Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Part 1. The Responsibilities and Limitations of the Task - 4. Methods of Treatment - Steps to be Taken in the Care of Souls
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY
of the sufferer knowledge—and, perhaps more important, new
interpretations—of long past events, that the individual
himself could not discover by his own unaided efforts.
Deep probing goes further than confession. Its aim is not only
to obtain a disclosure of the sins in a person’s life but to enquire
into every realm of his experience: his successes and failures,
his achievements and mistakes, the assets as well as the liabilities
in his character, and, above all, the encouragements and
frustrations that have moulded his destiny at different periods
of his life and in the several realms of his personal and
functional activities.
As well as mental conflicts and inhibitions, current personal
problems and difficulties of self-adjustment to contemporary
situations may not yield to treatment more superficial than
deep probing, for their real significance may be found only with
the aid of signposts on the road of memory. They are like
jigsaw pieces—meaningless until they are seen as part of a
complete design: in this instance the growing symmetry of a
living being’s mode of response to circumstance, the developing
design of a continuing reality.
The aim of treatment is not merely the collection and cool,
intelligent appraisal of information, however real and important.
It is not principally an intellectual matter at all. To be
effective, deep probing must be a real experience: a deeply felt
reenactment of emotionally critical events and decisions of the
past.
Very often in the care of souls problems arise that raise the
whole question of the unconscious mind, with its repressions,
complexes and other strange phenomena. These questions will
be discussed in the next chapter. But it can be said at once that
the pastoral psychologist does not hesitate to offer to help his
confidants in difficulties which have their source in unconscious
complexes, whether they affect his religious life or his general
attitudes towards experience. For this reason it will be
necessary to enquire in due course what steps must be taken, as an
essential part of the care of souls, to deal with suppressions and
complexes. With some justification the treatment of such
conditions has been called ‘mental surgery’. The expression
can easily be misunderstood. A complex is not a thing. It is not
an object that can be removed as a bullet can be removed from
48
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
