Alone—cut off from all the World and all things—I stand there. I want to lie on the floor face down in the manner of a priest at his ordination. I want to be a priest. I want to consecrate the host! I want this so badly that I ache for it. I do not want to do evil. However, the fact is, my fantasy of being a saint is dissolving. I know it for what it is and I cannot sustain it. God thinks of all these things, does he not? Once people first began to communicate, they began to form beliefs about the World around them. What sort of beliefs might they have had? Many primitive peoples probably believed that everything was controlled by some sort of spirit. If there was a store, the reason must be that the gods were angry. If crops were bad, then the first-born son must be sacrificed to appease the gods. A child born deformed was thought to be possessed by an evil spirit, and had to be killed. A person who was emotionally or physically ill must be possessed by a demon. People also assumed that forces or spirits controlled all their behavior. One could buy a witch’s services to invoke the spirits and increase sexual prowess, capture a lover, or bring misfortune to an enemy. Assumptions are ideas which one holds to be true without any proof that they are true—things that are taken for granted. #RandolphHarris 1 of 18

In most primitive cultures even today, people assume that they have little choice in their own destiny, because it is controlled by good and evil spirits and by fate. In some cultures these assumptions are so strongly held that they can literally result in death. How? Anthropologist have reported observing such events in tribes where members were taught that if they violated certain taboos they would die. Taboos are negative rules, the thou shall nots of a society (from a Tongan word that means sacred, prohibited, inviolable). When an individual broke a taboo, the other members of the tribe assumed that the taboo-breaker would die as a result. In fact, they began to act as though the person were already dead. Imagine how you would feel if, even for a week, everyone acted as through you were about to die. Taboo-breakers assumed that they would die. Everyone around them thought so, too. And, in time, the taboo-breaker did die. If you were a member of that tribe, you might reach the seemingly logical conclusion that some external force or spirit had killed the taboo-breaker. One important way in which primitive people tried to understand their World was through their own experiences. However, many times their observations were based upon a limited awareness of themselves and the nature of their World. (“Spirits control me and everything around me.”) #RandolphHarris 2 of 18

By changing what mortals know about the World, mortals change the World they know; and by changing the World in which one lives, mortals change themselves. Although few of us believe in a taboo strongly enough to cause our own death, our personal beliefs can influence us in ways almost that important. People have always assumed a casual World. For centuries, people believed they and their World were controlled by spirits and demons. However, as they expanded their knowledge, they began to question the demon-spirit model of causality. Individuals began to exert control over their own environment—to predict when to plant crops, what seeds to use, the location of the best soil, and the best time to harvest. When crops failed, instead of sacrificing a first-born child to appease the gods who had been assumed to cause the failure, people sought better seeds or richer soil or an increased water supply and tried again. Many of our ideas about the World come from personal observation. We check these conclusions out with other people, and if most people agree with us, we assume our ideas are true. #RandolphHarris 3 of 18

Good sense is the most evenly shared thing in the World, for each of us think he or she is so well endowed with it that even those who are the hardest to please in all other respects are not in the habit of wanting more than they have.  When people are in consensus about their assumptions, agreements become our common sense. Common sense can be a good source of information for making day-to-day decisions. However, sometimes it is based upon little evidence, limited information, and personal bias. When this happens, it can hinder our perception of reality. Psychologist base their theories on objective and systematic investigation, not just common sense. Their findings may often agree with our commonsense notions about behavior, but psychologists attempt to eliminate theories based on insufficient evidence or personal bias and accept only those theories that seem to have a basis in fact. Psychotherapy is one of the ways in which people can experience themselves authentically, more fully, as individual selves, and as selves-in-interaction. The word “psychotherapy” comes from two words: psyche, which is the self, soul, or behaving being, and therapeia, which means healing or treatment. Psychotherapy can be done by a wide variety of people, as indeed it is being done. Not only physicians, but nurses and technicians are being used in many hospitals as therapists or co-therapists in psychotherapy situations. #RandolphHarris 4 of 18

Psychologist have been doing psychotherapy for decades. Clergy people of all religious persuasions have been doing counseling for years. In the past eighty years, most seminaries have begun to include courses in pastoral counseling in the requirements for graduation. In addition, social workers have been coming into their own as psychotherapist over the past sixty-five or seventy years. More and more, ordinary people with training in psychotherapy are being used, not just to fill the shortages in psychiatrically or psychologically trained roles, but because they are found to be very effective therapeutic agents. Psychotherapy, in general, is the process of relationship in which a person in conflict or with a problem in living discloses oneself to a person who is relatively healthy. Clients can be treated individually or in groups. In the process of self-disclosure, many aspects of the client’s conflict or self-alienation come to light. More specially, those who come for psychotherapy are usually people in conflict. Something, either within their conscious awareness or beneath it, is interfering with their fullest functioning. Their self-actualization is blocked or limited by conflicting needs or emotions. When they come to therapy, whether voluntarily or at the urging of friends, loved ones, or the court, they enter a relationship that involves self-disclosure and self-awareness. Many of the times the client is unprepared for what is expected of one. #RandolphHarris 5 of 18

