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PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY
But how is the critical distinction to be made between the
sinner and the morally diseased? Graham A. Ikin! is of the
opinion that sin is a free, conscious choice of the will coinciding
with a false or antisocial ideal, while in moral disease the
character is determined by a compulsion alien to the real
disposition of the personality involved. In moral disease the will is
powerless; sin is under the control of the will.
J. Hadfield says in his book on Psychology and Morals that the
person who intentionally and of free will becomes intoxicated,
who lets his temperament have free play and indulges his
passions without restraint is in an entirely different situation
from the kleptomaniac, alcoholic or sexual pervert. Just as the
same physical symptoms can be produced by a number of.
different diseases, so sins and moral illnesses can issue in similar
forms of action. Hadfield illustrates his point by taking the
alcoholic and the drunkard as examples. To the police
and the magistrate both are treated as drunkards. But it
may well be that the alcoholic has become intoxicated
because he is by nature too sensitive to withstand the strains and
difficulties of his life, while the other drinks because he is brutal
and corrupt.
The same thing can be said of some sexual perversions.
Those in whom they appear are not always acting from free
choice. Glandular disturbances and complexes may give rise
to impulses that cannot be controlled.
‘Therefore,’ Ikin writes, ‘the sinner needs psycho-therapy
for the cure of that part of his psychic disturbance which is
caused, for example, by repressed complexes. When their
activities are not taken into consideration, the result often is
the backsliding that occurs after an apparently real conversion.
The conversion has only been allowed to influence some
impulses and sentiments in an inorganised ego.’
The tendency to explain away all evil behaviour as symptoms,
not sin, is having its effects on the public consciousness. It can
lead directly to a general diminution of the sense of personal
responsibility. Heredity and environment are made to account
for so much that it begins to appear as if every human action
and decision could be explained by these factors alone. The
average man does not realise that to do this is to explain them
1 The Background of Spiritual Healing, Geo. Allen & Unwin, London, 1937.
92
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