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PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY
says also that, in his view, a physician whose scientific training
has not marred the simplicity of his religious faith is a more
effective psychotherapist.
Among the physicians who think that the spiritual adviser can
make a positive contribution to the treatment and care of insane
people is J. R. Oliver.! He considers that every mental hospital
should have as its chaplain a priest or minister who has had
practical training and experience in psychiatry. Speaking of
conditions in America, he says that while very little religious
help of the right kind is given to prisoners in gaol, people in
mental hospitals in general receive none at all. He expresses the
hope that the day will come when priests who are interested in
mental disease will be given opportunities to consecrate their
lives to the task of conveying to patients in mental hospitals and
clinics ‘not sermons and things that must be said, but
sacraments and things which are to be done’.
Oliver’s point of view about the place of religion and the
mission of the spiritual counsellor among the insane is a very
interesting one. He insists that every effort must be made to get
the patient to function religiously. Opinions and theories about
religion are not important; the practice of religious living is,
because through religious activities the longings and strivings of
the patient can find constructive expression. He believes that acts
of worship should be encouraged alongside work and
occupational therapy. If a hospital can obtain money to build a
bookbinding shop or a weaving room it should also find means to
provide a chapel and an altar.
The care of souls suffering from mental disease makes great
demands upon the tact as well as the knowledge of the spiritual
adviser. It is sometimes argued that psychiatric knowledge is in
this respect a hindrance rather than a help, since it may
mislead the priest or minister into regarding himself as an
expert, with the result that he will try to usurp the
responsibilities of the physician. In fact the converse is true. It is the
counsellor equipped with little knowledge who, in practice,
overestimates his power to help and fails to establish a relation
of mutual confidence with the medical profession. The more a
spiritual adviser learns about psychiatry, the more completely
he can appreciate the doctor’s point of view, the less risk there is
1 Op. cit.
186
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