Often, though, one knows what one must do when going to therapy, even if one is unsure of what to expect. There are all kinds of relationships, some therapeutic and others that are merely congenial or transactional. Psychotherapy, if it is to be effective, must be a work-project, but one that foes in a context of acceptance, understanding, insight, and caring. We who are professionally concerned with the happiness, growth, and well-being of our clients may be regarded as professional lovers. In the process of psychotherapy, the therapist must be a person who knows and loves and respects himself or herself, and who can let that self-love overflow into one’s relationships with clients. Acceptance, trust, respect, and concern are very important parts of any real and effective therapy relationship. They are also characteristics of a love relationship. So, we have a clue: those who love may be capable of growth-promoting relationship and self-actualizing relationships with others. Psychotherapy, then, is a relationship which involves the more subtle, softer-focus aspects that go into the making of a love and friendship relationship. #RandolphHarris 6 of 18

The self, cut off from participation in its World, is an empty shell, a mere possibility. It must act because it lives, but it must redo every action because acting involves one who acts in that upon which one acts It gives content and for this reason it restricts one’s freedom to make of oneself what one wants. In classical theology, both Catholic and Protestant, only God has this prerogative: He is a se (from himself) or absolute freedom. Nothing is in him which is not by him. Existentialism, on the basis of the message that God is dead, give mortals the divine “a-se-ity.” Nothing shall be in mortal which is not by mortal. However, mortals are finite, one is given to oneself as what one is. One has received one’s being and with it the structure of one’s being, including the structure of finite freedom. And finite from is not aseity. Mortals can affirm themselves only if they affirms not an empty shell, a mere possibility, but the structure of being in which one finds oneself before action and nonaction. Finite freedom has a definite stricture, and if the self tries to trespass on this structure it ends in the loss of itself. The nonparticipating hero is caught in a net of contingencies, coming partly from the subconscious levels of one’s own self, partly from the environment from which one cannot withdraw. #RandolphHarris 7 of 18

The assuredly empty self is filled with contents which enslave it just because it does not know or accept them as contents. This is true too of the cynic, as was said before. One cannot escape the forces of oneself which may drive one into complete loss of the freedom that one wants to preserve. This dialectical self-destruction of the radical forms of the courage to be as oneself has happened on a World-wide scale in the totalitarian reaction of the 20^th century against the revolutionary Existentialism of the 19^th century. The Existentialist protest against dehumanization and objectivation, together with its courage to be as oneself, have turned into the most elaborate and oppressive forms of collectivism that have appeared in history. It is the great tragedy of our time that Marxism, which had been conceived as a movement for the liberation of everyone, has been transformed into a system of enslavement for everyone, even those who enslave the others. It is hard to imagine the immensity of this tragedy in terms of psychological destruction, especially within the intelligentsia. The courage to be was undermined in innumerable people because it was the courage to be in the sense of the revolutionary movements of the 19^th century. When it broke down, these people turned either to the neocollectivist system, in a frantic-neurotic reaction against the cause of their tragic disappointment, or to a cynical—neurotic indifference to all systems and every content. #RandolphHarris 8 of 18

It is obvious that similar observations can be made on the transformation of the Nietzschean type of the courage to be as oneself into the Fascist-Nazi forms of neocollectivism.  The totalitarian machines which these movements produced embodied almost everything against which the courage to be as oneself stands. They used all possible means in order to make such courage impossible. Although, in distinction to communism, this system fell down, its aftermath is confusion, indifference, cynicism. And this is the soil on which the longing for authority and for a new collectivism grows. To a large extent the development of Capitalism as proven that this principle works; and it is indeed a miracle that antagonistic co-operation of self-contained economic entities should result in a blossoming and ever-expanding society. It is true that the capitalistic mode of production is conducive to political freedom, while any centrally planned social order is in danger of leading to political regimentation and eventually dictatorship. While this is not the place to discuss the question of whether there are other alternatives than the choice between free enterprise and political regimentation, it needs to be said in this context that the very fact that we are governed by laws which we do not control, and do not even want to control, is one of the most outstanding manifestations of alienation. #RandolphHarris 9 of 18

