Did you ever dream about being in a house? In many cases dreaming about houses relates to a person's identity. Think about the expression, "That really hits me where I live." What does that mean? Doesn't it indicate those things that are most important to you, in fact, those things at the very center of your being, where you live? Knowing ourselves is foundational to the spiritual life. Self-delusion is no virtue and, in order to know ourselves, we need to see ourselves in relation to God and His will for us. If you want to know yourself, get to know God!
I once had a repetitive dream where I was stripping wallpaper in my house. The wallpaper underneath was identical to the wallpaper I was removing. After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that it signified the person I show others is the same as the person I am. Was I right? Maybe. My husband would agree, but he's biased.
When I was studying management, I was introduced to the concept of Johari's Window, a psychological tool about self-awareness often used in corporate group activities for team building. According to the concept, we are made up of four windows: 1) the self known to both myself and others, 2) the self that others see but I don't, 3) a hidden self that I know but do not show to others, and 4) a self that neither I nor others see.
Some have criticized this concept as over-simplistic. Are these really the windows of our soul? Are they the only windows? As Christians, should we not have at least one more, a window labeled how God sees us?
I tend to be skeptical of psychology. Maybe that's because the professor who taught my Psych 101 class was involved with one of my classmates. On the other hand, it seems to me that illnesses of the mind, like illnesses of the bodies, can benefit from doctors. But just as there are quacks, frauds, and incompetents among medical doctors (We certainly saw that during COVID!), the same is true about doctors of the mind. And we haven't even begun to consider doctors of the soul.
Can psychology be Catholic? Of course, but that depends. Dr. Peter Martin, Internship Director at Immaculate Heart of Mary Counseling Center in Lincoln, Nebraska writes:
Most Catholics would say that modern psychology has had a, well, complicated and checkered history with respect to religion. Two of its leading figures, Sigmund Freud and B. F. Skinner—who made important and lasting contributions to the way we understand internal (i.e., intrapsychic) and interpersonal functioning and behavior—were self-described atheists, likely radical atheists. A biased atheistic and secular humanistic worldview continues to shape contemporary thought, research, and practice in the field.
That's an understatement in my opinion, and it's definitely a problem! Freud believed that all mental health issues could be traced back to childhood and promoted the blame game, particularly focusing on the mother. The automatic assumption of many psychologists trained with Freud's viewpoint, is that your parents are to blame for everything that goes wrong in your life. Actually, that mentality isn't all that new. It sounds like a joke, but when our children were little, everything was being blamed on poor potty training. Really!
Dr. Martin continues:
Furthermore, some argue that secular psychology has become religion’s rival in Western societies: Therapy is exchanged for confession; conversion is replaced with personal growth; and sin and virtue are substituted with ethics. The argument is that in some or many cases, psychotherapy may try to replace and even function like religion: Sinners are labeled mentally ill rather than transgressors of the divine law; psychotherapy becomes confession without absolution; and individuals become patients instead of penitents.
I couldn't agree more. These days there's plenty of public confession on Oprah, Dr. Phil, etc. It seems many have slammed shut Johari's window on the hidden self. Nothing is hidden; nothing is private. Nothing belongs only in the confessional. All must be vomited in public for the entertainment of a voyeuristic audience.
To continue Dr. Martin's analysis:
Though the above problems do not tell the whole story of psychology’s history, they raise valid concerns. As Aristotle put it: “The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.” With this troubling proposition in mind, if secular psychology removes God at the outset from the equation of mental health, how many volumes of errors may follow? Godless psychology can become to some extent a “psychology without a soul.”...
However, from a Catholic standpoint, there is hope. Indeed, much hope! But a new and corrective vision had to be instated, one with God at the center. God had to become the filter, or lens, through which to see, interpret, and experience not only truth, goodness, and beauty, but mental health itself....
...how different the mental health field would be if, in place of Sigmund Freud and B. F. Skinner influencing psychological theory and practice, St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Thomas Aquinas had instead been key figures in modern psychology. These well-versed and reasonable saints would have endorsed the scientific method, the influence of nonconscious functioning, the concept of environmental factors and stimuli on our experience, etc. But they would also have great reverence for God and the Catholic faith, the sacraments, the virtues, the spiritual aspect of the human person, the heart, and love. [Read the rest of this article here.]
All this got me thinking about the biblical admonition to build your house on rock rather than sand. While I don't have much choice about my house, which St. Francis of Assisi called the ass, I do have a choice about the "land" where I set myself down. Will it be the land of quicksand: gloom and doom, bitterness and resentment? The land of victimhood and entitlement? Or will I build my house in a land of gratitude and appreciation, of cheerfulness and good humor, a land of peace and harmony, a land of feasting and fasting at the appropriate seasons? A land where I strive to know God better so I can know myself.
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St. Alphonsus knew all about the land of peace and liberty. He wrote about it in Love God and Do What You Please quoting St. Teresa of Avila:
St. Teresa writes: "When we place ouselves completely and finally in the hands of God, we are led into the charming land of peace and liberty of spirit, the homeland of those who seek to be perfect. In this land we are free to discover the secret of the greatest hapiness that can be hoped for this side of heaven. They who dwell in this land fear nothing, seek nothing, desire nothing of the things of the world, but they possess all things.
I choose to live in the land of gratitude, above all gratitude to God. The land of gratitude is not without sorrow and suffering, but even that can be united to the cross to become a gift and blessing. There are certainly tears in the land of gratitude, but we are assured that "every tear will be wiped away." That's a guarantee we can count on.
In what land do you choose to live?
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