful work that God does in a believer’s soul. Pre-scientific Christians seem to have mostly accepted whatever theories governed mental health at the time, including things like the four humors. Christians have always been interested in what it means for us to flourish in heart, soul, mind, and strength—just ask Aquinas.