We are the producers of our economic and social arrangements, and at the same time we decline responsibility, intentionally and enthusiastically, and await hopefully or anxiously—as the case may be—what the future will bring. Our own actions are embodied in the laws which govern us, but these laws are above us, and we are their slaves. The giant state and economic system are not any more controlled by mortals. They run wild, and their leaders are like a person on a runaway horse, who is proud of managing to keep in the saddle, even though one is powerless to direct the horse. What is modern mortal’s relationship to one’s fellow mortals? It is one between two abstractions, two living machines, who use each other. The employer uses the ones who he or she employs; the sales person uses his or her customers. Everybody is to everybody else a commodity, always to be treated with certain friendliness, because even if one is not of use now, one may be later. There is not much lover nor hate to be found in human relationships of our say. There is, rather, a superficial friendliness, and a more than superficial fairness, but behind that surface is distance and indifference. There is also a good deal of subtle distrust. When one mortal says to another, “You speak to Justin Harris; he is all right,” it is an expression of reassurance against a general distrust. #RandolphHarris 10 of 18

Even love and the relationship between the genders have assumed distance, indifference, and subtle distrust. The great sexual emancipation, as it occurred after the First World War, was a desperate attempt to substitute mutual sexual pleasure for a deeper feeling of love. Our patients the culture by living out consciously what the masses of people are able to keep unconscious for the time being. The neurotic is cast by destiny into a Cassandra role. In vain does Cassandra, sitting on the steps of the palace at Mycenae when Agamemnon brings her back from Troy, cry, “Oh for the nightingale’s pure song and a fate like hers!” She knows, in her ill-starred life, that the pain flooding the song of sorrow is hers alone, and that she must predict the doom she sees will occur there. The Mycenaeans speak of her as mad, but they also believe she does speak the truth, and that she has a special power to anticipate events. Today, the person with psychological problems bears the burdens of the conflicts of the times in one’s blood, and is fated to predict in one’s actions and struggles the issues which will later erupt on all sides in the society.  The first and clearest demonstration of this thesis is seen in the sexual problems which Freud found in his Victorian patients was actually in the two decades before World War I. These sexual topics—even down to the words—were entirely denied and repressed by the accepted society at the time. #RandolphHarris 11 of 18

Sigmund Freud found that his optimistic feelings toward a patient were beneficial, try though as he might to control them. He had the scientist’s dedication to objectivity, to controlling any subjective feeling or bias. However, being first of all human being, Freud found that many times he reacted to his patients as a person, not as a scientist. However, the problems of sexual repression burst violently forth into endemic forms two decades later after World War II. In the 1920’s, everybody was preoccupied with sex and its functions. Not by the furthest stretch of the imagination can anyone argue that Freud cased this emergence. He rather reflected and interpreted, through data revealed by his patients, the underlying conflicts of the society, which the normal members could and did succeed in repressing for the time being. Neurotic problems are the language of the unconscious emerging into social awareness. When this turned out to be a disappointment the erotic polarity between the genders were reduced to a minimum and replaced by a friendly partnership, a small combine which has amalgamated its forces to hold out better in the daily battle of life, and to relieve the feeling of isolation and aloneness which everybody has. #RandolphHarris 12 of 18

The alienation between human and human results in the lose of those general and social bonds which characterize medieval as well as most other precapitalist societies. Modern society consists of atoms (if we use the Greek equivalent of individual), little particles estranged from each other but held together by selfish interests and by the necessity to make use of each other. Yet mortals are a social being with a deep need to share, to help, to feel as a member of a group. What has happened to these social strivings in mortals? They manifest themselves in the special sphere of the public realm, which is strictly separated from the private realm. Our private dealings with our fellow beings are governed by the principle of narcissism, each for oneself, God for us all, in flagrant contradiction to Christian teaching. The individual is motivated by narcissistic interest, and not by solidarity with and love for one’s fellow mortals. The later feelings may asset themselves secondarily as private acts of philanthropy or kindness, but they are not part of the basic structure of our social relations. Separated from our private life as individuals is the realm of our social life as citizens. In this realm the state is the embodiment of our social existence; as citizens we are supposed to, and in fact usually do, exhibit a sense of social obligation and duty. #RandolphHarris 13 of 18

