Religion and Spirituality in Psychiatry

284 William P. Wilsonconfiding relationship; (2) a therapeutic rationalethat is accepted by the patient and the therapist;(3) provision of new information, whichmay be transmitted by precept, example, and/orself discovery; (4) strengthening of the patient’sexpectation of help; (5) provision of successexperiences; and (6) facilitation of emotionalarousal. (3)After discussing the differences claimed foreach method, Karasu reduced the 140 varietiesof psychotherapy into three groups: thedynamic, the behavioral, and the experiential.He then summarized the following themes ofthese three groups as follows: (1) prime concern,(2) concept of pathology, (3) concept of health,(4) mode of change, (5) time approach and focus,(6) type of treatment, (7) the therapist’s task,(8) primary tools and techniques, (9) treatmentmodel, (10) nature of therapeutic relationship,and (11) the therapist’s role and stance. In noneof these areas did he consider spiritual aspects,although he later recognized that they shouldhave been considered. (4)Because the proponents of each technique ofpsychotherapy tend to focus on certain aspectsof their therapeutic approach, it is difficult todetermine whether their claims have merit andwhether significant differences really do exist.Karasu’s scholarly analysis produced some orderout of the chaos that appears to exist in the fieldof psychotherapy and provides us with a frameworkwithin which we can evaluate each therapeutictechnique with standardized dimensions.It is within this framework that I shall attempt toevaluate Christian psychotherapy.The title of this chapter presupposes that thereis such a thing as Christian psychotherapy andthat it differs significantly from secular formsof therapy. A casual reader of the literature onpastoral counseling, or Christian psychology,would probably not be convinced that there isa distinctively Christian form of psychotherapy,for he would find that many Christian therapistsuse Freudian dynamic therapy, Rogerianclient-centered therapy, Adlerian individualpsychological therapy, Jungian analysis, andother secular methods. Only a few writers suchas Tweedie, (5) Collins, (6) Adams, (7) Minirth, (8)and Crabbe (9) begin with a distinctive base, theBible, and describe a counseling technique basedon biblical teachings. From their books, articles,and the Bible, as well as my own observations,I have attempted to determine the fundamentaltheses of Christian psychotherapy.2. FUNDAMENTAL THESESFirst, we have to have a cosmology. The Christian’scosmology includes a transcendent God. It alsoincludes a worldview. A worldview is a comprehensiveconception or apprehension of theworld especially from a specific standpoint. TheChristian’s standpoint is contrasted with that ofthe agnostic or atheist. It is, therefore, importantfor us to understand our worldview becauseit affects our view of the planet, our society, thenature of man, and our place in the world. Themost important of these is the nature of man.There is no question that our view of man’s natureaffects our approach to psychotherapy. Whatthen should our worldview be?Leo Apostel,( 10) a Belgian philosopher,hypothesized that there are five fundamentalcomponents to a worldview. The first is a modelof the world that allows us to understand how theworld functions. This includes (1) the universe,(2) the earth, (3) life, (4) the mind, (5) society,and (6) culture. Second, there should be anexplanation for it all. We should know why it isthe way it is, where it all comes from, and wherewe come from. Third, we need a futurology. Thisis an extrapolation of the past into the future tohelp us answer the question as to where we aregoing. Fourth, we need values. Values are things,especially beliefs, that make a favorable differencein our lives. (11) We need to know what isgood and what is evil. When we know this, wecan have a code of ethics or morals. Fifth, weneed knowledge. Our actions can be based onlyon what we know and the information availableto us. We can then formulate plans based on theoriesand models describing the phenomena thatwe encounter. Knowledge acquisition allows usto distinguish between better and worse theories.Values will help us distinguish between what istrue and what is false.