We pay taxes, we vote, we respect the laws, and in the case of war we are willing to sacrifice our lives. What clearer example could there be of the separation between private and public existence than the fact that the same person who would think of spending one thousand dollars to relieve the need of a stranger does not hesitate to risk one’s life to save this same stranger when in war they both happen to be soldiers in uniform? The uniform is the embodiment of our social nature—civilian garb, of our narcissistic nature. The vast majority of people mentioned they worry most about personal, economic, healthy or other issues; 52 percent are worried about the World population problems including wars—and 37 percent about the danger of Communism or the threat to civil liberties. However, on the other hand, almost half the population thinks that Communism is a serious danger, and that war is likely to occur within the next two years. These social concerns, however, are not felt to be a personal reality, hence are no cause for worry, although for a good deal of intolerance. It is also interesting to note that in spite of the fact that almost the whole population believes in God, there seems to be hardly anyone who is worried about their soul, salvation, their spiritual development. #RandolphHarris 14 of 18

God is as alienated as the World as a whole. What causes concern and worry is the private, separate sector of life, not the social, universal one which connect us with our fellow mortals. This may have something to do with anxiety. Some therapists are impressed by the fact that in many of our patients anxiety is appearing not merely as a symptom of repression or pathology, but as a generalized character state. The problem of identity is also becoming a concern on every sophisticated person’s lips. The cultural values by which people have gotten their sense of identity have been wiped away. Our patients are aware of this before society at large was, and they do not have the defenses to protect themselves from its disturbing and traumatic consequences. All of these problems, to be sure, carry a certain momentum related to the ups and downs of fashion. However, it would fail entirely to do justice to the dynamic historical emergence of psychological problems and of social change to dismiss them as mere fashions. Psychological problems are a product of the sociohistorical changes in culture. There is no human nature but only a changing nature of mortals depending on the changes in the society, and we should call the conflicts of our patients not neurosis but sociosis. #RandolphHarris 15 of 18

We need not go all the way because it is still apparent that psychological problems are also produced by a three-cornered dialectical interplay of biological and individual and historical-social factors. Nevertheless, it is clear what a gross and destructive oversimplification it is to assume that psychological problems emerge out of the blue or simply because society is now aware of the problem, or to assume that the problems exist merely because we have found new words to diagnose them. We find new words because something of importance is happening on unconscious, unarticulated levels and is pushing for expression; and our task is to do our best to understand and express these emergent developments. Freud’s patients were mostly hysterics who, by definition, carried repressed energy which could be released by the therapist’s naming of the unconscious. Today, however, when practically all our patients are compulsive-obsessional neurotics (or character problems, which is a more general and less intense form of the same thing), we find that the chief block to therapy is the incapacity of the patient to feel. These patients are persons who can talk from now till doomsday about their problems, and are generally well-practiced intellectuals; but they cannot experience genuine feelings. This compulsive character has turned humans into living machines. #RandolphHarris 16 of 18

Wounds of the soul are not unique to the rich or the poor, to one culture, one nation, or one generation. They come to all and are part of the learning we receive from this mortal experience. Psychoanalysis is the best known (though least understood) of the psychotherapies. Research and other human experiences have promoted growth out of the classical methods. Though they are not necessarily the best or the most important, the insight that Freud have us concerning the unconscious, defensiveness and resistance, transference and working-through have all assisted us in developing a more humanistic and reality-oriented form of psychotherapy. We each understand that difficulties are a part of life, but when they come to us personally, they can take our breathe away. Without being alarmed, we need to be ready. Never give up—however deep the wounds of your soul, whatever their source, wherever or whenever they happen, and however short or long they persist, you are not mean to perish spiritually. You are meant to survive spiritually and blossom in your faith and trust in God. God did not create our spirits to be independent of him. #RandolphHarris 17 of 18

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, through the incalculable gift of his Atonement, not only saves us from death and offers us, through repentance, forgiveness for our sins, but he also stands ready to save us from sorrows and pains of our wounded souls. Pray with all your heart. Strengthen your faith in Jesus Christ, in his reality, in his grace. His grace is sufficient for us. Remember, repentance is powerful spiritual medicine. Keep the commandments and be worthy of the Comforter remembering that the Savior promised he will not leave us. “And the fire will never leave us. Though the path divides between us, you always had the strength to walk alone. And the quiet hour would haunt you and the wilder winds, they called you. I almost had the strength to let you go. Why were you falling? Far, far away. I still remember you and those days could not get better. I keep it all, this will not fade, I will never let it. I know you gave it all so good, I cannot forget it. Still lost in you, on that day we will stay forever. Stay forever. And I know that time is speeding, experiences fleeting, I would give them all away to bring you home,” reports Emma Hewitt (Still Remember You). #RandolphHarris 18 of 18